South Africa 2010: The Netherlands and Uruguay to battle for the final

Only a week after The Sofia Echo pronounced this football World Cup to be "South Triumphant" - as in a tournament with a massive success written in the pages for the South American teams, South Africa turned to be a rather bitter experience for the South Americans in the quarterfinals, as only Uruguay advanced to the final four – and they were the least likely to achieve that, on paper anyway.

Crunch time has arrived and the real business end of the tournament is about to commence – the battle of the final four. There are no favourites and no outsiders here, regardless of how much the Spaniards would like to shift the pressure to the Germans, branding them as the clear "favourites" for the July 7 semifinal.

And so it is - the first semifinal clash between the Netherlands and Uruguay is on July 6 in Cape Town with a 9.30pm kickoff, Bulgarian time.

Currently in blistering form, and one of the few teams that was tagged as potential winners of the tournament at the beginning and that actually have lived up to their reputation, the Netherlands has won five consecutive World Cup matches for the first time. This beats its previous best run of four in 1974, when it reached the final.

Uruguay, meanwhile, is in the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 1970, when it lost 3-1 to Brazil, but this time around, Uruguay has conceded only two goals in five games in South Africa.

The South American side is certainly going out without suspended pair Luis Suarez and Jorge Fucile. Suarez was sent off for handling Dominic Adiyiah's goal-bound header in the quarter-final win over Ghana, while Fucile earned his second yellow card of the tournament in that same match. Influential midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro has a broken foot and for him this tournament is over, while captain Diego Lugano is sidelined because of a knee injury.

For the Netherlands,Gregory van der Wiel and Nigel de Jong are suspended and will be cheering on their teammates from the sidelines. The good news for the Dutch is that striker Robin van Persie was pronounced fit to play against Uruguay following a hospital scan on an elbow injury. Defender Joris Mathijsen will also return from a knee injury.

๑۩۞۩๑๑۩۞۩๑๑۩۞۩๑๑۩۞۩๑๑۩۞۩๑

Sphere: Related Content