Uruguay Outclasses South Africa at World Cup

Uruguay made us all forget about their dour scoreless draw with France last Friday after giving South Africa a soccer lesson to the tune of 3-0 in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Uruguay Outclasses South Africa at World Cup
Uruguay's Diego Forlan scores on a penalty kick against South Africa in Pretoria on Wednesday. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Rahul Vaidyanath
6/16/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Forlan102149158.jpg" alt="Uruguay's Diego Forlan scores on a penalty kick against South Africa in Pretoria on Wednesday. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" title="Uruguay's Diego Forlan scores on a penalty kick against South Africa in Pretoria on Wednesday. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1818541"/></a>
Uruguay's Diego Forlan scores on a penalty kick against South Africa in Pretoria on Wednesday. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Uruguay made us all forget about their dour scoreless draw with France last Friday after giving South Africa a soccer lesson to the tune of 3–0 in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Uruguay now has four points and a +3 goal differential, while South Africa has just one point and a -3 goal differential after two games with a game against France left to play.

The star for Uruguay was former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan. His long blast at the 24-minute mark of the first half took a slight deflection of South Africa’s Aaron Mokoena but that did not diminish the ambition and quality of the strike.

South Africa’s hopes were truly dashed with the straight red card given to goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune in the second half for fouling the Uruguayan attacker Luis Suarez, preventing a goal scoring opportunity.

Replays show Khune’s boot caught Suarez, who was offside. Suarez made the most of the slight contact and Khune’s World Cup was over.

Forlan stepped up and hammered the penalty to the top shelf, making it 2–0.

Right at the end, Alvaro Pereira bundled the third goal in from close range off a cross from Suarez.

The Bafana Bafana will now need a lot of help and a big win against France to reach the second round. They gave the Uruguayans too much space and committed too many turnovers. They were unable to string together much sustained pressure and Uruguay defended smartly.

Birthday boy Fernando Muslera, the Uruguayan goalkeeper got a good gift from his national squad.
Rahul Vaidyanath is a journalist with The Epoch Times in Ottawa. His areas of expertise include the economy, financial markets, China, and national defence and security. He has worked for the Bank of Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., and investment banks in Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.
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