South Africa Out Of World Cup

By Vision ReporterAfrican hearts were broken on Wednesday when South Africa missed out on qualifying for the second round of the World Cup finals for the first time after losing 3-2 to Spain in their final group B match.They finished the group phase with four points, five behind the Spanish and level with Paraguay, who beat Slovenia 3-1 in their final match, grabbing their crucial third six minutes from time to move above the South Africans on goals scored.They join Cameroon and Nigeria who have been knocked out. Only Senegal have reached the second round, while Tunisia have a chance, but must beat Japan to advance. A two-goal strike by Spain’s stand-in skipper Raul helped send South Africa crashing out of the World Cup in a 3-2 defeat here Wednesday. Raul’s winning header on 56 minutes deprived South Africa of the point they needed to guarantee a first ever place in the second round of the World Cup after the Africans had twice bravely fought back to equalise. The departure of France and Argentina, the two pre-tournament favourites, leaves a hole in their part of the draw, which is to the benefit of four sides expected to fight it out for the second qualifying spots in their relative groups. England now take on Denmark, conquerors of France, and Sweden play Senegal, the team that beat France on the opening day.Argentina’s World Cup hopes lay in tatters yesterday when they fell victim to the “Group of Death” while England went marching on in their place. The Argentines joined two other former World Cup winners, France and Uruguay, in packing their bags for an early return flight after only drawing 1-1 with Sweden. It was the first time in the history of the World Cup competition that so many former winners had fallen so early.Ends