FIFA World Cup 2010 Champions, matches, fact and achievements

FIFA World Cup 2010 was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men’s national 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. In the final, Spain, the European champions, beat third-time losing finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first world title.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Award

Champions	Runners- Up	Third Place	Fourth Place
Spain (1st title)	Netherlands	Germany	Uruguay

Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
Diego Forlán	Wesley Sneijder	David Villa

Golden Boot	Golden Glove	Best Young Player	FIFA Fair Play Trophy
Thomas Müller	Iker Casillas	Thomas Müller	Spain

FIFA World Cup 2010 Group Stage
Group A

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Uruguay	3	2	1	0	4	0	+4	7
2. Qualified	Mexico	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
3	South Africa (Host)	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4
4	France	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1

Group B

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Argentina	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9
2. Qualified	South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	4
3	Greece	3	1	0	2	2	5	−3	3
4	Nigeria	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1

Group C

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	United States	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
2. Qualified	England	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Slovenia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Algeria	3	0	1	2	0	2	−2	1

Group D

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Germany	3	2	0	1	5	1	+4	6
2. Qualified	Ghana	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Australia	3	1	1	1	3	6	−3	4
4	Serbia	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3

Group E

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Netherlands	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4	9
2. Qualified	Japan	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
3	Denmark	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Cameroon	3	0	0	3	2	5	−3	0

Group F

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Paraguay	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2	5
2. Qualified	Slovakia	3	1	1	1	4	5	−1	4
3	New Zealand	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	3
4	Italy	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2

Group G

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Brazil	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
2. Qualified	Portugal	3	1	2	0	7	0	+7	5
3	Ivory Coast	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
4	North Korea	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0

Group H

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Spain	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
2. Qualified	Chile	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6
3	Switzerland	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	Honduras	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1

Knockout stage
The knockout stage comprised the 16 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 shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Round of 16 matches

Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2
26 June 2010	Uruguay	2 – 1	South Korea
26 June 2010	United States	1 – 2 (a.e.t.)	Ghana
27 June 2010	Germany	4 – 1	England
27 June 2010	Argentina	3 – 1	Mexico
28 June 2010	Netherlands	2 – 1	Slovakia
28 June 2010	Brazil	3 – 0	Chile
29 June 2010	Paraguay	0 – 0 (a.e.t.) 5 – 3(penalties)	Japan
29 June 2010	Spain	1 – 0	Portugal

FIFA World Cup 2010 Quarter Final matches

Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2
2 July 2010	Netherlands	2 – 1	Brazil
2 July 2010	Uruguay	1 – 1 (a.e.t.) 4 – 2(penalties)	Ghana
3 July 2010	Argentina	0 – 4	Germany
3 July 2010	Paraguay	0 – 1	Spain

FIFA World Cup 2010 Semi Finals
6 July 2010 20:30, Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

Uruguay	2 – 3	Netherlands
Forlán 41′ M. Pereira 90+2′		Van Bronckhorst 18′ Sneijder 70′ Robben 73′

7 July 2010 20:30, Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban

Germany	0 – 1	Spain
		Carles Puyol 73′

Third place play-off
10 July 2010 20:30, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth

Uruguay	2 – 3	Germany
Cavani 28′ Forlán 51′		Müller 19′ Jansen 56′ Khedira 82′

FIFA World Cup 2010 Final match
11 July 2010 20:30, Soccer City, Johannesburg

Netherlands	0 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Spain
		Andres Iniesta 116′

FIFA World Cup 2010 Top Goal Scorer List

Rank	Player Name	Country	Goals
1	Thomas Müller	Germany	5
2	Wesley Sneijder	Netherlands	5
3	David Villa	Spain	5
4	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	5
5	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	4
6	Miroslav Klose	Germany	4
7	Róbert Vittek	Slovakia	4
8	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	3
9	Asamoah Gyan	Ghana	3
10	Landon Donovan	United States	3
11	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	3

FIFA World Cup 2010 Top Assist Provider List

Rank	Player Name	Country	Assist
1	Kaká	Brazil	3
2	Thomas Müller	Germany	3
3	Mesut Özil	Germany	3
4	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	3
5	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Germany	3

FIFA World Cup 2010 All-Star Team
FIFA released an All-Star Team based on the Castrol performance index in its official website.

Goalkeeper	Defender	Midfielder	Forward
Manuel Neuer	Philipp Lahm	Mark van Bommel	David Villa
	Joan Capdevila	Thomas Müller	Luis Suárez
	Carles Puyol	Wesley Sneijder
	Sergio Ramos	Sergio Busquets

FIFA World Cup 2010 Dream Team
For the first time, FIFA published a Dream Team decided by an online public vote. People were invited to select a team (in a 4–4–2 formation) and best coach; voting was open until 23:59 on 11 July 2010, with entrants going into a draw to win a prize.

Goalkeeper	Defender	Midfielder	Forward
Iker Casillas	Philipp Lahm	Xavi	David Villa
	Sergio Ramos	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Diego Forlán
	Carles Puyol	Wesley Sneijder
	Maicon	Andrés Iniesta

FIFA World Cup 2010 Summary
The matches were played in 10 stadiums across nine host cities in South Africa, with the opening and final matches held at Soccer City in Johannesburg, the country’s largest city. Thirty-two teams qualified for the tournament through a worldwide qualification process that began in August 2007. In the first round of the finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advancing. These 16 teams then moved on to the knockout stage, where three rounds determined the finalists. In the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time to win their first World Cup title. Spain became the eighth nation to win the tournament and the first European nation to win a World Cup hosted outside its home continent; previously, all World Cups held outside Europe had been won by South American nations. They were also the first team since 1978 to win the World Cup despite losing a match in the group stage. As World Cup champions, Spain qualified for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Host nation South Africa, as well as the 2006 World Cup finalists Italy and France, were eliminated in the group stage. It was the first time the host nation was eliminated in the first stage. New Zealand, despite being the only undefeated team in the tournament with three draws, were also eliminated in the group stage.

Qualification
The qualification draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban on November 25, 2007. As the host nation, South Africa automatically qualified for the tournament. Unlike previous tournaments, the defending champions were not granted an automatic berth, so Italy had to go through the qualification process. The 2010 World Cup saw a record number of entries, with 204 out of 208 FIFA national teams participating, tying with the 2008 Summer Olympics for the most competing nations in a sporting event. The qualification process was not without controversy. In the second leg of the play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland, French captain Thierry Henry handled the ball, unseen by the referee, leading to a crucial goal that allowed France to qualify over Ireland. This incident sparked widespread debate and criticism. FIFA rejected a request from the Football Association of Ireland to replay the match, and Ireland subsequently withdrew a request to be included as an unprecedented 33rd World Cup entrant. In response to the controversy, FIFA announced a review into the use of technology or additional officials at the highest level but decided against fast-tracking goal-line referee assistants for the South African tournament.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Venues