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World Cup: Parity comes to World Cup, where top teams fail to win

4 min read

MOSCOW – Parity has come to the World Cup.

Five of the top six nations in the FIFA rankings have played, and none has won. Only two of the top dozen teams have victories.

Top-ranked Germany lost to No. 15 Mexico, second-ranked Brazil tied No. 6 Switzerland, No. 4 Portugal drew 10th-ranked Spain, and No. 5 Argentina tied 22nd-ranked Iceland.

Among other teams in the top 12, only No. 7 France (over No. 36 Australia) and co-No. 12 Denmark (against No. 11 Peru) have victories.

No. 3 Belgium, No. 7 France, No. 8 Poland and co-No. 12 England haven’t played, and No. 9 Chile failed to qualify.

Parity has been on the rise throughout soccer, with Iceland and Panama reaching the World Cup for the first time. Italy, the Netherlands and the United States were among the nations that failed to qualify for the 32-nation field.

The World Cup is scheduled to expand to 48 nations for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Mexico 1, Germany 0: Defending World Cup champions have been finding it hard to get out of the group stage lately, and Germany is proving no exception.

The 2014 champions, ranked No. 1 in the world, were exposed defensively and surprisingly beaten by Mexico 1-0 on Sunday, putting its hopes of advancement in doubt.

Well, not everyone is in doubt.

“We will make it,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “There’s no reason to fall apart because you lose one game.”

Hirving Lozano scored the lone goal in the 35th minute, picking up Javier Hernandez’s pass inside the penalty area and beating Mesut Ozil before shooting past Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from 10 yards.

The goal decided the match – a match Germany didn’t expect to lose.

“I don’t know if it’s the biggest victory in (Mexico’s) history, but one of the biggest for sure,” Lozano said. “My teammates and I did some great work. We all ran our hearts out. This is the result of all that hard work.”

Three of the previous four defending World Cup champions failed to reach the knockout stages, France, Italy and Spain. Two of them lost their opening matches while the Italians had to settle for a draw.

The Germans are bidding to become the first team to retain the World Cup title since Brazil in 1962, but have now won only one of their last seven games in all competitions. They hadn’t lost an opening game since the then-West Germany fell 2-1 to Algeria in 1982.

Mexico had never beaten Germany in a competitive match but was transformed from the team which lost to the Germans 4-1 in last year’s Confederations Cup, conceding twice in the opening eight minutes.

Lozano, a 22-year-old forward nicknamed “Chucky,” got Mexico going with a deflected shot over the bar in the first minute. That set the tone for Mexico to torment Germany on the counterattack, with Lozano taking full advantage of right back Joshua Kimmich’s tendency to go forward.

“We were nervous and we weren’t playing the game we wanted to play,” Loew said. “We need to see what caused this.”

After Lozano’s goal, Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa pulled off a spectacular save to keep the score even, palming Toni Kroos’ shot onto the crossbar.

Brazil 1, Switzerland 1: Brazil joined the list of big teams struggling to win their opening matches at the World Cup in Russia.

The five-time champions were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland.

Philippe Coutinho gave Brazil the lead in the 20th minute with a volley that bounced in off the right post. Steven Zuber then headed in the equalizer in the 50th. Mexican referee Cesar Ramos dismissed complaints that Zuber had shoved defender Miranda before getting to the corner from Xherdan Shaqiri.

Serbia 1, Costa Rica: Aleksandar Kolarov scored from a left-footed free kick in the 56th minute and Serbia opened its World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Costa Rica.

After David Guzman was handed a yellow card, Kolarov curled the ensuing free kick over the wall. Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who plays for Real Madrid, couldn’t reach it.

Serbia, which missed out on the 2014 tournament, had the early advantage in a tough group that includes five-time champion Brazil and Switzerland.

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