World Cup 2014: The warm-up match winners & losers

USA defied negativity back home to win all of their friendlies

With two friendlies left until the World Cup, it's a good time to assess the surprise hits and alarming misses of the preparatory period...

Winners

Japan
Admittedly, they didn't face the most daunting opposition, but three wins from three summertime outings - 1-0 over Cyprus, 3-1 past Costa Rica and 4-3 against Zambia - ensure that Japan head into the World Cup with plenty of momentum. They are on a five-match winning streak in total - with Belgium and New Zealand their prior victims - and are 5.39/2 to top Group C.

Bosnia
Beginner's luck has been pretty prevalent at the World Cup, with at least one newcomer reaching the knockout rounds at the last seven editions. With Bosnia the sole debutants this time around, it is their duty to sustain the trend and recent half-time/full-time victories over Ivory Coast and Mexico hint that 1.824/5 is a great price on them qualifying from Group F.

USA
The drama over Landon Donovan's omission and reliance on Jozy Altidore up front create the illusion that USA are in bad nick, yet their last few results tell a different story. Jurgen Klinsmann's men followed a 2-0 success against Azerbaijan by prevailing 2-1 over Turkey and Nigeria, and they are 3.02/1 to claim a fourth win in a row in their Group G opener with Ghana.

Nine other teams have 100% win records in pre-tournament friendlies as of June 8 (counting FIFA-recognised fixtures only): Brazil, Croatia, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, Switzerland, Argentina, Belgium and Algeria

Losers

Ghana
The 2010 quarter-finalists face a gruesome task doing it again due to being paired with Germany, Portugal and USA in Group G, and their morale-draining form amps up the difficulty further. Their 0-1 loss to Netherlands followed a defeat by the same margin to Montenegro, and they haven't scored in four encounters. They are 2.466/4 to recover by winning their final friendly with South Korea.

Nigeria
The reigning African Cup of Nations champions are winless in four games, three of which have taken place in the past fortnight. A sequence that commenced with a 2-2 draw with Scotland has worsened courtesy of a 0-0 stalemate with Greece and 1-2 reverse away to USA. Even though their Group F draw with Argentina, Bosnia and Iran isn't too horrific, they are 2.727/4 to get through.

Honduras
They did manage to hold England to a 0-0 draw, and even more impressively limit themselves to just the one sending off, but that was the highlight of a grim build-up in which they lost 0-2 to Turkey and 2-4 to Israel. That perhaps explains why they are 1.528/15 to finish bottom of Group E, their home for the next few weeks alongside France, Switzerland and fellow Three Lion-foilers Ecuador.

Four other teams have averaged a point-per-game or worse in pre-tournament friendlies as of June 8 (counting FIFA-recognised fixtures only): South Korea (0.00), Costa Rica (0.50), Ecuador (0.67) and Italy (1.00)