2010 FIFA World Cup/import

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations; in 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.
The matches were played in ten stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These sixteen teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.
In the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated third-time finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time, with Andrés Iniesta's goal in the 116th minute giving Spain their first world title, the first time that a European nation has won the tournament outside its home continent. Host nation South Africa, 2006 world champions Italy and 2006 runners-up France were eliminated in the first round of the tournament.
===List of qualified teams===
The following 32 teams qualified for the final tournament.
;AFC (4)
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;CAF (5+1)
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* (hosts)
;CONCACAF (3)
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;CONMEBOL (5)
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;OFC (1)
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;UEFA (13)
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==Final Draw==
Pot 1 (Host & Top seven)	Pot 2 (Asia, North America & Oceania)	Pot 3 (Africa & South America)	Pot 4 (Europe)
 	 	 	
==Referees==
;AFC
: Khalil Al Ghamdi
: Ravshan Irmatov
: Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh
: Yuichi Nishimura
;CAF
: Mohamed Benouza
: Koman Coulibaly
: Jerome Damon
: Eddy Maillet
;CONCACAF
: Joel Aguilar
: Benito Archundia
: Carlos Batres
: Marco Antonio Rodríguez
;CONMEBOL
: Carlos Amarilla
: Hector Baldassi
: Jorge Larrionda
: Pablo Pozo
: Oscar Ruiz
: Carlos Simon
;OFC
: Michael Hester
: Peter O'Leary
;UEFA
: Olegario Benquerenca
: Massimo Busacca
: Frank De Bleeckere
: Martin Hansson
: Viktor Kassai
: Stephane Lannoy
: Roberto Rosetti
: Wolfgang Stark
: Alberto Undiano Mallenco
: Howard Webb
==Matches==
===Group stage===
In the following tables:
* Pld = total games played
* W = total games won
* D = total games drawn (tied)
* L = total games lost
* GF = total goals scored (goals for)
* GA = total goals conceded (goals against)
* GD = goal difference (GF−GA)
* Pts = total points accumulated
The teams placed first and second (shaded in green) qualified to the round of 16.
===Group A===
 		
11 June 2010		
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16 June 2010		
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17 June 2010		
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22 June 2010		
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====Group B====
 		
12 June 2010		
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17 June 2010		
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22 June 2010		
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====Group C====
 		
12 June 2010		
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13 June 2010		
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18 June 2010		
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23 June 2010		
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====Group D====
 		
13 June 2010		
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18 June 2010		
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19 June 2010		
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23 June 2010		
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====Group E====
 		
14 June 2010		
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19 June 2010		
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24 June 2010		
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====Group F====
 		
14 June 2010		
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15 June 2010		
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20 June 2010		
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24 June 2010		
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====Group G====
 		
15 June 2010		
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20 June 2010		
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21 June 2010		
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25 June 2010		
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====Group H====
 		
16 June 2010		
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21 June 2010		
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25 June 2010		
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==Knockout stage==
All times listed are South African Standard Time (UTC+02)
The knockout stage comprised the sixteen teams that advanced from the group stage of the tournament. There were four rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. There was also a play-off to decide third and fourth place. For each game in the knockout stage, any draw at 90 minutes was followed by thirty minutes of extra time; if scores were still level, there was a penalty shootout to determine who progressed to the next round.
===Round of 16===
In this round, each group winner (A-H) was paired against the runner-up from another group.
* South American teams again performed strongly in the round of 16, with four teams advancing to the quarter-finals including Brazil who defeated fellow South American team Chile.
* England's 4–1 loss to Germany was their worst ever defeat at a World Cup finals.
* Ghana defeated the United States to become the third African team to reach the last eight (after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002).
* Paraguay and Ghana reached the quarter-finals for the first time.
The round was marked by some controversial referees' calls, including:
* A disallowed goal by England in their 4–1 loss against Germany, where the shot by Frank Lampard was seen to cross the goal line when shown on television broadcast replays.
* An allowed goal by Argentina in their 3–1 win over Mexico, where Argentine striker Carlos Tévez was seen to be offside when shown on television broadcast replays, which were shown inside the stadium shortly after the incident.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter took the unusual step of apologising to England and Mexico for the decisions that went against them, saying "Yesterday I spoke to the two federations directly concerned by referees' mistakes [...] I apologised to England and Mexico. The English said thank you and accepted that you can win some and you lose some and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it." Blatter also promised to re-open the discussion regarding devices which monitor possible goals and make that information immediately available to match officials, saying "We will naturally take on board the discussion on technology and have the first opportunity in July at the business meeting." Blatter's call came less than four months after FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said the door was closed on goal-line technology and video replays after a vote by the IFAB.
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===Quarter-finals===
The three quarter-finals between European and South American teams all resulted in wins for Europeans. Germany had a 4–0 victory over Argentina, Netherlands came from behind to beat Brazil 2–1, while Spain reached the final four for the first time since 1950 after a 1–0 win over Paraguay. Uruguay, the only South American team to reach the semi-finals, overcame Ghana in a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw in which Ghana missed a penalty at the end of extra time.
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===Semi-finals===
The Netherlands qualified for the final for the third time with a 3–2 win over Uruguay. Spain reached their first ever final with a 1–0 victory over Germany. As a result, it was the first World Cup final not to include any of the four most successful nations: Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina.
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===Third-place play-off===
Germany defeated Uruguay 3–2 to secure third place. Germany holds the record for most third place finishes in the World Cup (4), while Uruguay holds the record for most fourth place finishes (3).
===Final===
The final was held on 11 July 2010 at Soccer City, Johannesburg. Spain defeated the Netherlands 1–0, with an extra time goal by Andrés Iniesta. Iniesta scored the latest winning goal in a FIFA World Cup final (116'). The win gave Spain their first World Cup title, becoming the eighth team to win it. This made them the first new winner without home advantage since Brazil in 1958, and the first team to win the global showpiece having lost their opening game.
The match was affected by a large number of fouls. Fourteen yellow cards were handed out, more than doubling the previous record for this fixture, set when Argentina and West Germany shared six cards in 1986, and John Heitinga of the Netherlands was sent off for receiving a second yellow card. The Netherlands had chances to score, most notably in the 60th minute when Arjen Robben was released by Wesley Sneijder to be one-on-one with Spain's goalkeeper Iker Casillas, only for Casillas to save the shot with an outstretched leg. For Spain, Sergio Ramos missed a free header from a corner kick when he was unmarked. Iniesta finally broke the deadlock in extra time, scoring a half-volleyed shot from a pass by Cesc Fabregas.
This result marked the first time that two different teams from the same continent had become world champions in succession, and saw Europe reaching ten World Cup titles, surpassing South America's nine titles. Spain became the first team since West Germany in 1974 to win the World Cup as European champions.
A closing ceremony was held before the final, featuring singer Shakira. Afterwards, the former South African President Nelson Mandela made a brief appearance on the pitch, wheeled in by a motorcart.
==See also==
* 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup
* 2010 FIFA World Cup schedule
* 2010 FIFA World Cup broadcasting rights
* 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
==External links==
* FIFA.com 2010 website
* The official 2010 host country website
 
2010