Group A Final Games

Group A Final Games:
Germany 3 : 0 Ecuador:The strikers are scoring, the defense is holding and Germany is off to its best World Cup start in 36 years...

Costa Rica 1 : 2 Poland: Poland's lone World Cup victory came too late, exactly as it did four years ago...
Costa Rica-Poland Match Report:
Bartosz Bosacki scored twice to lead Poland to a 2-1 win over Costa Rica on Tuesday in a Group A game between two teams already eliminated from the tournament.
Poland, which lost its first two games in Germany, also won its last game at the 2002 World Cup, when it beat the United States 3-1 in South Korea after dropping its first two group games.
The winner against Costa Rica came in the 66th minute, when Bosacki rose above Paulo Wanchope to powerfully head Jacek Krzynowek's corner kick into the goal.
"The whole team rose to the challenge today," Bosacki said. "The game cost us a lot of energy, but I'm happy that we can leave the tournament with our heads held high. It's just too bad that we're going home so soon."
Poland coach Pawel Janas was proud of his team's effort, even if it "came too late."
"The team really fought hard today and left a lot on the field," he said.
Costa Rica took a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute when Ronald Gomez's low, left-footed free kick from 19 yards out got past the defensive wall and goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

Gomez then gave the Ticos a chance to go up 2-0 when he skipped clear of two defenders to feed an unmarked Paulo Wanchope at the edge of the penalty area. But Boruc easily smothered Wanchope's weak right-footed shot.
Bosacki tied the score in the 33rd off a corner kick by Maciej Zurawski. Costa Rica goalkeeper Jose Porras ran out in an attempt to punch the corner kick away, but he stumbled and the ball fell to Bosacki, who knocked it in the net.
"We paid dearly for our distractions. They cost us in all three matches," Costa Rica coach Alexandre Guimaraes said. "Today, the goals came on our carelessness on set plays."
Poland had another solid opportunity just before halftime, but Porras pushed midfielder Krzynowek's dipping free kick from 25 yards wide of the goal.
Costa Rica took the initiative early in the second half. Mauricio Solis took a long lob from Walter Centeno into the box. But his flick shot was easily snagged by Boruc.
"We played much better today," Guimaraes said. "We were very good penetrating into the area, but we were not concentrating on their corners."
Poland also had solid chances. In the 53rd minute, Euzebiusz Smolarek dribbled clear for a shot from the top of the box, but knocked it straight at Porras.

The Poles controlled the flow of play after Bosacki's second goal pushed them ahead. Still, with Wanchope testing the Poles' offside trap, the Ticos seemed capable of poaching a goal to earn the draw.
It looked as if Wanchope had done it for them. Costa Rica's all-time leading scorer flicked the ball past Boruc in the game's last moments, but was ruled offside.
Bosacki wasn't originally on coach Janas' 23-man World Cup roster. He joined the team after Damian Gorawski failed his physical due to circulatory and respiratory problems.
But he still wasn't enough to get Poland into the second round.
Thousands of Poles made the short trip to neighboring Germany to support their team. They dominated the crowd, festooning the stadium with red-and-white Polish flags and chanting "Poland! Poland!"
Costa Rica heads home after surrendering nine goals in its three losses.
"Despite the best effort the team gave, it wasn't enough," Guimaraes said.
Germany-Ecuador Match Report:

Miroslav Klose scored twice to help the World Cup host beat Ecuador 3-0 on Tuesday. The victory gave Germany the maximum nine points and first place in Group A. Lukas Podolski also scored for Germany, which last won its first three matches at a World Cup in 1970.
Even better than the prolific offense - eight goals in the first round - is a once-vulnerable defense that has not conceded a goal in two straight games.
"Our goal was to win the group and we achieved this," Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann said. "We are looking forward to the knockout stage. Our strikers are in really good shape, they are working hard and scoring. But it will be more difficult to score in later rounds, so they will have to work even harder."
Both teams were assured of advancing to the second round before the kickoff. Their opponents would be determined after later matches pitting England vs. Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago vs. Paraguay. Germany, a three-time World Cup winner, will play Saturday in Munich, and Ecuador will play Sunday in Stuttgart.
Klose, who now has nine World Cup goals, finished strong German pressure early in the match when he scored in the fourth minute.
After a German corner kick, the Ecuadorean defense could not clear the ball and it was sent back to defender Per Mertesacker, who flicked it over to the far post. Bastian Schweinsteiger crossed it back onto the path of Klose, who drove it inside the far post.
Klose celebrated with his trademark somersault, a gesture he says is reserved for important goals in big games.
"Miro has been in great form for months," Klinsmann said of Klose, who led the Bundesliga last season with 25 goals.
The striker, who also scored twice in Germany's 4-2 opening win over Costa Rica, had several other shots and another attempt stopped by goalkeeper Cristian Mora.
Then, the German team suddenly came alive again.
Captain Michael Ballack chipped a pass to the edge of the Ecuador box, Klose shook off two defenders while playing the ball off his thigh, went around Mora and coolly slotted home.
Edwin Tenorio gave Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann his first real test of the match in the 49th with a long-range shot that Lehmann tipped over the crossbar.
Luis Valencia then nearly took the German captain out of the game with a vicious kick that hit Ballack in the left foot. After some treatment, Ballack stayed in.
" We didn't have possesion of the ball," said Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez. "We had problems, especially in the final quarter of the field. It happened all the time, we recovered a ball only to again lose it right away.
"We are going to show (in the second round) that what was said about us in the first two matches was true. I hope we will do nothing of what was seen in this match."
Klose's partner in Germany's attack, Podolski, nearly brushed the post after a quick move in the 54th. And with Ecuador trying to go forward, large gaps left in its defense were exploited by the Germans in the 57th.
Robert Huth blocked a shot outside the Germany penalty area, and Schweinsteiger carried the ball forward. He waited to time his pass to Bernd Schneider perfectly. Schneider then curled a cross into the box, finding the galloping Podolski, whose poke rolled inside the right post.
The Germans walked around the field and waved to the fans giving them a standing ovation. The players then stopped, linked hands and raised their arms in unison to thank the thousands of flag-waving spectators.
It was a memorable scene in a stadium where Jesse Owens won gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler 70 years ago. The German team rarely plays in the Olympic Stadium - but has its sights on another trip to the historic arena, on July 9 in the World Cup final.
"We like returning to the stadiums we know and hopefully we'll be back here," Klinsmann said.