In what turned out to be the Group of Death after all, nothing at all had been decided going into the final day in Group E, and all four teams still had a valid chance of advancing, win and you were in, for the most part. Group F already had Brazil advancing, with two other teams with a chance.
Group E
The US was up against Ghana, the team everyone figured they could get a point off of. If the US were to win, and Italy were to beat Czech Republic, as both were expected, the US would advance. Due to some unispired play, mistakes and help of a phantom foul call in the box, the US just couldn’t over come their mistakes. In a 2 - 1 defeat, the US was booted from the World Cup, and unable to recreate their run in 2002.
Italy started their match, knowing for the most part, they would advance with a win or a tie, and rested Luca Toni and Del Piero for the entire match. Fortunately, the Czech Republic, outside of Pavel Nedved frovided no resistance at all, and Italy advanced easily with a 2 - 0 win, knocking out the 3rd ranked team in the world, that played uninspired soccer after the US match.
Group F
Brazil was given a gift when the draw was announced, being matched up Croatia, Japan and Australia. They cruised through their group stage, playing substitutes much of the time. Japan needed a win against Brazil to advance, but I am pretty sure even the Japanese knew that wasn’t going to happen. When Japan went up 1 - 0, it just angered the Brazilians, who put in 4 goals just like that. You just got the feeling the could have scored 10 more if they had wanted to.
Australia, the surprise team of the tournament with a come from behind win over Japan in their first match, needed a win to advance to the group of 16. They only needed a win or a tie to advance, assuming Brazil took care of Japan as expected. In one of the better matches of the tournament, Australia came back from behind twice in the match to tie it, and had several chances to win in the final minutes, but were happy with the tie and a ticket to the second round.
Second Round
Brazil will start it’s march to the finals with a matchup against surprising Ghana on June 27th in Dortmund. Brazil is yet to play a top rated team, with only Japan in the top 25, though Japan doesn’t belong there. With a win against Ghana, they will match up with either Spain or France, and we will get a better idea where Brazil stands as a team. The lucky Australians get Italy in the weakest quad of the finals. With a win, they get either Switzerland or Ukraine, not exactly world powers. It looks like Italy gets a near free pass to the Semi-Finals, as there really isn’t a strong team in their group at all.