A dark horse was a dark horse simply because it was not favored before the match. That did not mean it lacked ability.
Luck often played a part as well, but on a football pitch, results always came down to strength.
Take Kaiserslautern under Rehhagel back then. Their miracle title win as a newly promoted side was possible because they had tremendous ability. Brehme, Koch, Wagner, Sforza, Marshall, Rische... They had all been highly capable players at the time.
It was worth noting that in the year Kaiserslautern created their miracle, twenty-two-year-old Ballack could not even earn a starting spot on the team and could only serve as a substitute. That showed just how strong the squad Rehhagel had built really was.
Greece was another example. Their ability to win the European Cup showed that the Greek team had been quite strong overall. Yang Yang had once been teammates with two Greek international strikers, so he knew very well that both players had distinctive qualities and were highly capable.
Whether at Kaiserslautern or with Greece, Rehhagel had used overall tactics to unite a group of players who seemed unknown but were actually quite capable, forming a highly competitive team on the pitch.
Before the World Cup semifinal, many media outlets had labeled China the biggest dark horse of this World Cup, believing they might become the "Greece" of the tournament and go all the way. But that view was not mainstream.
Greece itself was in Europe, where league standards were high and the players were highly capable. Although few of Greece's internationals at the time played in the Four Major Leagues, most played in their domestic league, and many were regulars in the Champions League.
China was different. With more and more Chinese players heading overseas in recent years, an