World Cup: Match 49 - Uruguay vs. South Korea

Two teams that weren't necessarily expected to make it to the second round played a rather exciting, excellent match for being "weak" sides. I joined the game a little late (81st minute), just in time to see the replay of Luis Suarez's bender off the far post. What a magnificent goal! Trailing 2-1 in the dying minutes of the game, Lee Dong-Gook got a golden opportunity for South Korea when he found himself with time and space alone in front of the keeper. Unfortunately, he muffed his shot, which squeezed just barely under the keeper's legs but not much farther* as the defense recovered to clear it off the line.
From what I'm told, Korea was unfortunate with the result, as they outplayed the Uruguayans for the majority of the game. But I can give two reasons why Uruguay earned this victory.

1) Uruguay has been playing defensively this whole tournament, except maybe against South Africa. So far, it's worked great, as they have yet to fall behind. In fact, South Korea were the first to score on them. But when you're up a goal against an evenly matched opponent, it's not surprising that you end up defending a lot as your opponent pushes forward. It's just the nature of the game, when one team is chasing the scoreline.

2) This strategy works very well for them, because their solid defense is complemented by the perfect offensive duo that can score against the run of play: the sneaky, ever-dangerous veteran Diego Forlan and the tenacious youngster Luis Suarez. The duo have combined for 4 out of 5 of Uruguay's goals, including the goal in the 8th minute against South Korea, where Forlan cut past his defender and sent a searching ball across the goal that beat the keeper and found Suarez lurking unmarked at the far post. Suarez scored against the run of play to get Uruguay the go-ahead goal vs. Mexico (which saved them from playing Argentina) and he scored against South Korea to deliver Uruguay into the Quarterfinals.

And maybe Uruguay were a little lucky, but it's always nice to be lucky, in addition to being good. After all, soccer is a game of probability. The team that plays better usually has the greater number and quality of chances, but goals are never certain.

*(Thank you, Chelsea, I only caught this in the edit.)