which country is your "dark horse" for the world cup?

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the world cup group stage will conclude with today's matches; there are very few teams left to be determined in the round of 32. we can already predict most of them, more or less.

in the world cup, the term “dark horse” refers to a team that performs far better than expected in the tournament and eliminates the heavy favorites. in previous world cups, we’ve seen teams like:

2022 – morocco
2018 – croatia
2014 - costa rica

my question for you is: which team do you think we’ll call a “dark horse” when this tournament is over?

[LGD2Business]

Good question. I think Cape Verde put in an outstanding performance in group stage. But if by dark horse you mean a team that could go all the way to the championship or the semi final, then I can't count them among them. I don't think there will be any surprise teams in the semi final. There are 5 or 6 teams in the running for the championship and they'll be the ones in the semi final.
After USA beat Bosnia, they could defeat Belgium and make it to the quarter final. Maybe we can count them in.

From the right bracket, it looks like Argentina and Brazil will advance to the semi final. In the left bracket, Spain and the winner of Germany vs. France will advance to the semi final. That's how it should play out under normal circumstances. I don't think there will be any dark horses beyond the quarter final.

[Filicius]

Cape Verde is being a dark horse in a sense, having managed to eliminate two-times World Cup and also twice Olympic winner Uruguay, in their first participation in a World Cup. But I doubt very much that it can thrive much further, and as you ask about the end of the competition, I would not include him among the possible candidates to win. So I will dare to give my opinion again later, as the competition progresses.

[KTChampions]

Cape Verde is being a dark horse in a sense, having managed to eliminate two-times World Cup and also twice Olympic winner Uruguay, in their first participation in a World Cup. But I doubt very much that it can thrive much further, and as you ask about the end of the competition, I would not include him among the possible candidates to win. So I will dare to give my opinion again later, as the competition progresses.

Uruguay couldn't beat Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde, or even take a point from Spain. In a sense, they destroyed themselves. The funny thing about Cape Verde is that they qualified with 3 points, and if certain games end a certain way (for example, Austria and Algeria draw), then none of the teams with 3 points will make it to the playoffs. All third-place finishers will have at least 4 points. And by the way, it may turn out that even a team with 4 points will not make it to the playoffs (if Congo wins and Croatia will draw in addition Austria - Algeria draw).

[Lida93]

Cape Verde is being a dark horse in a sense, having managed to eliminate two-times World Cup and also twice Olympic winner Uruguay, in their first participation in a World Cup. But I doubt very much that it can thrive much further, and as you ask about the end of the competition, I would not include him among the possible candidates to win. So I will dare to give my opinion again later, as the competition progresses.

At this stage Cape Verde is the most visible black horse to have left us in shock when they were one of the least expected to make their way into the next round. It still baffles me how Uruguay performed this bad in a group they had all the advantages to qualify but instead they're the one going home this early. I agree with you that cape Verde may not get passed the round of 32, not even their luck can save them. While for a prospective winner it has always being in the popular opinion for the likes of Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany or France.

[Accardo]

Morocco is more formidable a team than people think, their means of forging ahead into the ending phase of long tournaments like the world cup is long proven not to be luck, but hard work, tactics and ethics, they shouldn't be seen as a Darkhorse anymore their standards of play has transcended them to a world class football team. Having top stars like Hakimi in the team, brings up the face of the national team in this tournament, a goal goal draw with Brazil, and staying entirely unbeaten in the group stage showed a solid progress in the Atlas lions style of football. Their next match with Netherlands is an important one to win, they seem not to be the underdogs, but will have to trade carefully to progress to the round of 16.

[YOSHIE]

my question for you is: which team do you think we’ll call a “dark horse” when this tournament is over?

Isn't it too soon to judge the selected countries that can be included as "dark horse" countries in this world cup, usually to choose countries that can defend the world cup, they have already entered the top 16. but it doesn't matter, we will discuss a little about the list of dark horses for this world cup period.

Currently, in my opinion, there are two countries that have good potential to enter the list of dark horse countries in this cup, namely Morocco and Japan.
I see Japan as having potential. The Japanese team often makes big surprises in every match with their aggressive play and the talent they have. This discipline proves that Japan has strong potential to be on the dark horse list.
Morocco also has extraordinary momentum this time in the world cup, Morocco has a good team to shake up the football tournament for the 2026 world cup they might be able to make history as they have scored before, Currently, in my opinion, Japan and Morocco have the potential to be included in the list of dark horse teams for the 2026 World Cup.

[un_rank]

Norway and Senegal for me. Norway are a very talented team, it is no surprise they have easily made it to he knockouts and scored so many goals. It is just their first world cup tournament but they already feel well at home in it.
With Senegal, they also have a lot of quality and even though they lost their first 2 matches they are a good enough team to trouble any opponent they face in the knockouts if they are among the bet 3rd place teams.

Morocco I expect to fo far too, but after 2022, that would not surprise anybody.

- Jay -

[Doan9269]

Cape Verde is being a dark horse in a sense, having managed to eliminate two-times World Cup and also twice Olympic winner Uruguay, in their first participation in a World Cup. But I doubt very much that it can thrive much further, and as you ask about the end of the competition, I would not include him among the possible candidates to win. So I will dare to give my opinion again later, as the competition progresses.

At this stage Cape Verde is the most visible black horse to have left us in shock when they were one of the least expected to make their way into the next round. It still baffles me how Uruguay performed this bad in a group they had all the advantages to qualify but instead they're the one going home this early. I agree with you that cape Verde may not get passed the round of 32, not even their luck can save them. While for a prospective winner it has always being in the popular opinion for the likes of Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany or France.

I will also go for Cape Verde in this regard because I never expected them to have made it up to this extent, now that they have made it to the next round as well, let see how they could perform and follow-up with other themes as well in the world cup, you shouldn't be surprised as well if we see Cape Verde making it to even more closer than expected, football can be full of surprises sometimes and we cannot predict what may come up next and who may not make it to the subsequent round.

[Rruchi man]

Cape Verde is being a dark horse in a sense, having managed to eliminate two-times World Cup and also twice Olympic winner Uruguay, in their first participation in a World Cup. But I doubt very much that it can thrive much further, and as you ask about the end of the competition, I would not include him among the possible candidates to win. So I will dare to give my opinion again later, as the competition progresses.

At this stage Cape Verde is the most visible black horse to have left us in shock when they were one of the least expected to make their way into the next round.

Do you think your black Horse will be able to remain after their next game against the defending champions? Cape Verde will play Argentina next and with Lionel Messi leading Argentina, they are a team to beware of.

Norway are a very talented team, it is no surprise they have easily made it to he knockouts and scored so many goals. It is just their first world cup tournament but they already feel well at home in it.

I think Norway too even though they lost against France, we all know they did not need that game.

[Italian Panic]

I like the term "black horse", it take exactly what you mean. Where I come from, we say "underdog team". In my case, it’s something I always like to think about when there are world cups or continental tournaments like the European Championship, the Sudamericano, the Copa América, the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. This year, I think the underdogs, or "black horses", will be the United States, who are performing really well, and I’m also thinking of Mexico, who have home advantage but, without any particularly standout players, risk faltering at the first serious hurdle.

[alani123]

I love the concept of a dark horse in the world cup because especially since my home nation is usually not playing I am very happy to see underdogs performing well.

This year I think Norway and Morocco can do very well and even maybe have an unexpected win past the round of 16. I'd really like to imagine they know out one of the more stereotypical world cup nations.

For now I'm all in on Cabo Verde as my favourite ever dark horse. Let's cross our fingers and hole they knock out Messi with penalties 😁

[salad daging]

I will choose the US as a dark horse in this World Cup because of the tempo of the game which is quite impressive although in the last match it had to lose to Turkey, overall the US played well under Pochettino.

At least the US is likely to meet Belgium, so if this scenario occurs it will support the US, but this is my own guess, maybe this prediction can be missed.

Cape Verde is good and deserves to be considered a dark horse, so far it has not been able to win.

[meser#]

In my opinion, that team is Belgium. I’m not saying this just because they scored five goals against New Zealand; their squad is made up of quality players, and they play good football.
I would also include Norway in this category. Even though they conceded four goals against France, if luck is on their side, we could see these two teams reach at least the quarter-finals—or perhaps even the semi-finals.

[uneng]

Cape Verde is already the biggest surprise of this world cup, as they managed to pass to the next phase of the championship. They made an unique play against Spain, and even though their performance against Uruguay and Saudi Arabia wasn't that good, they still managed to achieve two draws.

Therefore, they have a decent defense and know how to play this way effectively. However, their offensive power is weak, as they waste too many opportunities of scoring obvious goals. That is their biggest cons.

For that reason, I also think USA is a more functional underdog in this world cup. They play intensively and despite their defense being flawed in many situations, they still balance this by having a quite decent attack and game progression on the field. For me, it's the most entertaining national team to be watched this season.

For similar reasons, I also like watching Japan playing, another underdog which I would like to see reaching beyond in the championship.

[Pandu Geddon]

my question for you is: which team do you think we’ll call a “dark horse” when this tournament is over?

Dark horse teams are always interesting, but they also bring bad luck to those who bet on them. This World Cup, I’m picking Norway and Morocco, who can still surprise us as dark horses. But the performance shown by the host teams isn’t bad either. Let’s see how they do in the next round.

[Fiatless]

I began to follow up on Cape Verde during the African Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers. They have a disciplined and formidable side that defeated some big names in Africa. I predicted that they would do well in this World Cup. They have not disappointed as they held Spain and Uruguay to a draw. It is noteworthy that this team was too disciplined to commit just one foul against Spain. Meanwhile, Spain committed ten. My dark horse is Cape Verde and they might surprise the world in the match against Argentina.

[rachael9385]

I like the term "black horse", it take exactly what you mean. Where I come from, we say "underdog team". In my case, it’s something I always like to think about when there are world cups or continental tournaments like the European Championship, the Sudamericano, the Copa América, the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. This year, I think the underdogs, or "black horses", will be the United States, who are performing really well, and I’m also thinking of Mexico, who have home advantage but, without any particularly standout players, risk faltering at the first serious hurdle.

In this context it is an underdog team that has a high potential of being a threat or being formidable. I don't see the United States as a black horse because they are actually more on the favorite side even though they are beneath some countries. I started considering case Verde to be a black horse right after they were able to withstand Spain and this is almost everyone's opinion.