When it comes to football World Cup matches, expect the unexpected. The competition is strewn with results that have had bookmakers popping corks, from Canada to Cameroon, as underdogs upset the favourites.

Brazil fans go nuts

Thanks to Miroslav Klose & Co, Germany blew the mighty Brazilians out of the 2014 contest, with an amazing 7–1 victory.

Had retired Brazilian football legend Pelé been dead, he would have turned over in his grave; thankfully, he was alive, but he would certainly have worn a black armband for years to come.

Embarrassing doesn’t begin to describe the humiliation as Brazil were five goals behind long before half-time in the semi-final encounter.

It’s one thing being the host nation, but there was no need to be that hospitable to the Germans.

This time for Africa

While we are still bitter about South Africa being blown out of this year’s competition by a referee who was minus his dog and white stick, we share the glory of continental far neighbours Algeria in the 1982 tournament held in Spain.

They were drawn in a group of heavyweights, including two-time champions Germany.

So confident were the Germans that one player, who we will not name here, is said to have declared that they would dedicate their seventh goal to their wives and their eighth to their dogs (this via These Football Times), while the coach offered to drown himself into the Mediterranean if they lost.

Well, as they say in football, pride comes before a foul and the Germans left with bruised shins and bruised egos after a 2–1 defeat, while Algeria feasted on ‘sourkrauts’.

Good Korea (read, career) move

The Germans had another early boarding pass call at the 2018 tournament.

Easily favoured to win their group, they ended up stone last after losing their first game 1–0 to Mexico.

They squeaked home 2–1 to Sweden via an extra-time goal and were odds-on to advance with the lowly South Korea squad in their sights.

Instead, they were surprised by the discipline and fitness of the Koreans and were soundly beaten 2–0.

Suffice to say that fans did not line the streets to welcome their heroes on their return.

‘Absolute zero’ performance

Few sides would have suffered the shame of little-known nation American Samoa – so little known that I’m sure I’m not the only one who had never heard of the South Pacific islands.

In an Oceania qualifying round for the 2022 competition, American Samoa lost 31–0 to Australia. That’s a goal about every three minutes, including the time it takes to get the ball out of the net and take up positions for the next kick-off.

Archie Thompson scored 13 goals, which by my estimates means he was entitled to at least four match balls.

Check out the video/highlights reel, which looks like it’s on fast forward.

On reflection, the islanders were lucky to get the ‘nil’, but in mitigation, there was no win expectation and you could see this one coming a mile off.

#TacklingQatar2022: Manned by soccer fundi Dave Savides, the Corner Shop is the place to be for Soccer World Cup news. Savides, the long-time editor of the Zululand Observer, is tackling the coverage of the world’s greatest footie extravaganza for Caxton Local Media.