By AVI CREDITOR
As the first halves of the respective games wore on, the odds against South Africa shrunk.
Goal South Africa. Red card France. Goal South Africa. Goal Uruguay.
The goal differential became managable for the host nation and the tension that usually encompasses the final day of group play was palpable.
However, Florent Malouda scored in the second half to deflate South Africa's hopes, and despite Uruguay's 1-0 victory over Mexico and the Bafana Bafana's 2-1 victory over 10-man France, South Africa became the first host country not to make it out of the group stage. Uruguay won Group A, and Mexico tied South Africa on points but had a stronger goal differential to advance to the Round of 16.
Here are brief recaps from Tuesday's two early matches:
URUGUAY 1, MEXICO 0
Luis Suarez scored on an open header off an Edinson Cavani cross in the 43rd minute, and Uruguay held its third consecutive opponent scoreless in securing the victory and Group A bragging rights.
Mexico had two golden chances to score, as Andres Guardado's ambitious shot from distance rattled the crossbar in the 22nd minute, and Francisco Rodriguez missed an open header from close range in the 65th minute.
Both teams will find out their knockout stage opponents later in the day, as Group B's table is still undetermined. Argentina is likely to win the group, but Greece, Nigeria and South Korea all have chances at securing second place.
SOUTH AFRICA 2, FRANCE 1
The hosts bowed out of the tournament with a valiant effort, defeating the defending runners-up and making Mexican players, coaches and fans sweat for 90 minutes.
Bongani Khumalo headed in a Siphiwe Tshabalala corner kick in the 20th minute to open the scoring. After Yoann Gourcuff was sent off with a questionable red card, South Africa went on the attack again, getting a 37th-minute goal from forward Katlego Mphela to lead 2-0 and cut Mexico's goal differential down to two.
South Africa couldn't find the back of the net after that, though, and Malouda tapped home a cross from Franck Ribery in the 70th minute to score France's first goal of the tournament and all but end South Africa's hopes.
GROUP A FINAL TABLE
1. Uruguay………7 points, +4 GD
2. Mexico………..4 points, +1 GD
3. South Africa…4 points, -2 GD
4. France…………1 point, -3 GD
SBI'S GROUP A BEST XI
———–Forlan———————-Suarez———-
–Tshabalala–Marquez–Dos Santos–Guardado–
–Salcido——Lugano——–Godin——Fucile–
————————-Muslera————————
—————-
How far do you think Uruguay can go? Think Mexico stands a chance if it has to face Argentina? Impressed by South Africa's final performance? Will you miss France's shenanigans?
Share your thoughts below.
South America CONMEBOL
Argentina 9PTS 3Games
Brazil 6PTS 2Games
Chile 6PTS 2Games
Paraguay 4PTS 2Games
Uruguay 7PTS 3Games
All I can say is WOW! CONMEBOL has by far been the best conference in the World Cup, even better than UEFA.
Hahahaha at the people saying Argentina is overrated. They are playing the best soccer of the tournament right now and the only team so far that hasn’t lost a game yet. Mexico will give Argentina a good game, but they Argentines have been unstoppable so far. Messi has been magnificent.
so what is argentina suppose to do, win by 10 goals every game?!
Erik, if FIFA decided to take away a spot from Africa and award a place to another confederation based upon its performance, FIFA would have to award that spot to South America. Their teams have yet to lose a game in this world cup. Europe is traditionally strong, but France, England, Italy are not setting the world on fire in this tournament and I am not even talking about lesser teams like Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, etc. They have more spots than any other confederation so giving them one extra spot is highly unlikely, particularly in light of their current performance. I disagree about taking a spot away from CONCACAF, Mexico already advanced and the US is still in the hunt, so 2 out of 3 teams would potentially advance from their groups. And they did not embarrass themselves against European teams: Mexico beat France, US had a 1-1 draw against England and 3-2 “draw” against Slovenia. And by the way, I am rooting for Argentina and Messi to beat Mexico! Maybe Maradona will get into a fight with Aguirre.
prob cuz they spend all their time playing each other. unlike uefa where top countries play against the faroe islands and iceland.
Mexico can play better that what I saw today and Argentina is overrated. I smell an upset
how do mexicans spell “screwed”?
a-r-g-e-n-t-i-n-a.
South America CONMEBOL
Argentina 9PTS 3Games
Brazil 6PTS 2Games
Chile 6PTS 2Games
Paraguay 4PTS 2Games
Uruguay 7PTS 3Games
All I can say is WOW! CONMEBOL has by far been the best conference in the World Cup, even better than UEFA.
I’m probably among the few that think Mexico will pull an upset. People seem to forget that Uruguay had nothing to gain with a win or a tie. I don’t care if your Brazil, Spain or Germany its incredibly hard to score against a team that simply just doesn’t want to lose.So you set up your team to counterattack. The small countries in Concacaf play this way which is why we see so many ties in this region. Uruguay did this today. This type of play sucks and I hope they pay for it next round. Argentina hasn’t had remarkable group play. People forget that the team that beat Nigeria is the same team that lost to Bolivia 6-0. Mexico’s style with some adjustments (get franco out, blanco is not a starter etc.) can definitely pull an upset.
I was so happy to see France do so badly after they cheated their way into the World Cup. I can’t see Ireland having played as badly as they did.
How about the fact that historically, Africa has the lowest percentage of teams making it out of the group stages? Has there ever been a tournament where more than one African team made it out of the group stage?
Also, how many African players were actually injured? Essien is a big loss, even though he never really plays spectacularly for Ghana. Obi Mikel is a big loss, but he’s not really a star. Other than that, Ivory Coast had Drogba, Cameroon had Eto’o, S. Africa had Pienaar.
Europe is the region which always has top teams missing the world cup finals (Sweden, Russia, Ireland, Croatia), and Europe historically also has the highest percentage of teams progress pass the group stage. Based on that, there are legitimate reasons to give one of Africa’s spots to Europe.
Good riddance to the classless French. Domenech wouldn’t even shake Parriera’s hand at the end:
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Domenech-refuses-to-shake-Parriera-s-hand-wags-?urn=sow,250450
Uruguay looked good, but I don’t see Mexico going anywhere unless they really find a spark.
Completely irrelevant to the conversation.
Apparently because he was upset about Parreira supposedly making a comment that France made it to the World Cup on an irregular goal.
Fair to say that Domenech is probably a bit sensitive in the last few days!! 🙂
please, given their inglorious history, is it really possible any longer for a Frenchman to dishonor his country?
It’s the French Federations fault that they were in this mess. Domenech should have been fired after the Euro debacle.
This change was made because of big star players missing the finals after accumulating 2 yellow cards over the course of the 2nd round, 8’s and 4’s. Ballack comes to mind in ’02.
Two not get 2 yellows in 3 do or die games is very hard.
I would rather see a Czech Republic or an Ireland or a Scotland than a North Korea or a New Zealand. That’s all I am saying about Europe.
1 – i think mexico has a legit shot. if they find their scoring touch their offense can compete with Argentina. they create more chances than maybe any other team.
and as ives pointed out in his great diary piece, mexico plays great soccer, and while i am an american patriot, i will be cheering for them against all oponents excpet us…
2 – guardado?
3 – no forlan? he dominated the south africa game single handedly
Cameroon was 20 years ago… Senegal was 8 years ago and in the same tourney that the USA made the 8’s.
Two small blips on the radar doesn’t mean they need 4-5 teams at the World Cup. Please remember I said Concacaf should only have 3.
Au revoir, les Bleus. The straight red on Gourcuff was unfair, but karmic justice for Henry’s handball.
France actually seem to have a decent core for the Euro12/WC14 cycle. Ribery, Gignac, Gourcuff, Diaby, Diarra, Clichy, Sagna, and Lloris should be in their primes. What they’ll need is a tactically astute coach (nobody could be worse than Domenech in that regard) who can get them to play like a team (again, nobody could be worse than Domenech). They won’t have quite the level of attacking talent they had this cycle, but their midfield and defense should be solid. I hope Blanc has a successful tenure as their coach.
Mexico is too small and can’t finish well enough to take Argentina. But that goal 4 years ago was a beauty.
I have loved watching Uruguay this tourney so far. But Argentina could take them.
Who says this Uruguay is not better than Argentina??? Argentina have Messi, but Messi can be stopped. Argentina still face Greece and the same was said four years ago when Mexico was fifteen minutes from penalties when Maxi scored the goal of his life. I thought Mexico played an excellent first have with a ball of the cossbar by Guardado and lost only beacause of an ‘easier to score than to miss moment’ in the second half by ‘Maza’ Rodriguez.
Yes, that was my understanding but then i fould this on wikipedia: “Players also receive a one match ban if they pick up two yellow cards from the beginning of the group stage until the end of the quarterfinal matches at which point single yellow cards will be deleted”
just looked at another site that says the same thing. I guess they did it to make sure players would be available for the finals… but I see problems for us, and lots of other players/teams… how can you be playing tough/game of your life matches 5 games in a row and expect not more than 1 yellow card, especially the way these crapheads are reffing!
Why did Domenech refuse to shake Parreira’s hand after the match?
Hope the next coach of France will punish those responsible for this mess. Think Anelka and Evra should never be selected for the French National team again. At the same time I’m still perplexed the French let Domenech continue after a dreadful Euro’s and WC qualifying. So it actually should not really be a surprise they did this bad…
Do you mean today? Cause Gurdado hardly played
Never done a single thing in the World Cup? Have you forgotten about Senegal and Cameroon?
I don’t know that Mexico has a chance against Argentina, but between hoping for CONCACAF success and not wanting Maradona to fulfil his promise to streak if they win the cup, I’m gonna cheer for ’em.
I think cards go away after the round of 16 match. So if demerit and cherundolo pick up a card in this game of the first knockout game (assuming we progress) they would miss a game otherwise they wouldnt. I think in 2006 (and please correct me if i’m wrong) cards were wiped after the knockout round and they changed that this world cup to being wiped after the second round.
The way FIFA has it now seems fair to me. One of the reasons Africa did poorly is that so many of their star players got injured. That is just bad luck. Think some of the European countries are the real disappointment at this tournament, and the South American teams the real positive so far.
NO!!! He is my forward in my Fantasy Team!!!
Hey, desperate for a clarification on the yellow card rules for this edition.
If Cherundelo and DeMerit get a yellow card in this match, the round of 16 match, or quarterfinal match they will be out????
This is so harsh that these two carry these cards for 4 matches after the one they recieved in the begining of group play…
Or am I wrong here?
Uruguay and Argentina play to different styles. The Argentina vs Mexico game will be more wide open but still think Argentina will progress.
How is Guardado in your best 11 when he didnt play a whole game?
They should have given a red card to the whole french team including the coach for dishonoring their country in the WC. Terrible terrible performance. Glad South Africa won and at least leaves with a lot of pride.
OT.-
David Villa facing possible suspension for hitting the Honduran player in the face.
considering that if US can avoid a choke tomorrow and advance, 2 of 3 CONCACAF teams advancing is pretty awesome, especially since Africa is likely to get 1 of 6 and Asia 1 of 4…. Europe is likely to get 7 of 13 through- don’t see how they deserve more spots…
That was a horrible call on the red card. It was a yellow at most for me.
France first screwed their own chances and then the Cinderella’s!!! et tu, Les Bleus
Mexico has no chance against Argentina if they can’t beat Uruguay. I think after this African experiment that fewer teams from Africa should be able to qualify moving forward. They have never done a single thing in a World Cup and had 5 places this go round.
I will also add CONCACAF to the list and we should only be getting 3 slots and no playoff. More European teams and keep South American at 5 berths.
Feel bad for South Africa – wait, not really… they are a very dull team even with the home crowd behind them.