Ecuador (3) v Costa Rica (0)

A game to be played by two South American teams that both like to play the game of soccer as it should be played. Although both sides would like to come out and play the same way, each squad is coming from a differrent places. Ecuador riding high off of their opening game victory over Poland, and Costa Rica coming off of a loss to the hosts Germany.

Even with the loss, the Costa Ricans still have ambitions of making it to the second round, but that was quickly diminished. The Ecuadorians get on the board quickly with a header goal from a cross during the run of play in the 8th minute. From the kick off to the final whistle the Ecuadorians dominate the match, creating chance after chance and end the first half up 1-0. The second half is more of the same but they are able to put away 2 goals this time, the second in extra time walk away with a 3-0 win. On goal differential, the Ecuadorians have taken the lead in Group A over the Germans and thus the Germans must win the match between the two of them to get out of the group avoiding playing England in the round of 16.