JOHANNESBURG -- It took nearly a month and featured a few stunning results along the way. We saw miracle finishes and epic collapses, teams that bonded and teams that imploded. And what we're left with is four countries -- Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Uruguay -- and one trophy. Each team has taken a different route to the semifinals. Each has its own style and its own history. But when you make it this far, each has the same goal. To win it all.
Here's a look at the last four standing.
Germany
After witnessing Germany's clinical destruction of Argentina, is there anyone out there who isn't picking Die Mannschaft to win it all? Joachim Low's youthful squad has played the best attacking football of any team in the competition, scoring 13 goals. The Germans' movement and timing with the ball has been impeccable. Low has been rightly praised for trusting young players like 20-year-old Thomas Muller and 21-year-old Mesut Ozil to spark the attack, and that's become the theme that most observers have used when describing this team.
But World Cup vets like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose have also been at the top of their games. What's more, as much as the Germans have attacked and scored, they've also shown the ability to defend, allowing only two goals in the competition.
The scoreless hour the Germans played with Argentina when they were protecting a 1-0 lead was all anyone needed to see that, when forced to dig in, this team can still go back to its roots in discipline. One problem facing Germany in its next match with Spain is who will replace Muller, who's been, in Low's words "effective in all areas." A harsh yellow card for what was ruled a deliberate handball will keep the electric Bayern Munich winger out of the match. Germany played without Klose for a must-win match with Ghana and the team responded, but Spain has to be delighted that Muller will be watching from the stands on Wednesday.
Netherlands
After coming from behind to beat Brazil 2-1 to run its World Cup record to a spotless 5-0, the Netherlands has to be considered the odds-on favorite to defeat Uruguay and make it to its first World Cup final since 1978. The attacking trio of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie is clicking and all 11 players have shown the willingness to run and tackle for the full 90 minutes to get a result. In the Netherlands' victory over Brazil, it was not uncommon to see striker Dirk Kuyt back in his own box defending and clearing crosses, only to reappear in the opposition's box looking to score.
"Some think we're lightweight and flighty. Well, we're not. We may be small, but we have heart. So much heart.
" -- Netherlands' Wesley Sneijder
This Dutch squad does not really follow the model of its slick-passing, total-football predecessors. That's not to say this team can't string passes together and strike wonder goals. It can. It's just that if the Netherlands needs to get nine players behind the ball to defend, it does just that.
How tough is this Dutch squad? Its last defeat in a competitive game in regulation time came in November 2007, a 2-1 loss to Belarus.
"Some think, because of the Dutch stereotype, that we're lightweight and flighty. Well, we're not," said Sneijder, the Inter Milan star who scored both goals against Brazil. "We may be small, but we have heart. So much heart."
Spain
The highest-ranked team of the four semifinalists is Spain, which currently sits at No. 2 according to FIFA. Yet it seems no team has struggled for results quite like La Roja in this tournament.
Even in its defeat of Paraguay, Spain struggled to finish off a lesser opponent despite dominating the match. Still, there's plenty of upside, and it starts with David Villa, who, after tallying winners in the past two matches, has a chance to become a World Cup hero for the ages. Spain has ball wizardry all over the field and a playmaker as good as any in Andres Iniesta.
You can bet that Spain will have plenty of possession against Germany. But were it not for Villa's heroics, the main story coming out of this World Cup could well be coach Vicente del Bosque's insistence on playing an out-of-form Fernando Torres for so many minutes. Torres simply has not been able to get out of his own way in this tournament, but the coach keeps hoping the Liverpool striker will put one in the net and quickly find his mojo.
The 2008 European champion lost its first match in this World Cup to an organized Swiss team that said it copied the tactics of the U.S., which upset Spain in last summer's Confederations Cup. Makes you wonder if Spain, which struggled mightily to score against Portugal and Paraguay, can get past the Germans.
Uruguay
Uruguay is the last of the semifinalists, on a wing and a prayer. The wing of Luis Suarez, which parried away what would have been a last-second game winner for Ghana. And the prayer of a nation that Ghana's Asamoah Gyan would not convert the penalty.
Having lived to tell that story, all that's left is for Uruguay to try to spoil the Dutch dream of finally living up to its World Cup potential. It won't be easy. The penance for Suarez's handball is that the Ajax striker, who's carried much of the team's scoring load in this World Cup, will miss the semifinal. That puts an awful lot of pressure on Diego Forlan, whose free kick goal against Ghana was enough to get Uruguay to penalties.
"It's going to be difficult [against the Dutch] -- difficult, but not impossible.
" -- Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez
Expect Uruguay's main focus in the match with the Netherlands to be on its already solid defense. In the tournament, goalkeeper Fernando Muslera has registered clean sheets against France, South Africa and Mexico. The defense also held firm against Ghana, the only goal it allowed being a 39-yard bomb off the foot of Sulley Muntari.
Uruguay, which won the World Cup in 1930 and 1950, and last reached a semifinal in 1970, understands what's at stake here. "We've got to organize ourselves to keep doing as well as we are now -- or better," said coach Oscar Tabarez. "It's a very difficult match against the Netherlands. They haven't lost a game so far, they've got great players and a lot of diversity in their play. They will start as the favorites, I think, and it's going to be difficult -- difficult, but not impossible."
Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.
