Coming into the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the field of competition seemed very stratified.
After the first round of games, the fog of stratification has burned away, revealing the true parity of the tournament, and even if some results were anomalous and unlikely to repeat, there are quite a few teams that have certainly caused a tremor in the World Cup thus far (literally and figuratively).
Here are who look like the 5 worst teams after the first round and who look like the 5 best:
5th worst: Egypt
Even though they defended about 90 minutes against a very good Uruguayan side, Egypt looked beaten from the get go, maybe because of the absence of by far their best player in Mo Salah. At times they defended well, but most of the reason they stayed in the game so long is because of Suarez wasting opportunities and Uruguay struggling to really get into the game. Even with Mo Salah it's hard to see how they'll beat Russia who are on home soil and FLYING after the 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia.
4th worst: Costa Rica
Costa Rica are used to playing a back 5, generally sitting in and waiting to break out with Ruiz or Campbell making the difference. They seemed to play fairly positively in the first half an hour, but with more numbers forward they may have been able to break through. Unfortunately they couldn't even do that against an impotent Serbia that, aside from Kolarov's absolute masterpiece and a few rays of light from Milinkovic-Savic, were boring and ineffective.
3rd worst: South Korea
Sweden are a more defensive minded team, but South Korea really never broke into the penalty area and made serious threats to goal even with Son Heung-Min leading the line. The South Korean supporting cast aren't as good as Tottenham I guess. Who knew?
2nd worst: Panama
With all the bottom teams getting results against top teams and Belgium's history of underperforming despite their talent, you might've thought after the first half Panama could grab a result. Dries Mertens tore that thought from our heads immediately in the second half with a perfect volley and Lukaku grabbed two more to give Belgium a 3-0 win that honestly could have been 5 or 6-0. Panama were just outclassed and despite Torres and Penedo keeping them at bay for a while, it ultimately wasn't enough and I don't suspect it will be enough to get them any more than 1 point the whole tournament.
The worst: Saudi Arabia
They lost. They lost to Russia. They lost to Russia 5-0. I don't think I need to say any more, but I will. Although Golovin and Cheryshev were surprisingly good, Saudi Arabia looked like a team I've seen in the US Open Cup. Their goalkeeper looks like he shouldn't be playing professionally anywhere and even the best player, Mohammed Al-Sahlawi couldn't differentiate himself from players I've seen at the park down the street.