Threshold

The vuvuzelas blared louder than ever as hosts South Africa scored a futile victory in their final match. Well, futile for them, not for the tournament - the 2-1 win has made life a tad easier albeit unpredictable for the top half of the draw, as the '06 finalists France were unceremoniously dumped out of the Cup. And from the way they played throughout, they deserved it. A host of familiar names - from Gallas and Evra to Malouda and Anelka - who ply their trade at top clubs across Europe looked out of sorts, burnt out and unmotivated. Ribery did show some sparks but was mostly consigned to a defensive midfield position. A far cry from the diverse squad of '98 that won the trophy at home. Djorkaeff, Desailly, Deschamps, Thuram, Blanc - 12 years down the line, those names still roll off the tongue.

But Les Bleus weren't the only casualty - neither were they the biggest. Defending champions Italy were knocked out after they were shocked 3-2 by Slovakia in an exciting fixture. An over-aggressive (bullying and unethical, one might say) Azzurri tried very trick in the book to come back from two goals down, but offsides and a lack of quality finishers (no Baggio, Del Piero, Totti, Vieri or Inzaghi to come to their rescue) killed their fightback, even as they struggled in vain to plug gaping holes in their once famed defence. The other European powerhouses did scrape through, but only just - Oranje continued to be unimpressive vs. a very weak Cameroon side, while England and Germany did the bare minimum required of them against Slovenia and Ghana respectively, to set up a mouth-watering clash in the pre-quarter finals that will further reduce Europe's challenge. Then again, even though they are not quite playing upto the mark, only a fool would write them off at this stage.

Speakers of the Romance language had a lot of excuse to spread the love. Even though Brazil and Portugal played out a stalemate in what was one of the biggest anticlimaxes in sport of late, both the Portuguese speaking nations advanced. The Samba boys will clash against their continental underdogs who beat them once in the qualifying - Chile, who had Switzerland's failure to convert even one of the 17 chances to thank; Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. will take on their Iberian neighbours in what promises to be yet another mouth-watering clash. Argentina became the first of two teams to have a perfect record, but the world is still waiting to see Lionel Messi finish. With Paraguay also doing enough, all 5 Latin American teams are through, 4 of which should make it into the quarters (2 of them face and should beat the Asian teams, another 2 face each other while the 5th should make it past Mexico).

The World Cup might have come to Africa but Africa, it seems, failed to come to the World Cup. The host continent have lost 5 of its 6 contenders - Ghana were the only one who were not solely dependent on those one or two big names who are busy making big bucks in Europe the whole year, and have made their way into the final 16. On the other hand, the other traditionally weaker landmasses have fared better - both the co-hosts of '02 are still there and may spoil the South American party, and while both the teams from Down Under have been eliminated, they weren't really humbled, except for Oz's first match. The All Whites stayed undefeated, whereas the Socceroos held their own in spite of an older and weaker squad as compared to the last edition, and in spite of all those expulsions, and finished with a win.

That's it for the three-part group stage recap - let's just hope that most of the upcoming matches are settled way before the shootouts. Up next, some observations about this World Cup as compared to the previous few editions. Till then, enjoy the Round of 16.