Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
England defeats Colombia on penalty kicks and advances at the World Cup.
Dier halts run of penalty-kick failures in win
In a World Cup of surprises, England provided the latest by finally winning a penalty shootout.
A long run of penalty misery on soccer’s biggest stage ended with a 4-3 shootout victory over Colombia on Tuesday in Moscow, sending England to the quarterfinals for the first time in 12 years.
Eric Dier scored the decisive kick after a scrappy game ended in a 1-1 draw, denying Colombia a second consecutive trip to the quarterfinals.
“It was a nervous one,” Dier said. “I’ve never really been in a situation like that before.”
England will next play Sweden in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Samara. It is the furthest England has progressed in any tournament since the David Beckham era, when a golden generation of players exited the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in the last eight.
England is advancing in Russia after defending champion Germany was eliminated early and Argentina, Portugal and Spain went home in the round of 16.
Harry Kane gave England the lead with a penalty kick in the 57th minute. But as the game entered the third minute of stoppage time, Yerry Mina headed in an equalizer.
“To get knocked down at the end like we did, it’s difficult to come back from that,” Dier said. “But we were ready for that. We were calm. We stuck to our plan.”
England trailed 3-2 in the penalty shootout after Jordan Henderson’s shot was saved, but Mateus Uribe hit the bar and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford then saved Carlos Bacca’s kick.
“I did a whole bunch of research,” Pickford said. “Falcao is the only one who didn’t go his way. I don’t care if I’m not the biggest keeper in the world. I have the power and agility.”
Pickford succeeded where Peter Shilton, David Seaman and Paul Robinson failed as the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cup campaigns ended in shootout losses. On top of that, England was knocked out of the 1996 European Championship semifinals and the quarterfinals in 2004 and 2012 on penalties. The country’s only shootout success came earlier at Euro ’96.
With a fresh generation of players not burdened by past misery, England coach Gareth Southgate has helped to banish painful memories of his own: Missing the final kick at Euro ’96 against Germany.
Sweden 1, Switzerland 0: The heir to Zlatan Ibrahimovic finally delivered for Sweden at the World Cup.
Emil Forsberg scored a deflected goal in the 66th minute to give the Swedes a victory in St. Petersburg and a place in the quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years.
“It brings tears to my eyes,” Forsberg said, “and makes me so proud.”
Shy and understated, the 26-year-old Forsberg couldn’t be more different than the larger-than-life Ibrahimovic, who ruled the Sweden team for more than a decade and was the greatest player the country ever produced.
But Forsberg arrived in Russia shouldering the creative burden left by Ibrahimovic following his retirement two years ago, and the attacking midfielder’s skills and slick movement stood out at St. Petersburg Stadium.
His goal was scruffy, though. After getting past Granit Xhaka, Forsberg didn’t get much power behind his shot from the edge of the area and it was likely heading straight for Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer. However, it took a deflection off the foot of center back Manuel Akanji and bounced up and into the net.
It was enough to make Sweden the fifth European team to reach the quarterfinals.
The last time Sweden made it this far at the World Cup was in 1994, when the team reached the semifinals.
This was another opportunity lost by the Swiss, who have reached the last 16 in four of the last five World Cups only to be eliminated without scoring a goal. They haven’t scored in a knockout game in soccer’s biggest tournament in 64 years, when they last reached in the quarterfinals at home in 1954.
They finished the game with 10 men after right back Michael Lang was sent off in stoppage time for a foul on Sweden substitute Martin Olsson.
The referee initially awarded a penalty kick but later gave a free kick on the edge of the area after a video review.
Corner kicks: The lack of a U.S. team caused a big viewership drop for World Cup telecasts. The 48 group stage telecasts on Fox and FS1 averaged 2,069,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down 42 percent from the 3.54 million average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC four years ago and down 15 percent from the 2,429,000 average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC eight years ago. Even excluding games involving the U.S. team in previous World Cups, the average declined 28 percent from the 2014 tournament in Brazil . ... Germany coach Joachim Loew is staying on despite the team’s shocking first-round World Cup exit. The German football federation announced that it was informed by Loew that he wished to remain and “rebuild the team.” The federation said Loew was “trusted to draw the right conclusions from the World Cup exit.”