Mexico vs. Uruguay World Cup 2010 Live Blog: Results, Scores, & Play-By-Play

Good morning, football fans.  Todd Lamansky here, Bleacher Report Soccer Writer Extraordinaire.  Over the next couple of hours I’ll be your guide through the final Group A match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa between Mexico and Uruguay.  So if you can’t get to a TV why not follow all the drama and excitement here?  You can also join the conversation by posting your comments below.

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857a pst - alright time to sign off. it's been real and i hope y'all enjoyed my live blog. it was definitely easier the second time round. tune in later today when i cover the south kkorea/nigeria match. that should be a good one. south korea and my man u man park ji-sung representin' the asian nations. ta ta for now. peace and one love. i'm out.

854a pst - full time for south africa and france. uuguay finish first in group a with 7 points. mexico and south africa finish with 4 points each, but mexico advances due to a better goal differential (+1 vs. -2). as the dude said, "that's a bummer, man," but at least south africa were able to ease the sting a tad with a victory over france, only their second world cup win ever.

853a pst - final whistle blows and uruguay win 1-0. south africa lead france 2-1 in stoppage time with a south africa free kick (i just switched games).

852a pst - only thirty seconds of added time left. looks like mexico is going to face argentina in th round of 16.

846a pst - forlan takes another corner. seeing as how uruguay is unbeaten in south africa thus far, they muct be doing something right even if it does seem counter-intuitive. uruguay could prove to be quite the dark horse by the time the 2010 world cup is over. usa could theoretically face them in the quarter-finals as well. that would be a good match. can't believe i didn't even tip uruguay to advance. 3 minutes of injury time to be added on.

843a pst - we just hit 84' and at thi point things are loking grim for south africa. they need 3 goals now, for them and/or against mexico, but mexico only needs to finish as is or score an equalizer to put south africa's dreams to bed. yellow card for castro (mexico). uruguay free kick...wasted.

839a pst - i just changed the photo to what i think is a pic of the aforementioned yellow card, but even if it's not, it's still a cool shot.

834a pst - mexico earns a corner. mexico has had 60% of the possession so far. uruguay substitution: scotti on, pereira off. yellow card for hernandez (mexico) for an offensive foul inside the box. it was the right call. corner sails past everyone.

830a pst - florent malouda just scored for france just

829a pst - twenty mintes left in both matches (since they're being played stimultaneously). did you know that as a result of the 1982 non-aggression pact of Gijon (seriously, look it up), all final group matches have to played on the same day at the same time?

Before the Group 2 finale between West Germany and Austria in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, it was known that a 1-0 German win would advance both sides and leave Algeria, who had won their final group match the day before, at home.

West Germany scored an early goal before both teams failed to lodge serious scoring attempts for the remainder of the match. FIFA changed the rules for the last stage of group play immediately.

826a pst - no love in the comment section i see. last time i had so many i cold respond to them all. then again, last time i was blogging on a 1130a pst match; this one started at 7a; maybe it's too early on the west coast.

822a pst - nice cross by mexico, rodriguez is unmarked but his header sails wide of the post! he should have finished that.

821a pst - another mexico substitution, their last: hernandez on, blanco off. henranadez scored the other goal against france.

819a pst - in case you're just now tuning in, uruguay leads mexico 1-0 and south africa are up 2-0 over france. two more goals, either for south africa or against mexico, will keep south africa's chances of advancing to the knockout stages alive.

817a pst - i think i'll have that bear after all. who cares if it's eight in the morning, the world cup only comes along every four years. football and beer go together like peas and carrots.

816a pst - mexico substitution: castro for moreno in the 57'.

809a pst - this situation with south africa reminds me of usa in the 2009 confederations cup in south africa. usa needed brazil to beat italy 3-0 in addition to beating egypt 3-0 themselves, a six goal swing! and it happened, which means it can happen for south africa too.

807a pst - so given the situation with south africa and france, i'm gonna have to switch allegiances from mexico to uruguay because every goal uruguay scores reduces mexico's goal differential.

as a usa fan, i usually support our neighbors to the south, but i want south africa to advance as hosts and i played the percentages and picked them to do so in my world cup pool, so i stand to gain financially from it as well. at least i'm honest.

804a pst - further to my post about "wavin' flag" in that commercial. i like k'naan and think he deserves to get paid for the usage of that song so i hope someone figures it out because publishing (i.e. using songs in movies, tv, and commercials) is one way in which artists do get paid.

i dn't buy into the music industry's propaganda about downloading and piracy though because the artists only get paid pennines on a $17 album sale, but i digress.

803a pst - mexico has made a substitution and the second half is now underway!

801a pst - a low budget commercial for a local soccer shop here in los angeles just came on and i heard "wavin' flag" by k'naan in the background. i would bet dollars to donuts that they didn't pay the proper royalties to use that song but i ain't no snitch!

752a pst - ok, here's the situation with south africa, who need the stars to align for them in order to advance, but that is happening...

first off, south africa need to win. they also need either mexico or uruguay to win because a draw eliminates them as well.

on top of that, south africa also need to make up goal differential, which they are doing. south africa is up at half time 2-0 over france, who are also playing with only 10 men.

assuming both matches ended with the current score lines, here's what we'd be looking at:

uruguay = 7 points, south africa & mexico tied at four points each, which means we go to goal differential.

mexico: 3 goals for, 2 against = +1

south africa: 3 goals for, 4 against =  -1

this means south africa still needs two more goals to put them level on differential, assuming mexico doesn't score at all. this would take it to the second tie-breaker, total goals scored. they're currently tied in that column, but two more goals by south africa would put them ahead with 5 (again, assuming mexico doesn't score again).

748a pst - just before half time, one of the commentators mentioned that south africa is doing well so far. i can't wait to see the highlights. it really would be a shame for them to become the first ever host nation not to advance to the knockout rounds. and the african teams have not fared very well thus far in the first ever world cup to take place on african soil.

747a pst - and the ref blows his whistle, signaling the end of the first half. 1-0

744a pst - suarez scores the first goal on a header in the 43'! gotta admit that was a nice cross to the far post. as someone who played a lot of goalie, know this: you will beat the keeper at the far post 100% of the time if you cross the ball across the goal because the gk has to cover the near post. this means it's up to the defenders to cover the goalie on the back side.

it realy is the easiest way to score a goal in football. simple soccer: get wide, cross, score.

741a pst - is it too early for a beer? as alan jackson said, "it' 5 o'clock somewhere," right?

738a pst - perez (uruguay) is the man with the bloody face and apparently his bandage wasn't up to code because the 4th official wouldn't let him back on, which means mexico's paying with a one man advantage at the moment.

736a pst - whoah! that uruguay dude's face is a bloody mess. he cought an elbow (from dos santos i think) in the air. it reminds me of brian mcbride in the usa/italy match at the 2006 world cup.

731a pst - we just hit the half hour mark and still no score, although we have seen some nice football so far. a goal would blow this thing wide open though.

and that would be good news for south africa, who need to win, need this match to not end in a draw, and also need to make up a rather sizable goal differential.

727a pst - something i didn't get a chance to mention a few minutes ago regarding forlan taking the free kick. he did the same thing during their opening match with france and it didn't make a whole of sense to me then either. should your striker be in front of the goal? surely someone else has a good enough foot to take the set pieces.

724a pst - uruguay answers backk with their own barrage. this is a pretty exciting match. makes me wish i wouldn't have dropped keyboarding class in favore of weight training back in high school so i could actually watch the match and type at the same time!

722a pst - nice build up by mexico, was almost 1-0. the first real excitement so far. corner cleared by uruguay.

716a pst - ok, i take that bit back about both teams playing for a draw. it was a a knee-jerk reaction. that's definitely not what's happening on this pitch right now. both team came to play and it's good to see that. plus, i just came across this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/22/world-cup-2010-mexico-uruguay

713a pst - just hit the 12' mark. free kick for uruguay. forlan's gonna take it. nice work by mexico's keeper in punching the ball away.

708a pst - nice cross by dos santos that almost finds blanco's head. blanco does get up much, but give him a break. the man's 37 years old! it's amazing he's even on the field, much less captaining the side and scoring a goal in the last game.

707a pst - suarez has irst real chance of the game and...goes wide!

703a pst - excellent possession by mexico so far. even though i didn't pick them to win the group in my bracket pool, i am still pulling for mexico. CONCACAF, baby!!!

i actually picked france and south africa. i figured france had way to much talent not to make it through, and no host host nation has ever failed to advance. guess i scored two big fat zeros there!

701a pst - blanco is not only starting; he's the captain today too. i was never a chicago fire fan but it's hard not to like blanco (and of course, the fire have former us international brian mcbride now too).

7a pst - one more thing about blanco: he's 37 (beckham is only 35). kick off!!!

655a pst - national anthems...

652a pst - i'm glad to see that blanco not only made the squad but put a goal in the other day as well. if you think about it, blanco's been overshadowed by david beckham a couple of times along the way. first off, he came to mls around the same time as becks, and definitley contributed more for the league in terms of pure playing.

648a pst - based on my experiences doing a live blog last week, i've decided to adopt my anti-capitalization email style for this one. not having to push the shift key will save me valuable seconds i could be using to write instead. to all the english teachers in the world, please forgive me!

so i'm sitting here waiting for the mexico and uruguay match to kick off. i think these two teams are going to play for a draw since that result assures that they both advance. then again, mexico may want to put in a couple extra goals in order to finish first in the group.