Out in the Round of 16 and Going Home Economy, But At Least Get Dinner On The Flight
South Korea:
They proved that 2002 was not merely a fluke and went some way to erasing the memory of their 2006 debacle. Never really talented enough to threaten the big boys, they used their high tempo game to good effect, but will look back at the Uruguay game and wonder if they could have held on for more.
Best Performers: Park Ji Sung lived up to his billing, and Lee Chung Yong was decent.
World Cup in Five Words: Excitingly industrious but quality inconsistent
United States:
Luck goes both ways, and the good luck that got the US points against England and Slovenia was balanced out by their inability to find the goal with any consistency against Ghana. Billed as favourites, this tag may have had an effect on the players, but more likely they were simply not good enough to proceed any further. Actually quite a disappointing World Cup all in all.
Best Performers: Up until the Ghana match, Tim Howard. Michael Bradley and, in spells, Landon Donovan.
World Cup in Five Words: Never performed for 90 minutes
Slovakia:
A decent European outfit who benefitted from Italy's woeful showing. Solid enough to not seem out of their depth against Holland, they nonetheless succumbed to their obviously superior opponents, causing little fuss in the process. For another small Euro nation, they did pretty well.
Best Perfomers: Vittek will be remembered as an unlikely source of goals, and Wladimir Weiss did well to step up and compensate for Hamsik's failings.
World Cup in Five Words: Italy match never forgotten. Surprising
Chile:
A rarity. A side whose personnel were obviously lacking in quality, but whose tactical organisation and overall play were of the highest order. They were simply unlucky to face Brazil so soon, but would have struggled to get the necessary goals regardless of opponent. Must curb their over-aggressive side; they kicked Spain to the moon and back.
Best Performers: Beausejour was a standout, as was Alexis Sanchez. Waldo Ponce and Gary Medel played well in defence.
World Cup in Five Words: Began attacking. Needed sharper Suazo.
Mexico:
Same old Mexico. Playing the same brand of good looking football but losing out to the same opponent as last time. Mexico have good players, but they are just not good enough to progress beyond this stage of the tournament. A simple case of a team finding its ceiling.
Best Performers: Carlos Salcido was superb throughout, and Geovani dos Santos played at least as well as the more hyped Andres Guardado, which takes nothing away from him either.
World Cup in Five Words: Talented but Argentina too strong
England:
A genuinely pitiful campaign, and the players will be glad to distance themselves from it as far as possible. Germany were so superior they were practically being insulted by the English performance. In the group stages, it was similar to watching the Italian Golden Generation stutter and fail in Group F, but the Italians are in all their mid 30's and have won a World Cup. The English are younger and have accomplished absolutely nothing. This was the current crop's last chance to shine; instead, they tarnished their reputations beyond repair.
Best Performers: David James did well when called upon, and Ashley Cole was near top form. In my opinion, Emile Heskey was good in his one start against the US.
Worst Performers (because it's a Home Nation after all): Rooney was abominably bad; just say you were injured Wayne, it's the only way you can save face. Gerrard deteriorated horribly, Johnson, Carragher and Upson were all awful, and Gareth Barry proved tactically clueless on his return. Oh, and almost forgot the pathetic Aaron Lennon. An actual 5 year old would have been as much use.
World Cup in Five Words: Disparate stars fail. No surprises.
Japan:
Joined with South Korea to prove that perhaps there was something more to the hosts of the 2002 tournament than home advantage. For a team in near disarray prior to kickoff they performed brilliantly. They were organised, they knew what they wanted to do and they used the skill players they had to good effect. In other words, they were the anti-Cameroon. They had a 50-50 shot at going through to the quarterfinals, and did nothing but raise their stock.
Best Performes: Keisuke Honda provided the basis for many a bad car joke, and the pundits relished his appearences. Tulio Tanaka was dominant, and Matsui was good and simply superb in the first half of the Denmark game.
World Cup in Five Words: Great dead balls. Until penalties
Portugal:
Portugal performed well considering their near-failure to qualify. The defence continued its fantastic form and the midfield did reasonably well. Even when they met Spain, this good showing continued and at half time they were a decent shout to win. I believe that if Quieroz had not substituted Huga Almeida Portugal would have gotten back into the match. Once he made that change, the front men had no idea what to do, which was a consistent theme of their other matches as Quieroz completely changed his attack in each game.
Best Performers: Eduardo in goals was genuinely world class at times. One of the best at the tournament. Raul Meireles did well but faded at crunch time against Spain. Bruno Alves was good, and Contraeo at left back was excellent.
World Cup in Five Words: One rout insufficient. Quieroz = assistant
GM and RM
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