Ever since South Africa won the right to host the greatest sporting spectacle—the 2010 FIFA World Cup—the African nation has pulled out all stops to make the tournament a success. And although this is the first time the World Cup has been held in Africa, the tournament has lived up to both on- and off-the-field expectations.
Many nations without a rich soccer heritage proved that they can’t be taken for granted by the traditional soccer giants anymore. The occasional upset by underdogs was a trend observed in the previous two World Cups, but the South Africa tournament has taken it to a whole new level.
It all began on the first day, with Uruguay holding 2006 finalist France to a 0-0 draw, and World Champion Italy had to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Paraguay, another South American underdog.
France lost its other two games in the group stage to Mexico and hosts South Africa to finish at the bottom of the group. The French team was also involved in off-the-pitch controversies involving a player-coach spat and team mutiny.
On the other hand, Italy’s world-renowned defense—which conceded just two goals in the entire 2006 campaign—let in five goals in the three group games, and the Italian offense lacked the spark and creativity of top play-maker Andrea Pirlo, who is not playing due to injury. They too finished at the bottom of their group behind minnows New Zealand.
Despite the massive home support from the fans blowing the infamous ear-numbing vuvuzelas, South Africa became the first host country to not make it to the next round.
Perhaps the most anticipated match of group play was the clash between the U.S. and England. Bob Bradley’s talented team took full advantage of the goalkeeping howler by England’s Robert Green, holding their more fancied opponents to a 1-1 draw.
Despite being on the wrong end of a few bad calls by the match officials, a last-minute injury-time strike by forward Landon Donovan propelled the U.S. to the top of their group with a win over Algeria.
In other groups, favorites Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands and Portugal qualified for the Round of 16 without breaking much of a sweat, but first-ranked Spain and powerhouse Germany had to each overcome 1-0 defeats in their groups in order to qualify. Ghana was the only African country to make it through the group stages.
In their Round of 16 game against Ghana, the U.S. squad came from behind to draw level against Ghana, but eventually went down 1-2 in extra time.
In their Round of 16 match, England’s fans were left to wonder about what could have been after a Frank Lampard goal was disallowed despite the ball being over the line against Germany, who won 4-1. In the aftermath, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has promised to look into adopting goal-line technology to avoid similar errors in the future.
In other pre-quarterfinal matches, Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands each prevailed against their opponents. Surprisingly all four South American teams, including Paraguay, made it through to be among the final eight. In the last match of the round, Spain became the first team to score a goal against neighbors Portugal in the World Cup, and the lone goal was enough to see the European Champions through.
In the quarterfinals, Brazil takes on Netherlands on July 2 in a repeat of the 1998 semis, while Diego Maradona’s Argentina squad faces a young German team on July 3. Uruguay takes on Ghana and Paraguay faces Spain in the other two quarterfinal clashes.
World Cup quarterfinals
July 2
Netherlands vs. Brazil 7a.m.
Uruguay vs. Ghana 11:30 a.m.
July 3
Argentina vs. Germany 7 a.m.
Paraguay vs. Spain 11:30 a.m.