England Moves On To World Cup Quarter Finals
Posted June 25, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The English captain David Beckham scored the only goal when he curled a free kick inside the post in the 60th minute. It was a close shot – so close the Ecuadorian goalkeeper caught a piece of the ball with his fingertips.
The heat of the day and the excitement of the goal apparently overwhelmed the soccer star – he vomited on their field shortly after the shot.
“I didn’t feel well before the game,” Beckham said. “I felt fine in the first half — in the second it just came out.
“We’ve got to overcome this (heat) because there will be other days like this. We make things hard for ourselves. We don’t keep the ball as well as we can do.”
Beckham hasn’t exactly been a scoring machine of late. Sunday’s goal was his 17th in 93 international appearances and it ended a 13-match scoreless streak. His last goal was March 30, 2005.
“I haven’t scored for a while,” he said. “The last two days I’ve been struggling, even in training. Wazza (Wayne Rooney) said to me before the game, `You’ve been terrible the last two days, so you’re going to get one tonight.’
“And I got a text from Roberto Carlos this afternoon saying `Score me a free kick.’ And he’s brought me good luck.”
While Ecuador took the loss their effort this year was a strong achievement for the team. It advanced to the second round for the first time in its second World Cup appearance.
“We leave with our chins very high for all that we did,” Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez said. “It was decided as I expected, either on a dead ball or a genius move, and that’s how it happened.”
