Group stage recap

The 2010 World Cup enters the knockout stage after two weeks of group matches.

Italy, the defending champions, are on their way home after having been eliminated by Slovakia. The Azzurri made the same mistake that France made in 2002: they showed up with essentially the same team that won four years before with not enough new blood. And, just like France in 2002, their playmaker was injured in a friendly just ahead of the tournament which left the team with no ideas and no direction. This was plainly evident as an unfit Andrea Pirlo came on in the second half against Slovakia and suddenly Italy looked their old self. This was the case with France in 2002 when Zidane came on against Denmark, but by then it was too late as well.

We've already documented France's demise, but also intriguing is the poor showing from the mass of European teams. None of the second tier teams from Europe made it out of their groups: Denmark lost out to Japan, Serbia to Ghana, Switzerland to Chile, Slovenia to the U.S., and Greece to South Korea. On the other hand, all six teams from South America and two of the three CONCACAF teams made it to the knockout stage. Meanwhile the east Asian teams have been outstanding with South Korea and Japan coming through in convincing style (though North Korea, tenacious in its first match against Brazil, were subsequently crushed. I hope the players have a chance to defect.) Neither Oceania team advanced but both Australia and New Zealand played with real conviction, especially the latter from whom nothing was expected. A disappointment though is how poorly the African teams did. South Africa was good but Mexico and Uruguay were better, and so the host nation fails to advance for the first time in World Cup history. Only Ghana made it through, and that's in spite of scoring their only two goals from the spot and then losing their last match, they have Australia to thank for beating Serbia.

Two teams won all three of their group stage matches: Argentina and the Netherlands. The bracket has it such that these two can only meet in the final, perhaps a rematch from 1978? Uruguay, champions way back in 1930 and 1950, are back but now have to negotiate with South Korea for a place in the quarter-finals. The winner of the United States v Ghana match takes on the winner of that match, so the semi-finals will have at least one surprise team in it. Spain and Germany both had what turned out to be fluke defeats in their groups but recovered to finish first, and now they take on Portugal and England respectively for their trouble. Brazil was brilliant as always and get Chile while Paraguay gets impressive Japan. Italy's undertaker Slovakia get the Netherlands as their reward, while France's executioner Mexico get Argentina.

The next two weeks ought to be something special.