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| July 02, 2006 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 5, 1427 |
Germany: shootout kings
BERLIN, July 1: Something had to give when Germany and Argentina's World Cup quarter-final ended in a 1-1 stalemate after extra time at the Olympiastadion on Friday.
The Germans — either in their current guise or as West Germany previously — and the Argentines had won all three shootouts they had been involved in at previous World Cups.
Successful kicks by Oliver Neuville, Michael Ballack, Lukas Podolski and Tim Borowski gave Germany a 4-2 win on Friday.
That meant Germans had now scored 26 of their 28 penalties to decide World Cup and European Championship shootouts.
West Germany won the first World Cup penalty shootout that ever took place, beating France 5-4 on penalties in the 1982 semi-final after drawing 3-3.
They also beat Mexico 4-1 on penalties in the 1986 quarter-final after a 0-0 draw, then beat England 4-3 in the 1990 semi-final after a 1-1 draw.
The only time they have lost on penalties was to Czechoslovakia in the 1976 European Championship final.
Argentina had also won all their World Cup shootouts, beating Yugoslavia and Italy in the 1990 quarter-final and semi respectively then England in the second round in 1998.
But their record ended when Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann saved penalties from Roberto Ayala and Esteban Cambiasso with Julio Cruz and Maxi Rodriguez having scored from the spot.—Reuters
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