RIO DE JANEIRO - What a topsy turvy World Cup this is turning out to be! With the smaller teams stepping up to make their presence felt, the established order of world football seems to have been turned upside down. The group stage have provided shocks aplenty with three former winners — defending champions Spain, Italy and England — crashing out in the first round itself. And as there were goals raining here and there all over Brazilian stadiums, a bite from Luis Suarez which put the football itself behind its shadow.
Three matches, four goals and one dream: Argentina star Lionel Messi and Brazilian idol Neymar remain on collision course as the most entertaining World Cup in decades enters the knockout rounds. The mouthwatering possibility of Brazil and Argentina meeting in the July 13 final has loomed closer ever since the South American giants were kept in opposite sides of the draw. So far Barcelona team-mates Messi and Neymar have done everything in their power to stick to the script, almost single-handedly steering their teams through the first round into the last 16.
EUROPEAN CURSE
A European team has never won the World Cup in South America. Some have already tasted such a curse, in which the exit of Spain is the most shocking one. For six years Spain are the No.1-ranked FIFA team month after month, winning the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup. But this time they failed to assert their dominance.
After the 5-1 capitulation to the Netherlands in their opening game, Vicente del Bosque's team could not recover from that blow, eventually exiting the tournament after losing their next match to Chile, which made their 3-0 victory against Australia in the final group match irrelevant. The Spanish team even had a bumpy landing to round off their disappointing campaign when their aircraft was hit by lightning near Madrid's airport on their way back home. As runners-up at the 2012 European Championships and third in last year's FIFA Confederations Cup, Italy also ended in a collapse which marred by coach Cesare Prandelli's resignation.
After starting the campaign with a convincing 2-1 win against England, the Azzurri lost 1-0 to both Costa Rica and Uruguay, leading to the 2006 winners' exit at the group stage for the second successive World Cup. England arrived with a squad full of youthful excitement but poor management and insufficient experience left England without a win here, going out at the group stage for the first time since 1958 and leaving the World Cup with just a single point.
Cristiano Ronaldo's 50th international strike, his first at the this year's World Cup, registered Portugal a 2-1 victory over Ghana in their third game on Thursday, but it was not enough to prevent Portugal going out. Ronaldo has done his best dragging an injured left knee, a lack of support from his teammates rendered the striker often fruitless. However, teams like the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium still work hard to buck that downturn trend.
The Dutch beat Chile to clinch three wins from three games to top Group B with 10 goals (the top scoring team in group stage) while conceding only three goals. The hot form of Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie have lifted the expectation surrounding Louis van Gaal's team. The Netherlands plays Mexico in the second round. Should the Dutch win, they would face the winner of the match between Costa Rica and Greece in the quarterfinals.
France also looked strong after topping the Group E with two wins and one draws, despite the squad missing talents such as Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema was back in form to score three goals so far and Olivier Giroud also scored. Thomas Muller's goal ensured Germany a top spot in Group G with a 1-0 victory against the United States in the final group round. Germany clinched an easy 4-0 victory over Portugal in their opener and tied 2-2 with Ghana afterwards. With Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos, Mario Gotze hitting sound form, Germany look much stronger than four years ago in South Africa.
Belgium also enjoyed a perfect record in Group H with three wins in a row. Disappointingly failed to qualify for 2006 and 2010, Belgium now have a generation to go further. A defensive Greece side also crept into the last 16 for the first time. In the most dramatic of finales against Cote d'Ivoire, Georgios Samaras converted an injury time penalty to send the Greeks through at the expense of Cote d'Ivoire, who were led by Didier Drogba and fighting for their first knockout stage.
Copa America?
South American sides haven't had the pleasure of playing on home soil since 1978, and they are taking full advantage of it. South American teams collected a total  13 victories, against two losses and three draws. Host Brazil's World Cup finals journey started with an own goal from their defender Marcelo before wunderkind Neymar stepped up to inspire Luiz Felipe Scolari's side to victory over Croatia. However the questionable penalty given to the Selecao stole the show. After drawing with Mexico, Brazil secured the top place with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Cameroon.
Argentina collected nine points with a perfect record. Captain Lionel Messi scored in each three games, including a late winner against Iran and a spectacular free kick from 30 meters, to help his team go through. However, the one-man show of Messi cannot hide other Argentina players' shaky performance. Messi's attacking partners, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria all struggled to hit form. Meanwhile, the Argentina defense line was riddles that cast a shadow on Argentina's knockout stage prospect. Colombia notched the top place in Group C with three consecutive wins without injured Radamel Falcao. They discovered James Rodriguez and Jackson Martinez were just as good to lead them deep into the knockout stage. Uruguay pushed Italy to the elimination with a 1-0 win in a do-or-die game while Luis Suarez biting the shoulder of Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini stole the limelight. On Thursday Suarez was prohibited from all soccer activities for four months and banned for Uruguay's next nine international games.
Teams from North and Central America also produced the largest discrepancy. The "minnows" Costa Rica unexpectedly topped the so called "Group of Death" in Group D with two wins and one draw, and advanced with Uruguay while former champions Italy and England made the exit early. Mexico stunningly drew with Brazil before edging out Croatia for the final knockout place in Group A. The El Tri scored three goals in 10 electrifying second-half minutes to beat Croatia 3-1 in the third game, but still ranked the second due to inferior goal difference. The United States also ranked the second place in Group G, edging Portugal thanks to better goal difference. American teams enjoyed home advantages and looked more adaptable to the atmosphere in Brazil than the players from other continents. Of course, it is far too early to declare victory for American teams. The South Americans were on the precipice of dominance in 2010 with four teams in the quarterfinals, but only one, Uruguay, got through to the semis.
Continental shifts
Beaten 1-0 by Belgium, Korea Republic were unable to salvage a little late pride for the Asian contenders at Brazil 2014. For the first time since 1990, no AFC hopeful was able to record a victory at the global showcase. In contrast, Africa will have an unprecedented two representatives in the knockout phase, Algeria and Nigeria combining to blaze a trail for the continent. The tournament has smiled on CONCACAF too, with three of its teams surviving the group stage for the first time.
Breaking new ground
The goals scored in today's games blasted Brazil 2014 into the record books as a new benchmark was set for group stage strikes. A total of 136 goals were registered in the opening phase, six more than at Korea/Japan 2002. Fittingly, current Golden Boot leader Thomas Muller notched the record-breaking effort, hitting the target against USA with a thunderous side-footed shot.
The bite
The World Cup in Brazil had been started amid the cloud of controversies with police clashing with the protesters and Brazil streets showing the war field like situation. And then the referees came under the scrutiny right from the first match to last for error-prone performances and the last match ended with blinding the Russian goalkeeper with laser beam. But all the controversies are swallowed by one bite of Uruguayan Luis Suarez, whose jaws proved too good for Italy as well as himself and looked set to eat out a major chunk of his glorious career as a sublime player.