The last team to qualify for the tournament, Uruguay needed to beat Costa Rica in a playoff to get to South Africa. The Uruguayans have looked like anything but an outsider, though, and on Tuesday beat Mexico 1-0 to win Group A.
Strutting into the stadium dancing and singing, Bafana Bafana turned its final game at the World Cup into a rollicking party for all of South Africa. All that was missing was enough goals to see them through to the next round. For France, Tuesday's 2-1 loss completed a miserable meltdown.
David Villa scored two goals as Spain got its World Cup pursuit back on track with a 2-0 victory over Honduras on Monday.
Chile broke through the formerly impenetrable Swiss defense when substitute Mark Gonzalez scored on a header in the 75th minute Monday, and Chile beat 10-man Switzerland 1-0 to move closer to a spot in the final 16.
Portugal put on the most dominant performance of the World Cup on Monday, knocking in a flurry of second-half goals and routing North Korea 7-0, a win that puts Portugal on the brink of advancing to the round of 16 and means the Koreans won't make it out of group play.
In a U.S. Open with golf's biggest stars on the leaderboard, it was Graeme McDowell who played like one.
Luis Fabiano scored a pair of goals, one with the aid of touches with his arm and his hand, while Elano added another as Brazil beat Ivory Coast 3-1 Sunday to secure a spot in the second round from Group G.
The meaning of a World Cup draw couldn't be more opposite than in Italy's 1-1 tie with New Zealand on Sunday.
Enrique Vera and Cristian Riveros each scored Sunday as Paraguay took a big step toward the round of 16 with a 2-0 win over Slovakia.
Denmark eliminated Cameroon from the World Cup and sent the Netherlands through to the second round. Yet the Danes could find little to cherish in their 2-1 victory Saturday night.
The Socceroos held on for a 1-1 draw despite Ghana's man advantage for more than 66 minutes in the World Cup on Saturday, further tightening Group D.
Wesley Sneijder scored the only goal Saturday and the Netherlands beat Japan 1-0, its second straight World Cup win and the second time the Dutch couldn't produce the kind of offensive show they were expected to bring to South Africa.
Underdog Algeria held the Three Lions to a second disappointing World Cup draw, a 0-0 tie that left the Group C wide open and is sure to have English fans furious after their team arrived in South Africa as a favorite.
Milan Jovanovic made the most of it, scoring one minute after German striker Miroslav Klose got ejected Friday to give Serbia a 1-0 World Cup upset over the three-time champions.
Maurice Edu kicked the ball into the net just before the 86th minute. American players jumped around wildly, thinking they had capped a historic comeback, turning a two-goal, first-half deficit into a 3-2 victory over Slovenia.
Kobe Bryant, the finals MVP, scored 23 points despite 6-of-24 shooting, and the Lakers won their 16th NBA championship Thursday night, dramatically rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 in Game 7 of the NBA finals.
Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 17 points and 13 rebounds, and the Lakers emphatically extended the NBA finals to a decisive seventh game with a 89-67 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Tuesday night.
Italy fell behind, then lost its star goalkeeper for the second half. So a 1-1 World Cup draw with Paraguay should not have been all that disturbing for the defending champions.
Coming off four straight exhibition losses in the buildup to the tournament, the Japanese earned their first World Cup victory on foreign soil Monday when Keisuke Honda scored in the first half for a 1-0 victory over uninspired Cameroon in Group E of the World Cup.
The Dutch got an own goal in the 46th minute and beat Denmark 2-0 on Monday at Soccer City, failing to break through on their own until the 85th, when Dirk Kuyt tapped in a rebound off the post from close range.
Paul Pierce scored 27 points -- his best performance of this year's finals -- and the Celtics withstood 38 points from Kobe Bryant to beat the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers 92-86 on Sunday night and take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Known more as a methodical team than a brilliantly creative one such as Brazil, the Germans scored several lovely goals Sunday night in a 4-0 rout of Australia.
Ghana stunned Serbia when Asamoah Gyan scored on an 84th-minute penalty kick Sunday for a 1-0 victory in Group D. The win set off celebrations not only on the Loftus Versfeld pitch, but throughout Ghana.
Robert Koren scored a late goal Sunday to give Slovenia a 1-0 win over 10-man Algeria in the teams' tournament opener, putting the World Cup's smallest nation -- population 2 million, about the size of Houston -- ahead of the United States and England in Group C
England's players couldn't get off the field fast enough. The Americans lingered to savor the night. They walked to the end of Royal Bafokeng Stadium where thousands of red, white and blue-clad fans were waving the Stars and Stripes and cheering their heads off. Try convincing the U.S. team and its fans there wasn't a winner in the 1-1 draw with mighty England.
