FIFA World Cup 2010: Uruguay 1-1 vs Germany Half Time Report, Thomas Muller and Edinson Cavani Score
There was action aplenty in the first half of the match for 3rd position between Germany and Uruguay. The first half ended with both teams level at 1-1.
Thomas Mueller got his 5th goal of the World Cup when he gave Germany the lead, but Uruguay equalized soon after.
It was a nice start from Germany; they were knocking it around with minimum fuss - presumably they were quite pleased to get the ball back after 90 minutes against Spain on Wednesday.
Thomas Mueller smashed in a loose ball from the edge of the Uruguay area, but the whistle had already gone for a foul by Germany striker Cacau.
There was plenty of aggression from both sides despite this being a match for 3rd position, and there was a horrible tackle. Dennis Aogo, in his first appearance of the tournament, went in late and a bit high on Diego Perez - and he might be a little lucky to only get a yellow card for that.
Uruguay got into the action and Diego Forlan hit a free-kick goal-wards from 30 yards, and it seemed to hit the hand of Cacau on the end of the Germany wall. Cacau was booked, another free-kick resulted from 20 yards out for Forlan and he curled it just up and over the wall and wide of Hans-Joerg Butt's right-hand post.
The pace was quite slow, but the players were still getting stuck into their tackles as Jorge Fucile went in hard and fair on Marcell Jansen.
Four years ago, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored a couple of belters in this game and he nearly did it again there - after his well-struck 30-yard drive was blocked by Fernando Muslera, Thomas Mueller went in quick as a flash to coolly tap in from eight yards.
Thomas Mueller is now level with David Villa and Wesley Sneijder on five goals, as the race for the Golden Boot intensifies at the 2010 World Cup.
Uruguay came back hard, and a corner from their left was fizzed in hard and low and Edinson Cavani flicked it dangerously goalwards, but Arne Friedrich backed away from his own line to clear it away.
Bastian Schweinsteiger made an error, and was dispossessed by a fine Diego Perez tackle on halfway, and suddenly Uruguay broke with pace as Luis Suarez fed Edinson Cavani on the inside left channel, and he slipped nonchalantly past Hans-Joerg with his right foot. And within minutes, the score-line was level.
There was a good atmosphere inside the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, and it was a pretty good game of football too. Luis Suarez claimed Uruguay would "play to the death" for third place, and there was no shortage of effort from either team.
Uruguay were breaking with good intent and Diego Forlan tried to play a quick one-two with Luis Suarez, only for his strike partner to get his return pass all wrong.
Germany quickly got their attack going; Mesut Ozil played a clever first-time pass into the path of Cacau running towards the Uruguay area, but Diego Lugano stuck his hand out and Germany had a free-kick in a dangerous position. However, Schweinsteiger could not make much of it.
And finally the half ended 1-1.
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