Posted by ESPN Stats & Information
Netherlands 3, Uruguay 2
Uruguay, which lost the possession battle for its sixth straight match at this World Cup, couldn't overcome the Dutch, who advanced to their first World Cup final since 1978. The Netherlands has now scored once for every 4.92 chances created -- defined as passes from teammates that lead to shots -- its best-ever average and making it only the seventh team since the stat was first tracked in 1966 that had a goals-per-chance average under 5.0.
• Uruguay hasn't had a single player complete at least 40 passes in a match at this World Cup. Forty-eight different players have averaged 40 successful passes per match at this World Cup (min. three matches).
• Robin van Persie created a chance (had his pass lead to a shot) four times on Tuesday while playing the full 90 minutes for the first time. Although his total of four chances created wasn't noteworthy, the fact that he had four with only 38 touches of the ball is. His average of a chance created for every 9.5 touches is the second-best ratio of any player with at least 30 touches in a match this World Cup. Milos Krasic had five chances created on 37 touches for Serbia against Germany in the Group Stage.
• Entering today, no one had scored from outside the 18-yard box at Cape Town's Green Point Stadium. There were two such goals in today's match: Netherlands' Giovanni van Bronckhorst (42.4 yards) and Uruguay's Diego Forlan (29 yards). Forlan became the first player to score three goals from outside the box at a single World Cup since Germany's Lothar Matthäus in 1990.
• The tournament has seen goal scoring rise during the knockout stages. Teams averaged 2.10 goals per match during the group stage this year, lowest since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1998. However, goal scoring has risen to 2.85 goals per match in the knockout stage, the second-highest level since FIFA adopted its current knockout stage format in 1986. The 1994 World Cup (2.93) was the only tournament with a higher goals-per-match average in the knockout stage.