Sports: Soccer World Cup: Portugal breakthru, NorKor flushed out, Spain rescues itself, Hondorus bites the dust

Shirley S. Klapper has it for Washington Post, "Portugal beats North Korea in 7-0 rout" (Jun212l,2k10): Portugal put on the most dominant performance of the World Cup on Monday, knocking in a flurry of second-half goals and routing North Korea 7-0, a win that puts Portugal on the brink of advancing to the round of 16 and means the Koreans won't make it out of group play.

Washington Post's Steven Goff (Jun22,2k10):

On Monday night at Ellis Park, a team desperate to remain in the Group H race and resurrect its championship aspirations performed with style and grace but lacked a finishing touch against badly overmatched Honduras.

Though David Villa scored twice in the 2-0 victory, Spain squandered a cavalcade of chances -- shortcomings that could prove costly if the group's round-of-16 berths are decided by goal differential.

"We had glorious opportunities, many opportunities, we should have won this game by more goals," Coach Vicente Del Bosque said. "I am not entirely satisfied."

Spain (1-1) is three points behind front-running Chile (2-0), the Spaniards' opponent Friday in Pretoria. A victory by the European champions would move them ahead of the Chileans on goal difference, but Switzerland (1-1) is also in contention heading into its finale against eliminated Honduras (0-2).

The reward for finishing first is avoiding the top team from Group G -- probably tournament favorite Brazil.