Once again Luis Suarez has over shadowed the World Cup proceedings, after he was hit with a four-month ban from all football.
While being ruled out of the World Cup last seasons Premier League Player of the Year will miss the first nine games of the Premier League season as well as Champions League and Capital One Cup matches.
The ban means he won’t be able to train with either his club or country and mean he won’t be able to attend any of their matches until October 26 and has therefore returned to Uruguay.
Away from Suarez, the last games in Group G kicked off yesterday.
The only team certain of a place in the next round in Group G was Germany, while the other three teams could all gain that final qualification place.
The USA knew only a point would secure their second place finish. The game was tightly contested under torrential rain conditions, as both teams created good chances.
However, the class of the tournaments current top scorer Thomas Müller, broke the deadlock as he curled the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Towards the end of the game the American’s had a flurry of chances but Klinsmann’s side couldn’t find an equaliser.
Both Portugal and Ghana would have hoped for a German victory before their game, knowing they had to win and have a better goal difference than the USA. The task was slightly harder for Portugal, due to their opening 4-0 defeat to Germany.
Ronaldo had the first few chances for Portugal, hitting the woodwork and drawing a world class save out of Dauda. While Beto saved well at the other end from Gyan’s chance.
It was an own goal that broke the deadlock. It came through Ghana defender John Boye, who sliced Veloso’s cross into his own net.
This didn’t deter Ghana, who had their own problems before the game axing Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari from the squad due to an alleged indiscipline.
Just after half-time Gyan equalised heading home Asamoah’s exquisite cross.
It seemed that Portugal’s quality going forward made the difference as Ronaldo latched on to a defensive mistakes and scored the winner from inside the penalty area.
The result meant the USA followed Germany through to the next round.
In Group H, Algeria created World Cup history as they got through the group stages of the tournament for the first time.
Before the game, Algeria needed a point against Russia to gain qualification through to the next round. Although the Russian’s knew a win also take them through.
Fabio Capello’s side started the game brightly and took the lead after only six minutes. The cross of Dmitri Kombarov was head home by Aleksandr Kokorin.
On the hour mark, controversy hit the game during an Algeria free kick. Russia Goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, seemed to have a laser pen shone in his eyes while the free kick was taken.
Akinfeev came for the resulting cross but was beaten in the air by Slimani who equalised for Algeria. The goal knocked Russia out of the World Cup.
In the other game, Belgium were already through following two successive wins in their first two games.
While South Korea needed to win by a large margin and home results went their way.
A win for South Korea looked more promising when Steven Defour was sent off for a reckless challenge on Kim Shin-wook. Although, they couldn’t beat Courtois in the Red Devil’s goal.
Both sides looked for a break through, but it didn’t happen till the 77th minute.
Jan Vertonghen pounced on the rebounded shot by Origi to give the Red Devils the lead and maximum points from their group games.
The Round of 16 is set to begin on Saturday.