We have reached the final 16 of the glorious World Cup competition so now it’s lose and you are gone. There were definitely some surprises to make the knockout round with Ghana leading the list of the underrated teams to advance. Ecuador, Australia and Ukraine were other teams that played excellent soccer and surprisingsly made it past pool play.Â
Today the first two games of the knockout round were played and host Germany kicked things off with total domination over Sweden. German stud Lukas Podolski scored two goals within the first 12 minutes of the game and Germany really never looked back. Sweden did have a golden chance to get back in the game in the second half, but Henrik Larsson put his penalty kick in the nosebleed section of Allianz Arena and Sweden was a done deal. Germany won 2-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of World Cup 2006.
The second game tilt featured heavily favored Argentina versus Mexico. Mexico defensiveman Rafael Marquez scored five minutes into the game, but Argentina countered via Hernan Crespo only five minutes later to tie the game. The score remained 1-1 until the first overtime when Maxi Rodriquez scored a phenomenal goal to ultimately lead Argentina to a 2-1 win. Germany and Argentina will meet in the quarterfinals in what should be a classic battle.Â