Could someone explain to me what is happening with the “big gun” nations in the World Cup?

I am far from an expert on football, but it feels like this World Cup is going to end up being a battle of the small nations. The traditional big gun nations (such as Spain, Italy etc) are not having a good tournament.  In the Group of 32 you get 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss.  Lets take a look at some of the Big Guns:

• France, which made it to the finals in 2006 is currently in danger of not getting to the Group of 16.  They have one game left to play, and currently stand at 1 point in Group A, Which Uruguay and Mexico are tied for the lead at 4 points each.
• United States and England are tied at 2 points each for second place in Group C, with Slovenia leading with 4 points.  In theory we both could make it to the Group of 16, but it’s going to take some work with only one game each left.
• The Netherlands has 6 points in Group E, and is the only country guaranteed to make it out of the Group of 32 thus far.
• Spain, the favorites to win the cup lost their first game in Group H and stand at 0 points.  They have yet to play their second game, but they lost to Switzerland … no one saw that coming.

What prompted this post was that Italy, the current World Cup champions, currently have 2 points with one game to go.  Today they tied New Zealand in a 1-to-1 match.  The odds of New Zealand winning were 15-to-1, and the odds of a tie were 5-to-1.

… What in the world is going on?

I have absolutely no problem with the concept of smaller countries getting the attention, or even winning, but thus far this year’s tournament has just been more of a jaw-dropping, “What in the world is happening?!?” kind of feeling.  I almost get the feeling that several of the countries came in with inflated attitudes.  Very much of a, “Well, we’re so-and-so, and we’re just going to walk into the Group of 16, and … oh, hey, how’d you get the ball in our net?”

The big guns have got to get their acts together and fast or it is going to be a very interesting final two come July 11th.

As a side note, don’t get me started on Koman Coulibaly, the referee in the USA vs. Slovenia match where we tied and were robbed of a goal … apparently FIFA will make a ruling on him Monday, but it won’t change the outcome of the game.