Ghana players move a goal during a Ghana national soccer team training session in Mogwase, South Africa.
Uruguay vs Ghana
One-time football power Uruguay are on the verge of their first World Cup semi-final appearance in 40 years with African hope Ghana blocking their way at Soccer City here on Friday.
Before Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay were the dominant South American team winning two World Cups in 1930 and 1950, two Olympic Games gold medals and eight of their 14 Copa America titles.
La Celeste’s World Cup fortunes have been in decline since their seismic 2-1 upset of Brazil in the 1950 final before 174,000 fans at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro.
Uruguay reached the semi-finals in 1954 and 1970, but on Friday Oscar Tabarez’s team get their chance to reach the last four after a break of four decades.
Ghana, with all of Africa behind them, are out to create history of their own, but Uruguay are surfing the wave of South American success at South Africa 2010.
They have won three of their four matches after an opening scoreless draw with France and in Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan Uruguay possess two of the most potent forwards in the tournament, while the defence, marshalled by skipper Diego Lugano, has only conceded one goal.
Ajax striker Suarez’s curling right-footer in the 80th minute of Saturday’s last 16 match with South Korea earned Uruguay a last-eight spot, and also netted him the man of the match award.
Forlan hopes the strong South American presence in the quarter-finals will encourage FIFA to revisit their quota of finals places rather than force the fifth team in the regional qualifiers to play off against a Central American side.
Uruguay had to overcome Costa Rica to reach the finals.
“We have to show how strong South American football is and the strength of the qualifying programme. I hope in doing so we can have five places and not the current four-and-a-half for the next World Cup in Brazil,” Forlan said.
Tabarez has already finalised his team replacing defender Diego Godin and midfielder Alvaro Pereira with Mauricio Victorino and Alvaro Fernandez.
“Before we began this World Cup, we saw this great harmony among the players and I said to them, ‘The people back home have aspirations, they have dreams and we have to deliver them’,” Tabarez said.
“Our objective is to go as far as we can in this tournament.”
Ghana are bidding to become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Ghana’s ‘Black Stars’ are the lone flag-waver for Africa in the first World Cup staged on the continent and there is an emotional outpouring of support for them against Uruguay.
Ghana became only the third African team along with Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) to reach the last eight at the World Cup when they downed the United States 2-1 in Rustenburg last Saturday.
South Africa 2010 was trumpeted as Africa’s long-awaited opportunity to host the world’s greatest sporting showpiece, but only Ghana has survived after the demise of South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Algeria at the group stage.
Now after their fighting win over the Americans, the Black Stars have the opportunity to do what no other African team has previously achieved and progress to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
It will be the first ever meeting between the two countries each other and both teams were not expected to be competing for a place in the semi-final against either Brazil or the Netherlands.
Brazil vs Netherlands
Five-time champion Brazil now feels as though the World Cup is really beginning.
After cruising into the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Chile on Monday, coach Dunga and his players know that things start to get serious against the Netherlands on Friday.
“We know the Netherlands are a very difficult team to play against,” Dunga said. “Their football is actually very similar to South American football. They don’t try to stay defending and rely on long balls. They have technical quality and we will need to be ready for that. It’s a solid team.”
Brazil hasn’t faced many difficulties in South Africa so far.
It easily won Group G by beating North Korea 2-1, Ivory Coast 3-1 and drawing 0-0 with Portugal. It then faced a Chile side it has dominated in recent years. The Chileans didn’t pose much of a threat in Monday’s match at Ellis Park, and Brazil easily advanced.
“Now it’s a match between two traditional teams with great players,” Brazil captain Lucio said. “Now the matches will get harder and harder.”
Although the Netherlands doesn’t have many titles, it has been an international force for years. It has been nearly flawless in this year’s World Cup, winning all of its matches so far against Denmark, Japan, Cameroon and Slovakia, the latter a 2-1 result in the second round on Monday in Durban. The Dutch are unbeaten in 23 matches.
“It’s a world football classic,” said Robinho, who scored his first World Cup goal in the match against Chile. “It’s going to be like a final.”
Defender Juan and striker Luis Fabiano also scored for Brazil in Monday’s victory, the team’s eighth in a row against the South American rival.
It will be the fourth World Cup match between the two teams, and Brazil has won two of them. The Netherlands won a second-round match in the 1974 tournament in Germany, but the Brazilians beat the Dutch 3-2 in the 1994 quarterfinals in the United States and succeeded in a penalty shootout in the 1998 semifinals in France.
“We are talking about great teams with great players,” Brazil midfielder Kleberson said. “It’s going to be hard for everybody.”
In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, it was in the quarterfinals that Brazil fell 1-0 to eventual runner-up France.
Dunga knows from experience the difficulties of facing the Dutch. The former defensive midfielder played in the 1994 quarterfinals and in the 1998 semifinals.
“We know the Netherlands has a tradition of playing well in the World Cup,” the coach said.
The Brazilians are hoping the Dutch continue to attack in the match at Port Elizabeth, allowing space for Brazil’s attackers.
“I hope they keep playing forward,” Luis Fabiano said. “If they do that, they will run some risks and that’s going to be good for us.”
Brazil may be without some regular starters for Friday’s match. Midfielder Elano and Felipe Melo failed to recover from ankle injuries in time to face the Chileans and remain doubtful.
Ramires, who replaced Felipe Melo on Monday, received his second yellow card and will not be available.
