Ivory Coast go further ahead

Germany’s shock loss to Ecuador has put a bit more pressure on the Socceroos to get a result out of their match against Paraguay.

The Aussies will secure themselves second on the group and automatic qualification if they win or draw with Paraguay.

A loss could be enough to get them through as one of the highest-ranked third-place finishers, but Ecuador just became the second team to secure one of those spots with four points. Bosnia and Herzegovina were the first.

At the moment, Scotland are in the last of those spots with three points and a goal difference. Korea is the only other team in the eight to have played all three matches, and they have three points and a -1 goal difference.

What it means is if the Socceroos do lose this match, they wouldn’t want to do so by more than a goal.

As it stands, the Socceroos are second in Group D with three points and an even goal difference.

Sweden, Croatia, Algeria and Paraguay are the other teams currently in the eight. They’re all on three points, but all still have a match to play. A draw would secure them progression with four points, and a win would put them into automatic qualification.

The ball from arguably one of the most famous – or infamous – moments in World Cup history is about to go under the hammer.

And the starting bid is expected to be somewhere in the region of $3.6 million.

Auctioneers have described the match ball from Argentina’s 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England – made famous by Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal – as the “holy grail” of football memorabilia.

The ball is being auctioned by Heritage Auctions, who predict the ball could sell for somewhere in the region of $13 million. Maradona’s match-worn shirt from the same game sold for a reported US$9.2 million in 2022.

“It’s a true one-of-one item … arguably the most significant soccer item that exists,” Heritage specialist auctioneer Mike Provenzale told Reuters.

The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico has triggered a boom in football collectibles and memorabilia in the region.

Ecuador has booked its spot in the round-of-32, with a shock 2-1 upset over Germany.

The match looked like it might have been over when the Germans scored 107 seconds after kickoff, but they’ve done the improbably and won from behind.

Ecuador has only ever made it out of the group stage once -- in 2006 when they were knocked out in the round of 16.

They didn’t qualify in 2010 or 2018, and didn’t make it out of the group stages in the other three tournaments held since then.

There are some wonderful images post-match. Some of the players are celebrating as if they had won the whole thing.

In the other match, the Ivory Coast finished 2-0 winners over Curacao.

With four points, Ecuador has guaranteed it will be among the best eight third-place finishers. Bosnia and Herzegovina also locked itself in.

Ecuador has gone ahead!

This is huge for world football! Ecuador hadn’t scored a goal in this tournament so far, yet they’ve just gone 2-1 up against Germany.

There are thousands of yellow shirts in the stands, and every single one of them just erupted in unison.

“The World Cup dream lives on … that is a huge goal,” commentator Peter Drury said on SBS.

“Ecuador is a huge footballing nation with a huge heart, and it may still have a huge part in this World Cup.”

Ecuador had to win this match to have any chance of progressing, and as it stands, they will do just that, barring some other massive upsets in the other matches.

In a great little insight, Drury said the Ecuadorian commentators are in the booth immediately in front of them, and both were celebrating as if they were fans.

FIFA is pushing ahead with plans for the “Prided Match” between Iran and Egypt this weekend, and declared the rainbow pride flag one of “human rights”.

Officials from the two competing nations had protested the decision, and cited FIFA’s ban on political statements in the stadium and on the field.

However, the football governing body has declared the World Cup “an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds”.

“General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted … and may be displayed inside stadiums,” a statement read.

The final Group G match in Seattle, which falls on the city’s Pride Weekend, had already been declared the tournament’s pride match before the scheduling and draw was announced.

Both countries are majority Muslim, and homosexuality criminalised.

Seattle’s Pride Weekend has been held annually in some form on the last weekend in June for more than 50 years.

FIFA also emphasised the pride weekend activations planned for the area around the city have been organised by local organisations and not the governing body itself.

Why are we watching matches on two screens this morning?

Because of the “Disgrace of Gijon” match at the 1982 World Cup, in which West Germany and Austria essentially fixed their final group match to ensure they both progressed and knocked Algeria, which was playing its first World Cup, out of the tournament.

Algeria shocked the Germans with a 2-1 win in the opening match. They then lost to Austria and beat Chile.

Austria were through with two wins having also beaten Chile, as did Germany. A 1-0 win against Austria would have been enough for the Germans to go through.

So that’s what happened. Germany scored about 10 minutes in, and then both teams virtually stopped playing. They just passed the ball around to each other, with neither side making any attacking move.

As a result, FIFA changed the scheduling for future tournaments to stop such an event ever happening again.

But in a twist of irony, Algeria and Austria are playing their final group clash on Sunday morning, and both would surely far prefer to lose to give themselves a more favourable round-of-32 opponent.

Argentina has already locked itself in as winner of Group J. Austria and Algeria are also through, albeit one in second and one as a highest-ranked third place finisher.

However, neither will really want to finish second, because they’ll come up against Spain.

The third-place finisher is most-likely to play Switzerland – a significantly easier challenge than Spain.

Anyway. That’s why we’re all watching matches on two screens this morning.

We’re off and running in the two group E matches – Germany v Ecuador and Curaçao v Ivory Coast.

And Germany has scored in just the second minute! There’s a brief VAR check for a potential foul on the defender, but the review is waved off and the goal stands!

The check was for a high boot on a bouncing ball. The boot did touch the defender’s head, who went down.

“It is a contentious one – normally most places on the pitch you would be penalised for that,” commentator Alan Smith said on SBS.

That was Germany’s quickest world cup goal since 1934.

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