FIFA World Cup History: Round of 16 – Top 5 Matches
As the Round of 16 stage at the FIFA 2010 World Cup reaches its climax, let’s take a look at the most entertaining of the Round of 16 matches ever to have taken place in the history of the FIFA World Cup.
The Netherlands versus Portugal match in the FIFA 2006 World Cup competition in the round of sixteen was one of the most hostile matches ever to have taken place in the tournament. Both of the teams were famous for playing good attacking football but on this day, attacking football was nowhere to be seen as attacks on players rather than the ball turned the game into a disgraceful affair.
Portugal had two of their players sent off and Holland had two of their players sent off, a total of sixteen yellow cards were shown during the match. The final score was one nil to Portugal after Maniche had scored for them in the 23rd minute of the match
The FIFA World Cup competition of 2002 which was held in Korea & Japan brought up many surprises but none more so than the match that was held during the round of sixteen between Italy and South Korea. South Korea as hosts had a lot of support on their side but Italy came to the match with a better record at the finals. South Korea defied all odds to score an extra time golden goal against the Italians which sent them crashing out of the tournament.
South Korea’s goal was scored by Ahn Jung Hwan, who used to play for Perugia in Italy at that time. He was told by the president of the club that he will never again play for Perugia after bringing shame to Italian football. Later president changed his statement and Ahn Jung Hwan was welcomed back.
England versus Argentina at the round of sixteen stage in the FIFA World Cup of 1998 was another amazing spectacle. Both the countries had been at war in the year 1982 over the issue of Falklands, so a lot of political baggage was carried over into the match. During the match England’s up and coming right winger David Beckham acted extremely foolishly and reacted to foul on him by Diego Simeone. Beckham kicked out at the player and got sent off as a result. The English held on but were eventually defeated by the Argentines on penalties once the match ended at two all after extra time.
When Argentina was knocked out by the Romanians at the FIFA World Cup of 1994 during the round of sixteen, it came as a big surprise as Argentina had been finalists in the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Argentina came to the tournament with several big players in their lineup such as Batistuta, Diego Simeone, Ariel Ortega, Redondo and Cáceres. They also had Diego Maradona in their squad who only played two of their group games before being banned for failing a drug test. A lot of controversy stemmed as Maradona was sent back home during the tournament but the Argentineans were still favorites to progress to the quarter finals at least.
Their match against Romania turned into a nightmare for them as they went a goal down to Romania at the start of the match, Argentineans brought the score back to level as they were awarded a penalty shortly after which Batistuta converted into a goal. Two minutes after scoring through the penalty, Argentina went down again to a brilliant goal by Dumitrescu. In the second half, Romania scored again to extend their lead to two goals.
Argentina started to push a comeback in the dying stages of the match but were not successful as they only scored one more goal through Abel Balbo. Their knock out in the round of sixteen at the 1994 World Cup still remains one of the biggest shocks in the history of the tournament.
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