Germany 2
Sweden 0
Germany, playing attractive, precise soccer jumped on Sweden early getting two in the onion bag in the first 12 minutes from Lukas Podolski who was named man of the match by commentators. The man that created both of those goals was Miroslav Klose; they were essentially sitters for Podolski after Klose worked his magic. Andreas Isaksson made 7 saves in the Swedish goal or it would have been far worse as Germany overwhelmed the Swede's in the first 30 minutes with a barrage of shots taken from long range along with clever running off the ball kept the Swede's goal in constant danger.
Sweden never really looked dangerous and lost Lucic to a second yellow in the 35th before Henrik Larson was given a makeup call and a PK which he missed badly in the 42nd. With Sweden down a man and Germany with a firm grip on the match it really was game over.
Germany will now face the winner of Argentina-Mexico in the quarter final round on Friday, June 30.
Argentina 2
Mexico 1
This one started with a surprising bang as Mexico set aside the disjointed and lackluster play of the group stage and threatened to swamp Argentina in the early going notching their goal in the 6th minute by Marquez at the back post from a free kick. But Argentina steadied themselves, got into the game and responded with their own in the 10th from the irrepressible Hernan Crespo off a corner kick, also at the back post.
The match then settled into a slug fest type of affair with neither side able to hold sway and gain full control of play for the next 90 minutes. Brilliant saves from Sanchez kept Argentina off the board and Mexico never seemed able to threaten as they did in the opening few minutes.
Eight minutes into Extra time Maxi Rodriquez nailed a long range laser high into the corner and it was 2-1 and it would end that way. All credit to Mexico for being able to take Argentina out of their game for the most part and taking them to extra time before Maxi's brilliant strike settled matters.
Argentina will move on to the quarter finals and face Germany on Friday, June 30 in a match that will pit the two best sides of World Cup 2006 based on their play thus far.
England 1
Ecuador 0
England came in with their expectations higher than the moon after winning their relatively weak group in a walkabout style but lets not forget their opening game 'win' over Paraquay came on an OG. Even the loss of Michael Owen seemed of little consequence until they came up against Ecuador that is. They would have to play better from start to finish if they were to advance any farther.
They did, but still didn't produce a really quality effort. England played with more purpose, intent and energy with Ecuador working hard to break the rhythm managing to keep the Lions just off their stride. A poor defensive header by Terry nearly gifted Ecuador an early goal but Ashley Cole saved the day with a sliding deflection that sent the ball off the crossbar. A exquisite David Beckham free kick in the 59th minute settled the issue and made him the only English player to score a goal in three World Cups.
England moves to the quarterfinals with their good fortune intact as they'll face a depleted Portugal side that lost several players to red cards in their horrific match with the Netherlands one of them Deco.
Portugal 1
Netherlands 0
Portugal executed one sequence of deadly one-touch passes that ended with a quality strike from Maniche for the win over the Netherlands in a match that saw 16 yellow and 4 red cards. It was the ugliest of games and will surely give FIFA a monster headache and will likely result in sanctions against the officials and perhaps both teams before its over.
As a fan of the Netherlands to reach the semi's it was certainly a gigantic disappointment. The Dutch seemed reluctant to put the ball on frame and were content to pass the ball that one or sometimes two passes too many instead. Inexplicably, Rudd never saw a minute even as they were playing with a man advantage. With the team in need of a predatory striker that would actually shoot on goal they played the game with players that were more interested in making that killer pass. The predictable result was they lost a match they should have controlled and won going away.
Portugal will now face England with another mountain to climb in the quarterfinals and will be missing some keys to their game.
Italy 1
Australia 0
In a match that showed why Italy is always dangerous Australia was a surprisingly difficult opponent. The Socceroos didn't threaten very often and on the few occasions when they did Buffon was his usual steady self in goal to keep them off the board. Italy created several good chances in the opening half but neither Luca Toni or Gilardino were able to finish them. In the 50th Italy lost Meterazzi to a red card (not at all sure why, but thats been the message of this World Cup so far hasn't it?) and from that point on the Aussies held sway but played too slowly in the attack to make their man advantage count as Italy showed why they're still there. The very deliberate, very slow attacks by the Aussies worked to Italy's advantage eating up the clock and they rarely managed a true threat on goal.
With 12 seconds remaining in stoppage time Italy advanced one more time and made the Aussies pay the price for ball watching at the cusp of extra time. Lucas Neill hustled back, slid to cut out the cross he felt sure was coming from Grosso but the cross never came. Grosso slowed apparently attempting to avoid a collision with Neill and just sort of fell over him and wouldn't you know it, a foul was called. I haven't yet heard an explanation but I suspect the foul must have been obstruction because there was little contact on the sliding tackle and Neill did not clear the ball over the end line either. He effectively just planted himself in the path of Grosso. The whole thing had a sort of Laurel & Hardy look to it to be frank. A low speed train wreck that would decide the match at the death. At any rate, Totti (a late sub by Lippi) nailed the PK and with it sends the Aussies home and Italy goes on to face the winner of Ukraine-Switzerland.
Switzerland 0
Ukraine 0 * Ukraine advances on penalty kicks 3-0
After an absolutely schizoid match where neither team seemed able to hold the ball for very long Ukraine goes on by taking the penalty kicks after 30 minutes of extra time ended scoreless. Both teams leading strikers found the crossbar in the opening half but few chances came of all the back and forth effort the rest of the way. The Swiss miss out on the quarterfinals and wouldn't you know it, they are the only team in the round of 16 that didn't surrender a goal in their four games in World Cup 2006. That'll be a trivia question that might win you a beer someday. As if this match was meant to be the anti-Portugal/Netherlands debacle of last night this guy wouldn't have shown a card if a player had used a double-headed axe on his opponent.
Brazil 3
Ghana 0
Ronaldo sets the record for World Cup goals on a well executed break but there was a hint of offside on the play. Brazil's 2nd came from Adriano on a play where Brazil was offside twice on the same play with no flag. Another case of Brazil getting favorable treatment from the on field officials because of their reputation and not the play right in front of them resulting in an injustice. As if to add insult to injury the 2nd came about 2 minutes after Ghana nearly scored off a corner kick after dominating the run of play for nearly 20 minutes. Brazil took their foot off the pedal for much of this match despite the scoreline. Ghana lost Gyan in the 82nd for a 2nd yellow (dive) and ZeRoberto added Brazil's 3rd just 3 minutes later. Ghana won the hearts and minds of the fans in Dortmund for their attractive play and positive approach but the lack of quality in the finishing department doomed them on this day.
Spain 1
France 3
Spain huffed and puffed and ran the show in the opening half but couldn't produce a goal from the run of play getting the opener on yet another PK. Man of the Match Frank Ribery, a relative unknown on the star studded French team got the match level in the 41st as France got back in it despite Spain's enormous advantage in possession (65%).
Henry did little other than make sure he looked good on the stadium monitors as he was caught offside 5 times and none of them were even close. He made amends in the 82nd winning a free kick with a good sell job that resulted in a yellow being shown to Puyol. On that free kick Zidane found Vieira at the back post via a Spanish flick and his header went in off a defender and France had the lead in the 83rd minute. Zidane added the 3rd two minutes into stoppage time to end it off a wonderful first time thru ball from Sylvan Wiltord.
Once again Spain's so-called team of destiny fails to produce and France will face Brazil in the quarter finals in a replay that will remind everyone of 1998. That match could be the final competitive game for Zidane, two time world player of the year, who also scored twice in that famous French win over Brazil 8 years ago in Paris winning France its only World Cup.
