England make exit without a goal and win

Brazil overwhelmed Zambia 5-1 to cruise into round two, while the United States, Japan, Costa Rica and Spain also booked their places.

Yesterday8217;s results threw up some intriguing second round clashes including Mexico v Argentina, Paraguay v Uruguay and an all-African affair between Cameroon and Mali. Zambia were the only African team to go out while all but one of the seven Latin American sides qualified.

Germany went out after losing to Costa Rica on Saturday. England began yesterday with a theoretical chance of going through thanks to the generous rule which eliminated only eight of the 24 teams in the first round.

Thetop two in each group plus the four sides with the best records in third qualified.

But England were out of contention by the time they kicked off their evening game against Japan in Bauchi, the combination of results in the afternoon matches having extinguished all hope.

Apart from a first half effort by Stephen Wright, disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper, England rarely looked like scoring. Adding to their gloom, Kevin Nicholls was sent off for a second bookable offence near the end.

Japan went ahead when Tatsuya Ishikawa scored from a free kick in the 40th minute. Shinji Ono rounded off the win just after halftime to give Japan first place in group E.

They led the United States and Cameroon on goal difference, all three finishing with six points after the North Americans won 3-1 in the afternoon thanks to two goals by Taylor Twellman and one from Carios Bocanegra.

Portugal and Uruguay knew a draw would send them both through when they started their group D game in Enugu.

The match producedfew serious efforts on goal and was littered with time-wasting and players collapsing injured. For the last half hour, the teams took it in turns to stroke the ball around in their own half while their opponents watched.

8220;We know it was a dull match but we had to qualify. If we reach the final, nobody will remember this game,8221; said Portugal coach Jesualdo Ferreira.

Both teams finished with four points, Portugal qualifying in second place and Uruguay as one of the best third-placed sides. Mali, already through, finished top despite losing 4-2 to South Korea, who collected their first points.

Brazil qualified in second place in Group F by crushing Zambia once they recovered from the shock of falling behind to a goal by Andrew Sinkala.

Goals by Ronaido, Fabio Aurelio, Fernando Baiano, Mancini and Rodrigo Gral gave Brazil a convincing win. Zambia finished third with four points but went out on goal difference, Costa Rica from Group A taking their place.

Spain won the group after scoring three times inthe first half through Pabla Gonzalez. Fernando Varela and Ruben Suarez to beat Honduras 3-1.

This deprived the tournament of one of its most entertaining players, Honduran striker David Suazo. The immensely powerful and fast Suazo caused the Spanish defence all sorts of problems but let himself and his team down with poor finishing.