WINNERS
Brazil
2nd PLACE
Spain
3rd PLACE
Italy
4th PLACE
Uruguay
GOLDEN BALL
Neymar
SILVER BALL
Andres Iniesta
BRONZE BALL
Paulinho
GOLDEN BOOT
Fernando Torres - 5
SILVER BOOT
Fred - 5
BRONZE BOOT
Neymar - 4
GOLDEN GLOVE
Julio Cesar
FAIR PLAY AWARD
Spain
YELLOW CARDS
52
RED CARDS
Scotti - Uruguay
Ludivion - Tahiti
Riccardo Montolivo - Italy
Gerard Piqué - Spain
GOALS
65 (3 own goals)
GOALS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Neymar v Japan
Andrea Pirlo v Mexico
Neymar v Mexico
Diego Forlan v Nigeria
Neymar v Italy
Hernandez v Tahiti
Diamanti v Uruguay
Fred v Spain
Neymar v Spain
Wow, Neymar scored 4 incredible goals. In fact, all of his goals were incredible.
HAT-TRICKS
Nnamdi Oduamadi
Fernando Torres
David Villa
Abel Hernandez
MOST GOALS IN A MATCH
Tahiti 1-6 Nigeria
Italy 4-3 Japan
Spain 10-0 Tahiti
Uruguay 8-0 Tahiti
The penalties in the Spain v Italy and Uruguay v Italy matches don't count.
WHAT WENT DOWN
Highest ranked team - Spain (1)
Lowest ranked team - Tahiti (138)
All the other teams, except Tahiti, are in the top 50 of the FIFA Rankings.
Tahiti looked afraid to take shots from long distance and failed to time their passes accurately.
Mario Balotelli looked like a regular guy without his eccentric haircuts.
Andrea Pirlo became the first midfielder to make 100 appearances for Italy.
Nnamadi Oduamadi first hat-trick since Fernando Torres against South Africa in 2009.
Italy came from 2 goals down to beat Japan and advance to the semi-finals.
Torres missed a penalty (v Tahiti).
10 goals scored, and not one of them a screamer or contender for goal of the tournament (Spain v Tahiti).
Diego Forlan 100th cap for Uruguay.
Japan's Endo had a good goal but it was disallowed due to 'offside' ( v Mexico).
Javier Hernandez missed a penalty which would have been his hat-trick (v Japan).
Japan played 3 games, 0 draws and 3 losses - 0 points.
Dante goal should've been offside (v Italy).
Balotelli was brought down in the box, before Chiellini scored the referee had blown the whistle for a penalty, instead, the goal stood (v Brazil). The same thing happened to Kuwait years ago.
Spain & Tahiti rotated all 3 of their goalkeepers.
Ramos played in all 3 of the group stage matches for Spain.
Neymar is the 4th player in Confederation Cup history to score in all three group games (after Ronaldinho, Riquelme & Villa).
Luis Suarez brace (v Tahiti), made him Uruguay’s all-time leading goal scorer.
4 hat-tricks were scored against Tahiti.
Nigeria couldn't finish, they missed clear chances, had poor ball control and were defensively weak.
Scotti became the fourth oldest player to participate at a FIFA Confederations Cup following Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel (39 years, two months), Germany’s Lothar Matthaeus (38 years, four months) and Japan’s Ruy Ramos (37 years, ten months).
Scotti missed a penalty (v Tahiti).
Tahiti left Brazil with $1.7 million.
Brazil, Italy, Spain and Uruguay advanced to the semi-finals.
Spain & Italy’s conversion of 12 consecutive penalties is a record in World Cups and Confederation Cups.
Forlan, the smiling man had his penalty saved by Cesar, and went on to get his penalty shootout shot blocked by Buffon in the 3rd/4th playoff.
Uruguay missed two penalties in the tournament (excluding penalty shootouts).
Cavani finally got on the scoresheet (v Brazil).
Gonzalez and Neymar exchanged words (I think Gonzalez called Neymar a diver).
Cavani made an amazing tackle on Marcelo – he got the ball and pulled his foot away.
Spain fielded their EURO2012 squad (v Italy).
Spain v Italy first match in the tournament to go to extra time and decided by a penalty shootout. Italy v Uruguay was the other match.
Bonucci missed his penalty shot in the penalty shootout (v Spain).
Spain won 6-5 on penalties against Italy in the semi-final.
A stupendous double save by Buffon from the attack of Forlan.
Italy won 3-2 on penalties to be 3rd.
I didn't take my allergic asthma medication because of the final. It kicked off at midnight in South Africa and I didn't want to fall asleep during the beautiful game. Besides, a little sneezing and wheezing never hurt anybody. And with a 3-0 thrashing of Spain, it was definately worth it.
Sergio Ramos played in every match for Spain.
Wow, Brazil led in a minute and a half.
First time in the tournament Spain have trailed.
Ramos missed a penalty, his shot went wide – Xavi didn’t even look at the penalty being taken, I guess he knew Ramos would miss.
Pique was shown a straight red card for his
challenge on Neymar.
I don't understand why Scolari substituted Fred when he was on a hat-trick, but then again, who am I to question his methods.
Spain had 29 competitive wins since their World Cup 2010 loss against Switzerland came to an end after losing to Brazil.
Brazil won their 12th successive match and 4th Confederations Cup title with a 3-0 defeat of Spain.
No team has ever won the FIFA Confederations Cup and gone on to win the FIFA World Cup. But, could this be Brazilians chance?
The 3-0 loss was only the third Spain has suffered under Vicente del Bosque and followed a 2-0 loss to the USA at the 2009 Confederations Cup and a 1-0 defeat by Switzerland in group play at the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. The loss also leaves Spain without the FIFA Confederations Cup
Italy’s win in the penalty shootout over Uruguay meant they avoided becoming the first country ever to lose seven shoot outs in major competitions. Their record is now 4-6.
Probably no surprise that no country made more tackles in the tournament than Uruguay – 55.
In three matches, Mexico only had 6 shots on goal from inside the area – just one more than Tahiti.
Japan allowed 9 goals over three games and only Tahiti conceded more.
Nigeria scored 7 goals but two came from own goals from Tahiti players.
No shortage of goals in Tahiti’s matches but of the 25, 24 were conceded. The 10-0 thumping from Spain was the largest defeat ever suffered by a country at a FIFA international tournament.
So I finally saw the fuss behind goal-line technology. I must say, I'm disappointed. The so-called technology is just a black and white review. Even hawk-eye in cricket looks better than what I saw last night. I'm really disappointed. I thought it would be graphic, with motion lines, graphic lines to show the movement of the ball. I just didn't get it.
