July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026
Ranking as the 4th most watched event in television history courtesy of non-unique viewers, attracting 26.29 billion viewers and 715.1 million viewers for the tournament finals, the 2006 World Cup was one of the biggest successes FIFA ever had. Germany would be chosen as the host country of this World Cup event, but it didn’t come easy as South Africa posed as the biggest threat to steal the hosting bid away from Germany. Through 3 rounds of voting on July 6 and July 7, 2000, Germany defeated South Africa twice in the process, winning the bid with a 10-6 victory in Round 1 and 12-11 victory in Round 3. The votes were tied in Round 2 at 11 apiece.
Allegations of corruption would later be printed on German newspaper Die Zeit on June 5, 2015, claiming that Germany had bribed Saudi Arabia with military arms so that they could receive Saudi Arabia’s approval of their hosting bid. Shipments of these arms were apparently made on the week before voting began.
As the host country, Germany automatically qualified for the World Cup. From the continent of Europe, Italy, France, Portugal, England, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Serbia and Montenegro and the Netherlands all qualified. Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic soon joined them as they defeated Turkey, Norway and Slovakia in the UEFA Play-offs.
Although they had won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Brazil would not be given an automatic qualifying bid. This was partly because of France’s disappointing performance in 2002 as they would be eliminated in the First Round of the previous World Cup tournament. Nonetheless, Brazil would qualify along with Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay to represent the continent of South America.
From the combined continental zone of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States would qualify. From the continent of Africa, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Angola and Tunisia would qualify. From the continent of Asia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Iran would qualify.
In the CONMEBOL-OFC Play-off, Australia and Uruguay would tie 1-1 on aggregate, with Uruguay winning the First Leg 1-0 on November 12, 2005 and Australia winning the Second Leg 1-0 on November 16, 2005. Australia would go on to win 4-2 on penalty kicks to qualify.
In the AFC-CONCACAF Play-off, Trinidad and Tobago played to a 1-1 tie with Bahrain in the First Leg on November 12, 2005, but Trinidad and Tobago would defeat Bahrain 1-0 in the Second Leg on November 16, 2005 to win 2-1 on aggregate and qualify.
The World Cup tournament officially began on June 9, 2006 and one of its main highlights were the outstanding displays of patriotism on the part of the host country Germany as German flags were waved by natives every time the German team played. The usual suspects that were considered to be traditional powers in the game of soccer rose to the occasion in the 2006 World Cup. Australia, Ecuador and Ghana showed early flashes of potentially stealing the show, but they would be silenced in later rounds by traditional powers like Italy, France, Germany and Portugal.
Portugal had an unusual showing in the tournament. While they qualified for the knockout stages and advanced all the way to the semifinals and then the 3rd place match, Portugal would only score 2 goals in this span of regular time. It would take Portugal a length of nearly 3 games to score their second goal in the knockout stages. Their first goal in this span occurred in the 23rd minute of their Round of 16 match against the Netherlands, and their second goal occurred in the 88th minute of their 3rd place match against Germany.
German weekly news magazine Der Speigel reported that the Round of 16 game between Brazil and Ghana, which ended in a 3-0 victory for Brazil on June 27, 2006, was played under the influence of an Asian betting syndicate.
Germany captured a 3rd place finish in the 2006 World Cup with the help of Bastian Schweinsteiger, a left midfielder at the age of 21. Schweinsteiger scored 2 goals in the 56th and 78th minutes of the 3rd place match against Portugal to secure a 3-1 victory for Germany on July 8, 2006.
Going into the 2006 World Cup, expectations for Germany were relatively low as they were initially given the #22 ranking out of the 32 teams involved in the tournament. Proving their skeptics wrong, Germany went 3-0 in pool play, defeating Sweden in the Round of 16 2-0 on June 24, 2006, and defeating Argentina 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in the Quarterfinals on June 30, 2006.
France had a shaky start to their World Cup campaign as they went 1-0-2 in pool play, with a 0-0 tie against Switzerland on June 13, 2006 and a 1-1 tie against South Korea on June 18, 2006. Their only win in pool play was against Togo, defeating them 2-0 on June 23 to advance to the knockout stages. In the Round of 16 on June 27, France defeated Spain 3-1. Soccer legend Zinedine Zidane scored a goal in 2 minutes of extra time. In the Quarterfinals on July 1, France defeated Brazil 1-0 off of star striker Thierry Henry’s goal in the 57th minute. Zinedine Zidane once again came up big by scoring a goal in the 33rd minute of France’s 1-0 victory over Portugal in the Semifinals.
Italy remained steady throughout their World Cup campaign as they went 2-0-1 in pool play, defeating Ghana 2-0 on June 12, tying with the United States 1-1 on June 17, and defeating the Czech Republic 2-1 on June 22. In the Round of 16, Italy took care of Australia 1-0 on June 26 and defeated Ukraine 3-0 in the Quarterfinals on June 30. Italy would then survive a tough test against Germany in the Semifinals, defeating them 2-0 in extra time on July 4.
The main highlight passionate soccer fans will take away from the 2006 World Cup would be the event that occurred early in the World Cup Finals on July 9. Zinedine Zidane scored an early penalty kick goal in the 7th minute to give France the early lead, but then the tide turned when things got chippy between Zidane Italian centre back Marco Materazzi. Zidane would be given the red card by the referee and sent off the field in the 10th minute after giving Materazzi a headbutt to the chest. It was initially believed that Zidane delivered the headbutt for no reason, but it would be later revealed that Materazzi was insulting Zidane’s sister leading up to the headbutt.
The 2006 World Cup Finals would be the last soccer match Zidane would ever play as he retired after the match. Scoring 3 goals in the knockout stages, Zidane would be given the Golden Ball award for the World Cup Finals.
Materazzi would later score a goal for Italy in the 19th minute to tie the game, and the score would remain 1-1 after extra time. Penalty kicks would determine the 2006 World Cup champions, and Italy would prevail 5-3. Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Grosso sealed the deal by scoring Italy’s last 2 penalty kick goals.
10 different Italian players scored a goal in this World Cup tournament and 7 of them wound up being named to the 2006 World Cup All-Star Team. Considered by many as one of the greatest goaltenders in soccer history, Gianluigi Buffon won the Yashin Award for best goaltender, giving up only 2 goals in 7 games and maintaining a 453-minute scoreless streak. Joining him on the all-star team were Luca Toni, Francesco Totti, Andrea Pirio, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, and Gianluca Zombrotta.
The 2006 FIFA World Cup would also be known for the unprecedented amounts of yellow and red cards delivered by the referees. 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards were delivered in total. In the game known as the ‘Battle of Nuremberg’ on June 25, the Round of 16 match between Portugal and the Netherlands featured 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards handed out to players.
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