Ahead of the start of the quarterfinals on Friday, Argentina's group stage match against Bosnia on June 15 had the highest attendance of any game so far, with 74,738 fans. Spain's loss to Chile in the group stage drew the next largest crowd (74,101), followed by Belgium-Russia (73,819), Colombia-Uruguay (73,804) and Cameroon-Brazil (69,112). So far, the least attended game was a group stage match between Russia and South Korea (37,603), with the next smallest crowds occurring at the Iran-Nigeria (39,081), Mexico-Cameroon (39,216), Honduras-Ecuador (39,224) and Australia-Spain (39,375) matches (LA AFICION, 7/2). ... The Ghana FA has offered its "unqualified apologies" to its nation after crashing out of the World Cup at the group stage of the competition. GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi said, "We wish to offer our unqualified apologies for the disappointment."
The "sombre tone" adopted by Ghana "is in stark contrast to the apathetic response of the English FA following the country’s group stage exit in Brazil." Rather than apologizing to the country’s supporters, FA Chair Greg Dyke "came out in the immediate aftermath of England’s exit and simply declared that Manager Roy Hodgson would remain in his job for at least another two years, stating that England 'were not humiliated'" (London DAILY MAIL, 7/2).
... South Korea's football governing body announced Thursday "it has rejected a resignation offer by men's national team head coach Hong Myung-bo in the wake of the country's winless FIFA World Cup in Brazil."
Korea FA VP Huh Jung-moo said that "the beleaguered bench boss will stay on board for at least the remainder of his contract" (YONHAP, 7/3).
OVERPASS COLLAPSE: An unfinished overpass "collapsed" in the Brazilian World Cup host city of Belo Horizonte on Thursday, "killing at least two people," emergency officials said. The cause of the collapse "was unclear." The overpass "was part of a network of bus lanes that Brazil planned to have ready for the World Cup, but was not finished on time" (REUTERS, 7/3).
