31st: NORTH KOREA

And so the winners of the wooden spoon that's not quite so wooden as the one Cameroon got are North Korea. No one likes to see a team getting thrashed, unless you support the team doing the thrashing. But seven from Portugal kind of took the gloss off a very creditable performance against Brazil in which they only lost by a goal.

A lot of media surrounding the North Koreans was to do with how the population back home was being fed highlights of their games, reportedly hours after they'd taken place and allegedly edited to make it look like NK had emerged victorious against the capitalist infidels.

Whether this is true or just western banter, the fact remains I never saw one North Korean feign an injury, argue too much with the ref, or dive to get another player in trouble. Sure, they never looked like getting out of the toughest group in the tournament, but put anyone of say twenty five other teams in their place and they'd struggle too. But they'd resort to cheating, feigning and diving, something that - like South Korea - is below North Korea.