One Extraordinary Photo: Paraguay celebrates stunning upset of Germany

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Charles Krupa is a staff photographer for The Associated Press. He has been with the AP since 1985 and is based in Boston.

Why this photo?

After covering the first five World Cup games at Boston Stadium, where the important moments always seem to have happened at the opposite end of the pitch from where I was positioned, I finally had a crack at a big moment on my end. It happened during the Paraguay-Germany match on Monday. I was fortunate to be in a good spot when Paraguay upset Germany in penalty kicks after playing a scoreless overtime.

How I made this photo

From my position, the game plan was the goalkeeper would be my responsibility during the penalty kick period. The back and forth shoot out made solid action images of saves and goals for both teams. On the match winner, Germany’s keeper dove low and away from me to his right and the ball sailed high into the net on his left. I did not have a good angle on the keeper on the winning kick, so as my second option I targeted the Paraguay team. They were rushing straight towards me in celebration, towards the shooter on the game winner. The German team stood silent as the final kick of the match ended their World Cup dreams. The image shows the moment of balance between the winners and losers. Finally I was on the end of the field where the winner celebrated victory.

Why this photo works

All of my photog colleagues were aware of their assignments if the game was tied after overtime. I was in the right position and ready to pivot thanks to the earlier guidance of photo editor Tony Hicks and photographer Petr Josek.