| The group stages of the 2010 World Cup in South | | | | bags. The Danes had won the qualifying group for the |
| Africa have ended. Starting this Saturday things will | | | | World Cup in which Portugal struggled to finish second. |
| start to hurt as it is time for the "knock-out" stages, but | | | | The U.S. squad deserves the title of the best fighters, |
| before that let's make a balance and analyze the | | | | never giving up, even after being robbed of two clean |
| surprises, facts, trivia, and disappointments of the first | | | | goals in two different games and deserved going |
| two weeks. | | | | through. |
| South American teams confirmed their excellent form, | | | | Finally the statistics, Portugal and Uruguay were the |
| with Uruguay, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil and | | | | only teams that did not concede any goals, while |
| Argentina Chile qualifying, meaning that all teams | | | | Algeria and Honduras, where unable to score any. |
| participating in the South American World passed the | | | | North Korea and Cameroon scored zero points, with |
| group stage, something that's unprecedented. | | | | the North Koreans having the worst defense, |
| Europe does not provide as many teams as usual for | | | | conceding twelve goals. Argentina and Portugal have |
| the second phase, after France and Italy (the negative | | | | the best attacks with seven goals. |
| surprises), Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Denmark and | | | | Argentina and Holland, can boast of being the only |
| Switzerland did not qualify. The African teams have | | | | teams to have won all three games. Also noteworthy |
| failed to counter the favoritism given to the "sharks" of | | | | was the fact that of the six African teams (Ivory |
| their groups, apart from Ghana, the only African squad | | | | Coast, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Cameroon and |
| to go to the round of 16 games. | | | | Ghana), only the latter went to the last 16. |
| Ivory Coast, considered the best African team at the | | | | Of the sixteen teams now remaining in competition, the |
| moment, disappointed, even despite the fact that they | | | | American continent is the most represented with |
| were part of the so called "group of death". Asia is still | | | | seven teams: Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, USA, |
| well represented with South Korea and Japan making | | | | Paraguay, Brazil and Chile. Europe has six teams: |
| it. Various rookie squads or low ranked countries fell | | | | England, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and |
| by the wayside, while some of the usual candidates, | | | | Spain. Asia has two representatives: Japan and South |
| like England, Germany, Holland and Spain qualified with | | | | Korea while Ghana is the sole representative of the |
| greater or lesser difficulty. | | | | African continent. |
| The biggest fiascos were without doubt France and | | | | Breakdown of the Round of 16 Games |
| Italy, the two finalists of the 2006 World Cup, who | | | | Uruguay vs. South Korea - 26 June 2010 3:00pm |
| went home sooner than many imagined which had | | | | (GMT) |
| never happened in the final stages. Both teams | | | | USA vs. Ghana - 26 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT) |
| finished in last place in their groups, none of them | | | | Germany vs. England - 27 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT) |
| managed to win an encounter. Besides the poor | | | | Argentina vs. Mexico - 27 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT) |
| results, the French footballers were involved in "cases" | | | | Netherlands vs. Slovakia - 28 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT) |
| that scandalized their country and their fans. | | | | Brazil vs. Chile - 28 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT) |
| On the other hand we have the big surprises starting | | | | Paraguay vs. Japan - 29 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT) |
| with Slovakia, which knocked out the world champions | | | | Spain vs. |
| Italy as well as Japan that sent Denmark packing their | | | | |