While it would be easy to type up a three word post that reveals “Spain and England” upon clicking the headline, we’re talking about players here.
While Neymar, Lionel Messi and Robin van Persie lived up to the hype, plenty of players performed well below their pay grade.
So who makes our list of the 10 biggest surprise failures of the World Cup?
[ MORE from our 2014 World Cup review ]
10. Michael Bradley, United States — The Yanks best player simply wasn’t during the tournament. His relentless effort is to be applauded (and expected) and his career is far from cooked, but there’s little doubt that Bradley didn’t live up to expectations in Brazil.
9. Sergio Aguero, Argentina — He may have been hurt, but the Manchester City forward still played 313 minutes without a goal or assist (recording just two solo runs into the area).
8. Igor Akinfeev, Russia — Even if you buy into a green laser pointer being responsible for his allowing Algeria’s only goal in a 1-1 draw, Akinfeev almost carried Lee Keun-ho’s shot into the net in a draw against South Korea. This was neither a strong nor emblematic showcase of a very good goalkeeper.
7. Steven Gerrard, England — There’s no debating that England’s captain has enjoyed a fantastic career, but he had a hand in both of Uruguay’s goals in the match that proved to be the Three Lions’ undoing. Not that anyone outside of Gary Cahill, Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge had much of a tournament for England, but still.
6. Luis Suarez, Uruguay — by sinking his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini, earning a place away from the team for the duration of the tournament. But he still overcame a big injury to silence England. For this, he drops to 6.
5. Alex Song, Cameroon — When match-fixing allegations are created around your nation’s entire tournament and the pinnacle is your absolutely unnecessary red card from an elbow-thrust into an opponent’s back, you’ve sufficiently embarrassed yourself. Alex, we’re talking to you.
4. Pepe, Portugal — Pregame speech to Pepe before the Germany match (translated from Portuguese), “Alright, Peps. We gotta have the match of our lives today. Don’t let that antagonist Mueller get into your head. Whatever you do, don’t do a Pepe. DON’T DO A PEPE.” Thirty-seven minutes later, he did a Pepe. His red card for head butting Mueller was arguably the difference between Portugal drawing/beating the U.S. a few days later.
3. Diego Costa, Spain — Perhaps it was the pressure of playing in Brazil after spurning the nation, but he was horrific. Fortunately for Chelsea fans, there’s evidence to back up the theory that this was an aberration.
2. Hulk, Brazil — The 27-year-old Zenit striker failed to score in the tournament, and could not step up in the absence of Neymar. At times his positioning was as poor as possible.
1. Iker Casillas, Spain — Honestly, Casillas looked like a kid playing his first international game, not a man who has started a combined 830-plus games between Spain and Real Madrid. Some of the goals weren’t just lapses, they were howlers.
