Whoa that was a great game for South Africa!
As for the actual participants, as the commentator of whatever UK satellite network I was illicitly connected to via the magic of the internet said "Does anyone want to win this game?". 75 minutes in and there was not much of an answer to that question. I got the impression France had the ball a lot more during the first half, but never quite maintained pressure, which made for a fairly boring half. The second half picked up slowly and then more quickly in the last 15 minutes of regular time, as substitutions were made towards the end of, you know, actually winning, but a late red card finished Uruguay off and gave us the opportunity to see France actually caring, which looked slightly more frenetic than when they didn't with about the same results.
I now feel a little more ambivalent about which team South Africa has to beat to advance. The average play of the French team was higher than that of Uruguay, but they didn't quite seem to have the necessary conviction. Uruguay showed more promise when it wanted to compared to France, but a bit of complacency towards the beginning. My pointless, barely-informed guess is that an early goal by South Africa would do more against France than Uruguay, but who knows...
So far, the officiating has been impressive and I hope the high standards of these first matches will be maintained.
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