World Cup: Uruguay vs Germany Passing Stats

Uruguay played a better game against the Germans than we're used to seeing - they actually controlled over 40% of ball possession, compared to barely 30% when they were tied with the Dutch. Germany did a lot better - they too controlled barely 30% of the play against Spain. Let's look at the passing stats by score:

Make no mistake: no matter how you look at it, Germany dominated this game. It didn't matter whether they were up or down - they didn't change their style of play. They controlled the ball and controlled territory. The Uruguayans had a better chance of beating them than they did the Dutch, but not by much. It's not clear to me that either of these teams were among the top four in the tournament - Argentina and Brazil certainly played better much of the time - but sometimes weaker teams get the breaks.