Round of 16

24/06/2006—Germany 2 : Sweden 0 (Germany -½)

The home side continued to cruise through the tournament as they took down Sweden 2-0. Young forward Lukas Podolski gained more valuable experience and netted an early goal in the fourth minute and another in the 12th minute and Germany never looked back. The Germans not only advanced to the next round, but remained perfect in tournament play with a 4-0 record.

Argentina 2 : Mexico 1 extra time (Argentina -1½)

Mexico gave the Argentineans a scare as Rafael Marquez put one past Roberto Abbondanzieri in the sixth minute of the game, but the Albiceleste regained their composure and scored four minutes later when Hernan Crespo tapped in a corner kick. The game remained deadlocked until the 8th minute of extra time when Juan Sorin scored to give Argentina a berth in the quarters.

25/06/2006—England 1 : Ecuador 0 (England -1)

David Beckham is arguably England’s most recognizable player and he proved his worth against Ecuador. The English captain ended a three year drought when he scored on a free-kick in the 60th minute as England moved on to the quarterfinals.

Portugal 1 : Netherlands 0 (Pick’em)

If you thought that the 1-1 Group E draw between Italy and the United States was physical, you ain’t seen nothing. A 1-0 Portuguese win was marred by four red cards with Portugal’s Costinha and Deco and Netherlands’ Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst all ejected from the game. Maniche scored the lone goal for Portugal, who will be missing key players for their next match against England.

26/06/2006—Italy 1 : Australia 0 (Italy -1)

An undermanned Azzurri squad ended the Socceroos’ fabulous World Cup run when Francesco Totti scored in injury time. Marco Materazzi got a red card five minutes into the second, but that didn’t hamper Italy, as they moved on to the quarters.

Switzerland 0 : Ukraine 0 (0-3 penalty shots) (Pick’em)

The books had this match pegged as a pick’em and the Swiss and the Ukrainians showed everybody why. With the game deadlocked after injury time and this the knockout stage, the two teams resorted to a shoot out to decide who would advance to the quarters. The song remained the same for the Swiss in the shoot out as Marco Streller, Tranquillo Barnetta and Ricardo Cabanas all failed to score, while Artem Milevskiy, Serhiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev helped propel the Ukraine to the next round.