King Kaufman's Sports Daily

In World Cup knockout games, the second goal gets even more important! Plus, those poor Minnesota Twins and their 17-2 streak.

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June 30, 2006 | With the World Cup swinging back into action Friday with the quarterfinals, be on the lookout for the telltale first-goal graphic. As of the start of play Friday, teams that had scored the first goal of a game were 36-8-6 in the tournament.

ESPN will surely flash that stat if someone scores in the Germany-Argentina game, scoreless at halftime as this column goes live. But savvy readers of this space will know enough to shout at the TV: Bogus stat!

Teams that have scored the second goal are 29-4-6, a better record.

Remember the objective, kids: Score second!

In fact, since the World Cup has gone to knockout games, the first goal has been the most dangerous to score. Turn to the guy on the next stool when that first one goes in and ESPN flashes that graphic, and say, "What are you doing in a bar at this hour? You unemployed too?"

Wait, don't say that. Say this: "In the eight knockout games so far, the only goals losing teams have scored have been the first goal of the game. Everybody who's scored a goal other than the first one has won."

Spain and Mexico both scored first, then lost. All of the other games have been shutouts. Here's the record of the team that scored each goal of a game in the round of 16:

1st goal: 5-2
2nd goal: 4-0
3rd goal: 3-0
4th goal: 1-0

So once again you see the importance of the second goal, yessiree, but the striking thing is the danger in scoring that first one. The rallying cry in knockout games, it seems, is no longer "Get out there and score second, boys!" Now it's "Get out there and don't score first!" A critical distinction.

You can learn so much from ESPN graphics, can't you?

Here are the overall records of the teams that have scored each goal. For comparison, rather than winning percentage, which I've used before, I'll tell you how many points per game these records have earned, with a win worth three points and a tie one:

1st goal: 36-8-6, 2.28
2nd goal: 29-4-6, 2.38
3rd goal: 17-3-3, 2.35
4th goal: 10-0-3, 2.54
5th goal: 3-1-0, 2.50
6th goal: 2-0-0, 3.00

As you can see, no goal is less productive than the first.

Note: This column was published at 12:05 p.m. EDT. At 12:06 p.m. EDT, Argentina scored the first goal of its game against Germany. At 12:08 p.m. EDT, ESPN flashed a graphic saying that teams that had scored first were 36-8-6 in the tournament. Germany scored the second goal, then won the game on penalty kicks.

Next page: Those poor 17-2 Minnesota Twins