Out of Left Field

The expression refers to the arrival of something unexpected, something unexplained, slightly sinsiter, definitely weird and often spectacular. Something left-footed perhaps.
Which is what we get almost every major tournament. Every World Cup and Euro has seen the emergence of an unexpected contender, out of left field, always with a spectacular left footed player leading the way.
In recent memory '92 saw the late entrants Denmark, who didn't even qualify but won the whole thing after Yugoslavia could no longer hold together as a country, led by the left-footed Laudrup wonder-twins.
In '94 the Bulgarians were definitely out of left field. Never even having won a game at the World Cup in their history prior to they stormed to the semis on the back of their left-footed demi-god Hristo Stoichkov.
In '96, one of the countries newly emerged from Yugoslavia showed they had all the left-footed talent of that federation, with the subtle artistry of Prosinecki and the emphatic finishes of Suker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miNhm0YOVYU
making Croatia an exciting new entry into the world of football, a reputation they backed up with performance in World Cup '98, taking 3rd place and a Golden Boot for Sukerman.
The Turks stormed the ramparts of the '02 World Cup, Emre and Yildiray leading the left footed charge and the sinister Hassan Sas scaring small children with his emotionless post goal scowl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQaovxawMJ4
At Euro 08 The Turks again shocked the establishment with some fine left-footed finishing from Semih, but it was the Russians Zhirkov and Arshavin who took the acclaim as the best left footers in the world.

Who will come out of left field next?
Watch this space.