Posted by ESPN Stats & Information
Uruguay versus Netherlands, Tuesday
Green Point Stadium -- Cape Town
Storylines
• Two-time champion Uruguay plays in its first World Cup semifinal since 1970. The Netherlands, which has never won the World Cup, plays in its first semifinal since 1998. It reached the finals in 1974 and 1978.
• Cinderella Uruguay: Uruguay is the smallest nation left in the World Cup and second-smallest overall with a population of 3.4 million people. (Slovenia is the smallest World Cup nation with 2 million people.) Uruguay is also the lowest-ranked remaining team at No. 16 in the FIFA rankings.
• The Dutch are the only team at this World Cup to win every game they have played.
• Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder has scored four goals at the World Cup and, after leading Inter Milan to UEFA Champions League and Serie A titles this season, is making a strong case to be considered as one of the game's most elite players.
Series history
• Uruguay leads 3-1, but the teams have not met since 1980.
What to look for
• Uruguay lineup shuffle: Luis Suarez and Jorge Fucile are suspended for the game and Nicolas Lodeiro will miss it thanks to a broken foot. Captain and defensive anchor Diego Lugano is struggling with a knee injury.
• Nigel de Jong and Gregory van der Wiel are suspended for the game, but Joris Mathijsen (who dropped out of the Brazil game at the last minute with a knee injury) and Robin van Persie (who has an elbow injury) are expected to be available for the Netherlands.
• Fernando Muslera: The hero of the penalty shootout, Uruguay's goalkeeper, turned 24 on June 16. Relatively inexperienced, he won his 11th cap against Ghana. He's something of a penalty-kick specialist; he made two saves against Ghana and also made two saves in the penalty kick shootout as Lazio beat Sampdoria in the 2009 Coppa Italia final.
• While Uruguayan forwards Diego Forlan and Suarez have been in superb form up front for Oscar Tabarez's side, it is the South Americans' defensive work that has been central to their success. The Uruguayans top the rankings in terms of tackles per game, clearances per game, interceptions per game and recoveries per game.
From the research room
• The Netherlands enters this game on a 24-game unbeaten streak. The last time the Dutch lost was 2-1 to Australia at home (in Eindhoven) on Sept. 6, 2008.
• Uruguay is the first South American team other than Argentina and Brazil to make the last four since 1970 (when Uruguay did so).
• Uruguay has had 50 percent or less of the possession in all five of its games at the 2010 World Cup.
• The Netherlands and Uruguay haven't played in the final in the past 32 years. In the past 40 years -- that is, in 10 World Cups from 1970 through 2006 -- only one other semifinal was guaranteed to produce a finalist that hadn't reached that stage in 32 years or longer: France versus Croatia in 1998, neither of which had ever reached the finals.
• Forlan is one of four players from La Liga with at least three goals in the 2010 FIFA World Cup: David Villa, five; Gonzalo Higuain, four; Forlan and Luis Fabiano, three. There are 11 players with at least three goals in this tournament, but only one other league has two representatives among those players: the Bundesliga, with Thomas Muller and Miroslav Klose.