Round 3 Summary

Confederation Status

Confed	Tm	2R	QF	P	W	D	L	Pts	G+	G-	GD	Win%	Pts%
CSF	5	5		15	10	4	1	34	22	6	16	80%	76%
UEFA	13	6		29	10	10	9	40	33	27	6	52%	46%
OFC	1			3	0	3	0	3	2	2	0	50%	33%
CONF	3	2		9	2	4	3	10	7	8	-1	44%	37%
AFC	4	2		12	4	2	6	14	13	26	-13	42%	39%
CAF	6	1		18	3	5	10	14	14	22	-8	31%	26%

Intra-confederation games (e.g. Spain-Switzerland, are excluded)

So I give credit for AFC for doing well in the first round and their teams proceed to go 0:1:3 in the second round. I correct my "mistake" by claiming that it was a "flash in the pan" and the 4 AFC teams go 2:1:1. Which AFC teams will show up in the Round of 16. Both South Korea (vs. Uruguay) and Japan (vs. Paraguay) have winnable games.

Observations

UEFA has not done as well as expected with only 6 out of 13 teams advancing. Two "top-tier" (Italy and France) are out as winless last place finishers; of the second tier teams only Slovakia managed to advance, at least all of them got a win.

CSF has advanced 5 out of 5 teams, this might even be better than advancing 3 out of 3 teams (1970, 1978) when the WC was only 16 teams. Will FIFA give them 6 teams in 2014 (a host and extra .5 for the success)? Some credit should be given to Honduras; they have done the World Cup justice by fighting to the end and preventing Switzerland from taking Chile's well-earned spot in the round of 16.

Give credit for New Zealand for being the over achievers of the tournament, they showed grit and left everything they had on the field. However, I believe that in a league forward, they would have finished second to last. They had a total of 15 shots in 3 games, only 3 on target (both are lowest among all teams); they committed 61 fouls (second most, Australia had the most with 62). What they did show is that keeping 10 men behind the ball and having a hot GK can turn a poor team into a team with average results.

I really thought that CAF will get 3 or at least 2 teams into the round of 16. As it turned out only Ghana was the only one through and they were lucky at that. If they can make it to the quarters they'll be able to restore African pride.