World Cup 2010 - End of group stage analysis

June 26, 2010 - PRLog -- Before looking at the round of 16 games, let’s make a balance and analyze the surprises, facts, trivia, and disappointments of the first two weeks of Group Stage games.

South American teams confirmed their excellent form, with Uruguay, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil and Argentina Chile qualifying, meaning that all teams participating in the South American World passed the group stage, something that’s unprecedented.

Europe does not provide as many teams as usual for the second phase, after France and Italy (the negative surprises), Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Denmark and Switzerland did not qualify. The African teams have failed to counter the favoritism given to the "sharks" of their groups, apart from Ghana, the only African squad to go to the round of 16 games.

Ivory Coast, considered the best African team at the moment, disappointed, even despite the fact that they were part of the so called “group of death”. Asia is still well represented with South Korea and Japan making it. Various rookie squads or low ranked countries fell by the wayside, while some of the usual candidates, like England, Germany, Holland and Spain qualified with greater or lesser difficulty.

The biggest fiascos were without doubt France and Italy, the two finalists of the 2006 World Cup, who went home sooner than many imagined which had never happened in the final stages. Both teams finished in last place in their groups, none of them managed to win an encounter. Besides the poor results, the French footballers were involved in “cases” that scandalized their country and their fans.

On the other hand we have the big surprises starting with Slovakia, which knocked out the world champions Italy as well as Japan that sent Denmark packing their bags. The Danes had won the qualifying group for the World Cup in which Portugal struggled to finish second. The U.S. squad deserves the title of the best fighters, never giving up, even after being robbed of two clean goals in two different games and deserved going through.

Finally the statistics, Portugal and Uruguay were the only teams that did not concede any goals, while Algeria and Honduras, where unable to score any. North Korea and Cameroon scored zero points, with the Koreans having the worst defense, conceding twelve goals. Argentina and Portugal have the best attacks with seven goals.

Argentina and Holland, can boast of being the only teams to have won all three games. Also noteworthy was the fact that of the six African teams (Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Cameroon and Ghana), only the latter went to the last 16.

Of the sixteen teams now remaining in competition, the American continent is the most represented with seven teams: Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, USA, Paraguay, Brazil and Chile. Europe has six teams: England, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. Asia has two representatives: Japan and South Korea while Ghana is the sole representative of the African continent.

Breakdown of the Round of 16 Games

Uruguay vs. South Korea – 26 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT)
USA vs. Ghana – 26 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT)
Germany vs. England – 27 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT)
Argentina vs. Mexico – 27 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT)
Netherlands vs. Slovakia – 28 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT)
Brazil vs. Chile – 28 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT)
Paraguay vs. Japan – 29 June 2010 3:00pm (GMT)
Spain vs. Portugal – 29 June 2010 7:30pm (GMT)

More news and information about South Africa and the 2010 World Cup can be found at:
http://www.2010-southafrica.com

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This website was made to bring you news and information about Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal captain and Real Madrid football star, the Spanish League Championship games as well as the 2010 World Cup where he will be playing from 11 June and hopefully till 11 July 2010.