South Africa sink against Uruguay

Pretoria: Diego Forlan scored two emphatic goals for Uruguay to win against the host nations South Africa in their Group A clash in Pretoria.
Uruguay dominated the game with their good moves and good position, as for the host nations they were never able to take good control of the match and never really looked like scoring a goal.

In the first half, Uruguay got off to a good start with good passes and possession and came out with a positive game.

Uruguay got a free kick in the 5th minute in a very promising position which was taken by Diego Forlan but his free kick was blocked by the Bafana Bafana wall.

Tshabalala confident from his first match goal against Mexico tried some ambitious drives but his shot was wide off the mark.

Till the 20th minute there was no real shot on target from both the teams.

In the 23rd minute Luis Suarez came up with a good effort to hit a good shot on goal but his shot was safely gathered by the South African goal keeper.

In the 24th minute, Diego Forlan who was considered to be the danger man coming into the match scored an absolute beauty to stun the home crowd and to give a lead for Uruguay.

Uruguay seemed to grow with confidence putting good passes in the mid-field and looked to control the pace of the game putting dangerous ball every now and then.

South Africa on the backfoot after conceding the goal was unable to put any pressure as Uruguay looked comfortably placed.

Around 40th minute the Africans built up a brief spell of good passes to work their way in the Uruguay D-area but their effort was not good enough to get them the equalizer.

At the end of the first half Uruguay deservedly lead the game with 1-0, Forlan's stunning right-footed strike separating the two teams.

Both teams came unchanged as the second half resumed. Uruguay started off like the way they had left by starting positively and pushing for their second goal. They got a free kick in a promising position in the 50th minute, struck by Forlan, the ball missed by everyone eventually.

In the 54th minute Uruguay got another free kick which was once again taken by Forlan to drive a good ball.

The South African passing looked out of order as they couldn't hold much possession and lost the ball as soon as they tried to carry it forward.

However, In the 66th minute the host nations created a good opportunity but were unable to find the equalizer.

In the 68th minute, Edinson Cavani got a good ball to double the lead for Uruguay but he missed the opportunity. Forlan once again was instrumental in making that cross for the Uruguay side.

South Africans could not make good use of their set pieces as the corner kicks and free kicks were ordinary and not testing enough for the Uruguay defense which looked solid.
Perhaps the pressure was mounting on the hosts as every ticking second meant lesser and lesser time remaining for them to score the equalizer.

In the 76th minute, Khune was red carded for taking down Luis Saurez in the D-area and the Uruguay team was awarded a penalty much to the despair of home crowd. The replay showed that Luis Saurez was offside.
Diego Forlan taking the responsibility of taking the penalty scored his second goal of the match to put the hosts beyond repair.

Playing with 10 men the Bafana Bafana looked like they had no fuel left to fight back as the supporters gradually started leaving the stadium.

To add to their misery Alvaro Pereira added one more goal in the last minute of extra time to seal the match for Uruguay.


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