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Wikipedia: 2006 FIFA World Cup

"2006 World Cup" redirects here. For other competitions of that name, see 2006 World Cup (disambiguation).

2006 FIFA World Cup - Germany FIFA Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft Deutschland 2006
Official logo (Designed by Whitestone International)^[1]
Teams	32 (from 198 entrants)
Host	Germany
Champions	Italy (4th title)
Matches played	64
Goals scored	147 (average 2.297 per match)
Attendance	(average per match)
Top scorer(s)	Miroslav Klose 5 goals

Qualifying countries

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the eighteenth instance of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000.

Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament.

The tournament was won by Italy, their fourth world championship, defeating France 5–3 in a penalty shootout after extra time finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish third.

The 2006 World Cup stands as the most watched event in television history garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people.^[2]

Host selection

Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts

The vote to choose the hosts of the 2006 tournament was held on 7 July 2000 in Zürich, Switzerland, and involved four bidding nations after Brazil had withdrawn three days earlier. The four remaining nations were Germany, South Africa, England and Morocco. Three rounds of voting were required, each round eliminating the nation with the least votes. Morocco was the first nation to be eliminated with only two of the 23 votes cast. The next nation to be eliminated was England, with two votes. Finally, Germany won the final round of voting 12-11 over South Africa, but the success of Germany's bid was marred by a hoax bribery affair which even led to calls for a re-vote.^[3] On the night before the vote, German satirical magazine Titanic sent letters to FIFA representatives, offering gifts in exchange for their vote for Germany. Oceania delegate Charles Dempsey, who had been instructed to support South Africa, abstained citing "intolerable pressure" on the eve of the vote.^[4] Had Dempsey voted as originally instructed, the vote would have resulted with a 12-12 tie, and FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who favoured the South African bid,^[5] would have had to cast the deciding vote.

Qualification

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification

One-hundred and ninety-eight teams attempted to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Hosts Germany were granted automatic qualification with the remaining thirty-one finals places divided among the continental confederations. This was the first World Cup for which the holders were not granted automatic qualification. Thirteen places were contested by UEFA teams (Europe), five by CAF teams (Africa), four by CONMEBOL teams (South America), four by AFC teams (Asia), and three by CONCACAF teams (North and Central America and Caribbean). The remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and CONCACAF and between CONMEBOL and OFC (Oceania).

Eight nations qualified for the finals for the first time: Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Ghana, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine and Serbia & Montenegro. Czech Republic and Ukraine were making their first appearance as independent nations, but had previously been represented as part of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union respectively; Serbia & Montenegro had competed as Yugoslavia in 1998, as well as making up part of Yugoslav teams from 1930 to 1990. For the first time since the 1982 World Cup, all six confederations were represented at the finals tournament.

Venues

Twelve cities were selected to host World Cup finals matches:

City	Original stadium names	World Cup 2006 stadium names^[6]	Host club(s)	Map^[7]	Capacity^[8]
Berlin	Olympiastadion	Olympiastadion	Hertha BSC Berlin	Map	74,176
Dortmund	Signal Iduna Park	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Dortmund	Borussia Dortmund		67,000
Munich (München)	Allianz Arena	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich	Bayern München, TSV 1860 München	Map	66,016
Stuttgart	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion	VfB Stuttgart	Map	54,267
Gelsenkirchen	Veltins-Arena	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Gelsenkirchen	FC Schalke 04	Map	53,804
Hamburg	AOL Arena	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Hamburg	Hamburger SV	Map	51,055
Frankfurt	Commerzbank-Arena	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Frankfurt	Eintracht Frankfurt		48,132
Cologne (Köln)	RheinEnergieStadion	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Cologne	1. FC Köln	Map	46,134
Hanover (Hannover)	AWD-Arena	FIFA World Cup Stadium, Hanover	Hannover 96	Map	44,652
Leipzig	Zentralstadion	Zentralstadion	FC Sachsen Leipzig	Map	44,199
Kaiserslautern	Fritz-Walter-Stadion	Fritz-Walter-Stadion	1. FC Kaiserslautern	Map	43,450
Nuremberg (Nürnberg)	EasyCredit-Stadion	Frankenstadion	1. FC Nürnberg	Map	41,926

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate during the tournament.

Squads

For more details on this topic, see 2006 FIFA World Cup squads.

Squads for the 2006 World Cup consisted of 23 players, same as the previous edition in 2002. Each national association had to confirm its 23-player squad in May 2006.

Groups

Seeds

Further information: 2006 FIFA World Cup seeding

The eight seeded teams for the 2006 tournament were announced on 5 December 2005. The seeds comprised Pot A in the draw. Pot B contained the unseeded qualifiers from South America, Africa and Oceania; Pot C contained eight of the nine remaining European sides, excluding Serbia and Montenegro. Pot D contained unseeded sides from the CONCACAF region and Asia. A special pot contained Serbia and Montenegro: this was done to ensure that no group contained three European teams. In the special pot, Serbia and Montenegro (white ball) was drawn first, then their group was drawn (black ball) from the three seeded non-European nations, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

It had been predetermined that, as hosts, Germany would be placed in Group A, thus being assured of the venues of their group matches in advance of the draw. FIFA had also announced in advance that Brazil (the defending champions) would be allocated to Group F.

Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D	Special Pot
Argentina Brazil England France Germany Italy Mexico Spain	Angola Australia Côte d'Ivoire Ecuador Ghana Paraguay Togo Tunisia	Croatia Czech Republic Netherlands Poland Portugal Switzerland Sweden Ukraine	Costa Rica Iran Japan Korea Republic Saudi Arabia Trinidad and Tobago USA	Serbia and Montenegro

On 9 December 2005 the draw was held and the group assignments and order of fixtures were determined. After the draw was completed, many football commentators remarked that Group C appeared to be the group of death. In actuality, however, the group was among the first to be settled; Argentina and the Netherlands both qualified with a game to spare with comfortable wins over Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Serbia and Montenegro respectively.^[9]^[10]

Group system

The first round, or group stage, saw the thirty-two teams divided into eight groups of four teams. Each group was a round-robin of six games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The teams coming first and second in each group qualified for the second round.

Ranking criteria

If teams were level on points, they were ranked on the following criteria in order:

Greatest total goal difference in the three group matches
Greatest number of goals scored in the three group matches
If teams remained level after those criteria, a mini-group would be formed from those teams, who would be ranked on:
1. Most points earned in matches against other teams in the tie
2. Greatest goal difference in matches against other teams in the tie
3. Greatest number of goals scored in matches against other teams in the tie
If teams remained level after all these criteria, FIFA would hold a drawing of lots

In the original version of the rules for the final tournament, the ranking criteria were in a different order, with head-to-head results taking precedence over total goal difference. The rules were changed to the above in advance of the tournament, but older versions were still available on the FIFA and UEFA websites, causing some confusion among those trying to identify the correct criteria.^[11]

In any event, the final tournament saw only two pairs of teams level on points: Argentina and the Netherlands at 7 points in Group C; Tunisia and Saudi Arabia at 1 point in Group H. Both of these ties were resolved on total goal difference. Also, in both cases the teams had tied their match, so the order of ranking criteria made no difference.

Finals tournament

2006 FIFA World Cup Wall Chart

Overview

The finals tournament of the 2006 World Cup began on 9 June. The 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four teams each, within which the teams competed in a round-robin tournament to determine which two of those four teams would advance to the sixteen-team knock-out stage, which started on 24 June. In total, 64 games were played.

Hosting

Although Germany failed to win the Cup, the tournament was considered a great success for Germany in general.^[12] The stadia and transportation systems were state-of-the-art, and the German people were lauded for their hospitality and enthusiasm and gained new friends world-wide. One big innovation was the Fan Fests, where millions of people watched the World Cup matches in public viewing areas. South Africa has already declared it will emulate this idea for the 2010 tournament. Germany also experienced a sudden increase in patriotic spirit with unprecedented flag waving, traditionally frowned upon by German society since World War II, whenever the German team played.^[13]

Traditional powers dominate

Despite early success by Australia, Ecuador and Ghana, the tournament marked a return to dominance of the traditional football powers. Four years after a 2002 tournament in which teams from North America (United States), Africa (Senegal), and Asia (South Korea) made it deep into the knockout stages and Turkey finished third, all eight seeded teams progressed to the knockout stages, and none of the quarter-finalists were from outside Europe or South America. Six former champions took part in the quarter-final round, with Ukraine and Euro 2004 runners-up Portugal as the only relative outsiders.

Argentina and Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals, leaving an all-European final four for only the fourth time (after the 1934, 1966 and 1982 tournaments).

Scoring

Despite the early goals that flooded the group stages, the knock-out phase had a much lower goals per match ratio. A prime example of the dearth of goals was Portugal, who only scored in the 23rd minute of the Round of 16, and did not score again until the 88th minute of the third place play-off. Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and France were the only teams to score more than one goal in a knockout match. Germany was one of the exceptions to the rule, tending to play an attacking style of football throughout the knockout stage, which was reflected by their being the team that scored the most goals (14).

Germany's Miroslav Klose scored 5 goals to claim the Golden Boot, the lowest total to win the prize since 1962. No other player scored more than three goals. No player from the winning Italian squad scored more than two goals, though ten different players had scored for them, tying the record for the most goalscorers from any one team.

For the first time ever in the FIFA World Cup, the first and last goals of the tournament were scored by defenders. Philipp Lahm the German wing-back scored the opener against Costa Rica after only 5 minutes of the first match. In the final, Marco Materazzi, the Italian centre back, out-jumped Patrick Vieira and headed in the last goal of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Unprecedented number of cards

In comparison to earlier World Cups, the tournament was notable for the number of yellow and red cards given out, breaking the record set by the 1998 World Cup. Players received a record-breaking 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards, with Valentin Ivanov handing out 16 yellow and 4 red cards in the round of 16 match between Portugal and the Netherlands. Portugal had two players suspended for each of the quarter-final and semi-final matches, respectively. FIFA President Sepp Blatter hinted that he may allow some rule changes for future tournaments so that earlier accumulated bookings will not force players to miss the final, should their teams make it that far. The tournament also saw English referee Graham Poll mistakenly hand out three yellow cards to Croatia's Josip Šimunić in their match against Australia.

The high number of yellow and red cards shown also prompted discussion about the referees. FIFA Officials and President Sepp Blatter received criticism for allegedly making rules too rigid and taking discretion away from referees.^[14]

Final

The final started with each side scoring within the first 20 minutes. Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial seventh-minute penalty kick,^[15] which glanced off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal. Marco Materazzi then levelled the scores in the 19th minute following an Andrea Pirlo corner. Both teams had chances to score the winning goal in normal time - Luca Toni hit the crossbar for Italy, later having a header disallowed for offside, while France were not granted a second penalty in the 53rd minute when Florent Malouda was felled in the box. France appeared to be the better side with over ten more shots than the Italian team. They were unable to capitalise, however, and the score remained at one goal each.

At the end of the regulation 90 minutes, the score was still level at 1–1, and the match was forced into extra time. Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon made a potentially game-saving save in extra time when he tipped a Zidane header over the crossbar. Further controversy ensued near the end of extra time, when Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident and was sent off. Extra time produced no further goals and a penalty shootout followed, which Italy won 5–3. France's David Trezeguet, the man who scored the Golden Goal against Italy in Euro 2000, was the only player not to score his penalty; his spot kick hit the crossbar. It was the first all-European final since Italy won the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and the second final (1994 was first, although Italy lost that time) to be decided on penalties. It was also Italy's first world title in 24 years, and their fourth overall, putting them one ahead of Germany/West Germany and only one behind Brazil. The victory also led to Italy topping the FIFA Coca Cola Rankings in February 2007 for the first time since November 1993.

First round

In the following tables:

Pts = total points accumulated
Pld = total games played
W = total games won
D = total games drawn (tied)
L = total games lost
GF = total goals scored (goals for)
GA = total goals conceded (goals against)
GD = goal difference (GF−GA)

The teams placed first and second (shaded in green) qualified to the round of 16. Full results and goalscorers are available in the article for each group.

Group A

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group A

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD
Germany	9	3	3	0	8	2	+6
Ecuador	6	3	2	1	5	3	+2
Poland	3	3	1	2	2	4	−2
Costa Rica	0	3	0	3	3	9	−6

Group B

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
England	7	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3
Sweden	5	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1
Paraguay	3	3	1	0	2	2	2	0
Trinidad and Tobago	1	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4

Group C

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group C

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Argentina	7	3	2	1	0	8	1	+7
Netherlands	7	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2
Côte d'Ivoire	3	3	1	0	2	5	6	−1
Serbia and Montenegro	0	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8

Group D

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group D

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Portugal	9	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4
Mexico	4	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1
Angola	2	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1
Iran	1	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4

Group E

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group E

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Italy	7	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4
Ghana	6	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1
Czech Republic	3	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1
USA	1	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4

Group F

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group F

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Brazil	9	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6
Australia	4	3	1	1	1	5	5	0
Croatia	2	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1
Japan	1	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5

Group G

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group G

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Switzerland	7	3	2	1	0	4	0	+4
France	5	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2
Korea Republic	4	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1
Togo	0	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5

Group H

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup - Group H

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Spain	9	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7
Ukraine	6	3	2	0	1	5	4	+1
Tunisia	1	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3
Saudi Arabia	1	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5

Knockout stage

The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament involving the sixteen teams that qualified from the group stage of the tournament. There were four rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were: Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, Final. There was also a play-off to decide third/fourth place. For each game in the knockout stage, a draw was followed by thirty minutes of extra time (two fifteen minute halves); if scores were still level there would be a penalty shootout (at least five penalties each, and more if necessary) to determine who progressed to the next round. Scores after extra time are indicated by (a.e.t.), and penalty shoot outs are indicated by (pen.).