As the round of 16 it is quite possible that the winner of the Golden Shoe - the tournament top scorer - has not hit the mark yet.

Here are the current scoring leaders and here is a list of past winners back to 1966 and in what game they broke their duck.

2002 Ronaldo (8 goals) 1^st game vs. Turkey 1998 #### (6) 1^st vs. Jamaica

1994 Salenko (6) 2^nd game vs. Sweden and Stoitchkov (6) 2^nd game vs. Greece

1990 Schillachi (6) 1^st game vs. Austria

1986 Lineker (6) 3^rd game vs. Poland

1982 Rossi (6) 5^th game vs. Brazil

1978 Kempes (6) 4^th game vs. Poland

1974 Lato (7) 1^st game vs. Argentina

1970 Muller (10) 1^st game vs. Morocco  

1966 Eusebio (9) 2^nd game vs. Bulgaria

You can see from the list of previous winners that getting to the semi-final stage and ensuring the maximum number of games appears to be important. Only Salenko (5 goals in one game against Cameroon distorts his stats) and Gary Lineker in 1986 fail to fit the profile.

Of the current top 20, nine players have packed their bags and gone home.

 However, I can't see anyone ever beating Just Fontaine's 1958 record of 13 goals at a single World Cup Final.

 Of course after tomorrows games we may be looking at Ronaldo as being the single greatest goal scorer of all time at the World Cup finals.

 Who tickles your fancy?

I have heard in the last hour two suppossed examples of teams of progressing after losing their first game. Both were from 1994. This is a case of comparing apples to oranges. It is true that Bulgaria and Italy both lost their first games in 1994 and progressed - except they did so as best third place finishers an option that does not exist in 2006.

In an earlier blog I listed the few teams that had progressed in a 16 or 32 team "group-to-knock out" tournament. Over at Big Soccer someone, after a helluva lot hard work, has expanded the search to include all the World Cups that had balanced schedules with two teams progressing.

You need to follow the thread as the initial statement is proven to be incorrect.