Top 10 Goals of the 1st week.. in Pics

1. Siphiwe Tshabalala’s score for South Africa in their June 11 opening match against Mexico blasted across the goalmouth and into the upper corner. It sparked a Macarena-like dance near the corner flag in front of the home crowd at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium and inspired Archbishop Desmond Tutu to do a little jig in the stands.

2. Gabriel Heinze is the least-noted of Argentina’s stars. But in the sixth minute of the June 12 game against Nigeria, Heinze headed the ball just below the crossbar, giving the perennial World Cup favorite a 1-0 win. "I saw the cross coming and I didn't hesitate about using my forehead," he said afterward.

3. Maicon’s line-drive in the 55th minute against North Korea tucked in-between the goalkeeper and the post from what seemed an impossible angle. The Brazilian caught the goalie sleeping, but his shot still appears to defy the laws of physics. It gave Brazil a 2-1 win over North Korea on June 15.

4. Sometimes great goals are all about the assist. This was one of them. Brazil’s Róbson de Souza (known as Robinho), failed to score on half a dozen shots on goal. But he threaded the needle on a crisp, inch-perfect pass in the 72nd minute that removed about seven North Korean defenders from the play. Elano Blumer, known as Elano, had the clinical finish. Brazil won the June 16 match, 2-1.

5. Showing poise under pressure, South Korea’s Park Ji-sung gracefully wove through two Greek defenders and placed a soft chip above the keeper and into the goal. It was a “lovely, delicate, classy finish” in the words of ESPN’s announcer. It gave South Korea a 2-0 win in the June 12 match.

6. Striker Lukas Podolski's goal was one of four that Germany scored in its 4-0 route of Australia on June 13. But he got them off to their start, scoring in the eighth minute with a strong kick high into the net. Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer tipped the ball but couldn’t stop the rocket.

7. With so many goals in Germany’s 4-0 route of Australia, we’ve picked another highlight from that June 13 match. In the 26th minute, Germany striker Miroslav Klose leapt into the air above the goaltender and scored with a powerful header. Klose, who scored the goal that qualified Germany for the World Cup in a 1-0 win over Russia, now has 11 goals in three World Cup tournaments.

8. With 30 seconds remaining in the June 16 match against Slovakia, New Zealander Winston Reid headed a goal in injury time to tie the match. The 93rd-minute goal gave New Zealand its first non-loss ever in the World Cup. In the excitement he pulled off his shirt, which earned him a yellow card. "That was the most important goal of my life," he said afterward.

9. Mexico’s “The Little Green Pea,” as substitute Javier Hernandez is called, snuck his way past the French defense in their June 12 match, receiving a pass that left him alone to dribble around the goaltender and chip the ball home in the 64th minute. Mexico won 2-0, giving them a near-assurance of passing on to the next round.

10. Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuaín scored a hat trick in their 4-1 drubbing of South Korea on June 17. One goal was junk: a rebound off the sidebar. But two were crisp headers –one of them actually while facing away from the net. "It was good to see him make the most of the chances he had,” Argentina’s top player Lionel Messi said afterward.