The vuvuzelas finally died down and South Africa's elation turned to despondency after a disastrous defeat by Uruguay.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Diego Maradona said on Sunday he will fly to London next month to study an offer from an English Premier League club, Argentine media reported.
Whether France prove the doubters wrong with a fine World Cup run or make another embarrassing exit remained anybody's guess after their opening 0-0 draw with Uruguay on Friday.
The last time Stanislav Cherchesov walked out at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium to face Fernando Hierro's side, the Spaniards were heavy favourites but the Russians reached the next round.
A draw in Kaliningrad would guarantee the 2010 winners safe passage into the last 16 but to be assured of winning the group they need to win a scoring contest with Portugal, who play Iran at the same time.
Lionel Messi announced on Friday that he wants to return to play for the national team, reversing his decision to retire earlier this year. Messi said in June that he would not play for Argentina again after the team lost to Chile in the final of the Copa America.
The Indian men's hockey team's biggest gain this year was the emergence of some talented fresh faces.
Former Uruguayan forward Diego Forlan's is widely speculated to become the marquee player of Atletico de Kolkata for the third season of ISL but the team owners remained tight-lipped on the subject. "We have not yet decided on our marquee player. We will announce the name before the (August 28) deadline and he will be befitting," co-owner Sanjiv Goenka told reporters on Friday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi advanced to the semi-finals while Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi sealed a quarter-final berth in the Valencia Open.
World champions Spain returned to the top of the FIFA rankings on Wednesday while Brazil dropped to third place and Italy slumped to 11th. World Cup finalists the Netherlands also leapfrogged Brazil for second, a rise of two places, while England surprisingly moved up a rung to seventh despite a disappointing tournament in South Africa.
Uruguay's Diego Forlan won the adidas Golden Ball, awarded to the outstanding player at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Sunday's World Cup final between Netherlands and Spain pits two tactically similar teams against each other
The problem lies in the fact that unlike in telecom, centre- and state-owned public utilities continue to dominate the power business.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will be out of action for two to three weeks with a small hamstring problem in his right leg, the Spanish champions said in a statement on Sunday.
The wife of a linesman, who wrongly disallowed Frank Lampard''s goal against Germany, revealed on Thursday that she instantly knew he had blundered.
The prospect of setting a new benchmark for African participation at the World Cup was a major motivation for Ghana ahead of Friday's quarter-final against Uruguay, striker Asamoah Gyan said.
In the search for tactical supremacy, soccer's big guns and some young pretenders have turned to the chapter marked 'counter-attack' to blast their way into the World Cup quarter-finals.
The complete fixtures of the World Cup in SOuth Africa.
Oscar Tabarez is just happy to be at the World Cup after a marathon qualification process, the Uruguay coach said on Tuesday after his side beat Mexico 1-0 to make the last 16 as Group A winners.
France concluded a disastrous World Cup campaign with one more controversy on Tuesday when coach Raymond Domenech refused to shake hands with his opposite number after South Africa's 2-1 victory.
South Africa said they were caught cold by Uruguay's early goal in Wednesday's World Cup clash in Pretoria and found themselves unable to fight their way back into the game.
Centre back William Gallas pulled out of a France training session on Monday with a sore muscle, a team spokesman said.
Football-frenzied fans in India were slow on catching up with the excitement as the FIFA World Cup 2010 kicked off in Johannesburg on Friday. But when they did get into the act, TV-viewership rates shot up from previous highs.
France failed to rise to the occasion again on Friday when a lacklustre performance in a tepid 0-0 draw with Uruguay handed the initiative to their lesser-ranked World Cup Group A rivals.
Tennis star Aisamul Haq has become the first from Pakistan to reach the semi-finals of any Grand Slam event.
The fixtures of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, from June 11 to July 11.
Barcelona's star striker Messi is an alien who plays with us humans, says the Juventus 'keeper
Images from Day 5 of the 2021 French Open, in Paris, on Thursday.
Lionel Messi was lauded by opposition supporters on Sunday after he scored an outstanding hat-trick in Barcelona's 4-1 win at Real Betis, which put the Catalans 10 points clear at the top of La Liga with 10 games remaining.
The fixtures of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, from June 11 to July 11.
Edinson Cavani silenced his critics when he scored four goals in Paris St Germain's 6-0 victory at Caen in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Prolific striker Luis Suarez has agreed a new contract with Barcelona until 2021, the Spanish champions announced on Thursday. The Uruguay international will sign the new deal, which will keep him at the club until he is 34 years old and contains a release clause of 200 million euros ($207 million), on Friday. Suarez has scored 97 goals in 116 games for Barcelona since signing from Liverpool in 2014 for a reported 81 million euros ($84 million), and has collected eight major trophies.
Jackson Martinez scored twice as Colombia beat Japan 4-1 to top World Cup Group C with maximum points on Tuesday. The victory earned them a second-round meeting with Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro and ended Japan's interest in the tournament.
Diego Forlan scrambled an early goal to give Atletico Madrid a deserved 1-0 win over a lethargic-looking Liverpool in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst is hoping for a fairytale ending to his playing career when he leads Netherlands out in Sunday's World Cup final with Spain.
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk put himself in the same bracket as coaching greats Rinus Michels and Ernst Happel when his team beat Uruguay 3-2 on Tuesday to reach their first World Cup final since 1978.
Netherlands playmaker Wesley Sneijder is on course to clinch every trophy he played for this season after the Dutch beat Uruguay in the first World Cup semi-final on Tuesday.
Luis Suarez will only be banned for one match for his hand-ball against Ghana - meaning the striker will be eligible for the World Cup final if Uruguay beat Holland.
Netherlands striker Robin van Persie was taken to hospital on Saturday for a scan on an arm injury three days before their semi-final with Uruguay in Cape Town, coach Bert van Marwijk said.
