The biggest upsets at the FIFA World Cup so far have been draws.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Teams ranked 61st, 67th and 85th in the FIFA world rankings all suffered blowouts in their first games. world cup.

They all played on Monday. No one won. They didn’t lose either.

Over five days and 16 games of the biggest extravaganza in soccer history, the underdogs proved extremely difficult to defeat. All four matches on Monday ended in draws, the most in a single day in a Men’s World Cup since 1958, and all could technically be considered upsets.

Biggest win of all matches (it wasn’t a win) cape verde They are 67th in the rankings, making their first appearance in the World Cup, but they held off 2nd place Spain, the favorites to win the tournament, 0-0, which was undoubtedly the biggest shock of the tournament at this point.

“It means everything,” Cape Verde coach Pedro Leyton Brito said. Just call it Buvista.

Other Monday results include:

— No.85 New Zealand, The team in last place of the 48 qualifying teams for the World Cup drew 2-2 with 20th place Iran.

— No.61 Saudi Arabia They drew 1-1 with 16th place Uruguay.

— No.29 Egypt They drew 1-1 with 9th place Belgium.

The draw was a pretty big deal for Monday’s losers. But even they knew what Cape Verde’s score meant in the grand scheme of things.

Saudi Arabia coach Georgios Donis said, “The draw with Spain might be the biggest surprise of this World Cup.”

Four years ago, Saudi Arabia Shocking victory over eventual champion Argentina.

The World Cup is different from the NCAA Tournament. Regardless of the outcome of the first match, no one is eliminated or guaranteed to advance. But if this event was anything like March Madness, a lot of things would have been off the table already.

Spain beat Cape Verde at -1500, according to odds posted just before the game started on Monday. These are overwhelming odds and mean a bettor would need to wager $1,500 to make a profit of $100. And tipsters in Las Vegas said Spain was chosen to win in numerous parlays, but all were quickly eliminated.

“This shows how difficult it is to play (the first match) in the World Cup,” Uruguay’s Maxi Araujo said. “We’ve seen it be difficult, not just in our group, but in many groups.”

He’s right. And now groups F and H don’t have much margin for error.

Teams are guaranteed to play three matches in the group stage at the World Cup, and one match each against the other three teams in their group. The top two finishers from each of the 12 groups are guaranteed to advance to the knockout stage. The top eight teams in the top three will also advance.

However, Group F (New Zealand, Iran, Belgium, Egypt) and Group H (Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Cape Verde) all have exactly one point with two games remaining. A team earns 3 points for a win, but no points for a loss.

“There’s a lot of positives to build on,” New Zealand’s Elijah Just said.

The trend of upsets, or ties, didn’t start on Monday. There were two other important matches early in the tournament. Qatar, ranked 56th in the world, drew 1-1 with Switzerland, ranked 19th, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranked 64th, drew Canada, ranked 30th, 1-1.

Through the first 16 games, eight games ended in draws. The remaining two teams had less shocking games. Japan, ranked 18th, found themselves at a slight disadvantage with a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands, ranked 8th, while Brazil, ranked 6th, and Morocco, ranked 7th, drew their first matches 1-1, as expected given their close differences in the world rankings.

As of Monday, the only game won by a team more than 10 places below their opponent in the FIFA world rankings was 33rd place Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over 23rd place Ecuador.

Not shocking at all. However, some of these relationships may qualify as such.

“That’s what soccer is like,” said Spain national team coach Luis de la Fuente. “There are no small enemies here.”

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup