Top > Sport > 2006 > June > 2006-06-27

Beckham Sends England to the Quarterfinal

David Beckham scored a brilliant goal. That is the only thing soccer fans will remember from the match between England and Ecuador. England played in a very weak fashion and did not have any one in front besides Wayne Rooney. Ecuador was a bit overwhelmed by the fact they are playing England and did not really try to score. The combination of the two was a non-event of 90 minutes with one memorable goal.

Beckham was highly criticized in Britain for his weak performance during the tournament and some voices even called Sven-Goran Eriksson to put Beckham on the bench. David Beckham produced a long-overdue piece of free-kick magic to sink Ecuador and book his team into the last eight. If not, England would have to battle Ecuador for an additional 30 minutes and maybe even face penalty shots.

England is set to face Portugal on Saturday for the quarterfinals stage, after Portugal beat Netherlands in a hard and brutal match that has not been seen in a while. England will have to improve significantly if it wants to make it past Portugal. The British team has not shown any sign of being capable to go all the way and their victories so far were far from impressive.