2014 World Cup open thread: Dark horses abound

Yesterday as a strong day of World Cup action, and while it's often far too easy to point at goal-filled matches as exciting, 13 scored in four was pretty cool.

Today's got some relative unknowns and some "dark horse" options for those looking for a more edgy team to support as your second, non-USA option.

The games

All times Mountain Daylight Time

10 a.m., Switzerland v. Ecuador

Two teams that aren't likely to go too far on the world stage, but both Switzerland and Ecuador have exciting attacking players and will push in this match.

1 p.m., France v. Honduras

France, former World Cup-winners, against a Honduras side that's made it out of the group stage and that's it? You'd think the result would seem obvious, but the unpredictability of France's quality renders this one a must-watch. We'll also want to see Honduras, CONCACAF members they are, do well.

4 p.m., Argentina v. Bosnia and Herzegovina

One of the favorites in this World Cup cycle and one of the dark horses: This should be interesting, at the very least.

What we saw yesterday

• A match pitting England and Italy in competition that was actually kind of fun to watch.
• Costa Rica looking by far the better side against the nominally stronger Uruguay - this was encouraging and exciting for many reasons.
• Colombia making Greece look slow and ineffective

Coming up tomorrow

It'll be a great day: Germany v. Portugal at 10 a.m., Iran and Nigeria at 1 p.m., USA (!!!) and Ghana at 4 p.m.