JOHANNESBURG, June 22, (AFP): Uruguay and Mexico joined Netherlands and Brazil in the World Cup last 16 Tuesday while hosts South Africa and former champions France, whose tournament lurched from one crisis to another, bowed out.
A far-post Luis Suarez header off an Edinson Cavani cross earned Uruguay a 1-0 victory over Mexico in a top-of-the-table Group A clash in north-west platinum town Rustenburg.
South Africa defeated 10-man France 2-1 in central city Bloemfontein with Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela scoring in the first half and Florent Malouda pulling one back.
Uruguay, champions in 1930 and 1950, topped the standings with seven points, Mexico (plus-one goal difference) and South Africa (minus two) collected four each and France one.

The South Americans face the Group B runners-up — probably South Korea or Nigeria — in the first knockout phase this weekend while Mexico are set to tackle likely Group B winners Argentina.
This scenario will rekindle unhappy memories for the adventurous Mexicans as they lost after extra time to the Argentines at the same stage in Germany four years ago.
“We will have to improve. As for (now likely meeting with) Argentina, we will have to work to reproduce the kind of form we showed in the match against France,” warned veteran Mexico and Barcelona defender Rafael Marquez.
Fears that Uruguay and Mexico would settle for the draw that assured both of last-16 places proved unfounded and Mexican Andres Guardado was unlucky when his drive rebounded off the crossbar.
But a Uruguay team that revolves around Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan were superior at Royal Bafokeng Stadium and more clinical finishing would have brought a wider victory margin.
“The important thing was to win and finish top of the group,” said Uruguay striker Diego Forlan, key figure in the three-goal demolition of South Africa last week.

Desperate
Desperate to avoid becoming the first host nation eliminated after the first round, much-changed South Africa attacked from the kick-off against a French team showing six changes with captain Patrick Evra among those axed.
Defender Bongani Khumalo headed Bafana Bafana (The Boys) in front on 20 minutes and striker Katlego Mphela added a second after midfielder Yoann Gourcuff was sent off for elbowing Macbeth Sibaya.
But a team needing two more goals to pip Mexico for second spot conceded one with 20 minutes left when Franck Ribery set up Malouda to tap home with the defensive frailties of skipper Aaron Mokoena exposed once again.
France, champions in 1998 and runners-up four years ago, secured just one point and scored only one goal in three games with off-field problems climaxing in the sending home of striker Nicolas Anelka.
The Chelsea star unleashed an expletive-laden outburst when coach Raymond Domenech expressed unhappiness with his positional play against Mexico last week during a half-time team talk.

Domenech, who cut a forlorn figure in the Free State Stadium, now hands over the reins to Laurent Blanc, who missed the 1998 World Cup final victory over Brazil because of suspension.
But Domenech didn’t go quietly, refusing to shake the hand of South Africa boss Carlos Alberto Parreira at the end of the game.
Parreira, who guided Brazil to the 1994 title, tried to explain the snub.
“I believe it was because I had criticised his team after they qualified (when they controversially beat Ireland in the play-offs), but I really don’t remember.
“This is what his assistants told me.”

Disgusted but no longer surprised by their team’s dismal World Cup performance, many French fans cheered South Africa’s goals as “Les Bleus” were dumped out of the competition.
“We must be the only country in the world pleased to see its team lose,” said a 20-year-old student in a bar in central Paris after watching the French squad’s humiliating 2-1 defeat.
That anger was echoed across France as football supporters digested their country’s dramatic fall from the soaring heights of World Cup triumph in 1998 to the dismal depths of 2010.
The team came into the match in turmoil after a bust-up following the expulsion of star striker Nicolas Anelka from the squad for a foul-mouthed outburst at coach Raymond Domenech.
“It’s pathetic, unacceptable, we’ll never forgive them,” said Marie-Helene, who was among 5,000 supporters who watched the match on a giant screen at Trocadero square, just across the river from the Eiffel tower.

The crowd at Trocadero stood at the start of the game to sing the Marseillaise national anthem, but quickly the mood of football despair that has reigned in France returned.
Coach Domenech, widely blamed for France’s lengthy fall from grace, was booed every time his face appeared on the giant screen.
Domenech managed to guide France to the 2006 World Cup finals — where they were beaten by Italy — but his prickly public persona grates with fans and media alike.
He is roundly scorned on Internet sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion, where video parodies focus on the nasty insult he got from Anelka.
Social networking sites like Facebook carried scores of pages that expressed outrage or scorn for the French squad.
Around 14,000 people joined the “Make ‘Les Bleus’ walk back home from South Africa” group on Facebook.

Politicians were also quick to get the boot in after Tuesday’s defeat.
“France has been made to look ridiculous by an irresponsible group,” said Eric Ciotti of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party.
“These players, overpaid, living in a virtual world, have provided the worst possible example to young people for whom they had often been heroes,” he said.
That sentiment was shared by supporters in Boulogne in northern France, the home town of the national team’s striker Franck Ribery.
“There’s too much money in football, the players have got big heads. Even Ribery, he disappointed me. I’m really angry,” said Bruno, a social worker, as he watched the match in a cafe in the Chemin Vert district where Ribery grew up.

As the final whistle was blown, another customer in the cafe, who gave her name as Sonia, delivered a bitter verdict.
“I’m disgusted that France scored because they’ll be boasting about that,” she said.
The French squad’s defeat Tuesday crowned months of controversy.
They entered the finals with many even questioning whether they deserved to be there after Thierry Henry’s infamous handball against Ireland.
It went from bad to worse in South Africa with the only fireworks for the team coming off the field when Anelka was sent home for insulting Domenech during the 2-0 loss to Mexico, causing his teammates to go on strike for a day.