June 09: The Daily World Cup Wrap
The opening ceremony was predictably dull, all dancing and waving, but that’s OK because some great football was to follow. Eight goals on the first day? Yes please, and that magic, swervy Teamgeist ball should guarantee plenty more as it bobs and weaves its way past goalkeepers over the next month.
The 4-2 win for a Ballack-less Germany is good news for the tournament, because a winning host nation is a happy host nation, though Jurgen Klinsmann will need to plug that leaky defence if he wants to keep the good volk of Deutschland smiling. Ecuador’s 2-0 win over Poland has surprised some, who (wrongly) assumed they would struggle away from their high altitude home stadium. Looks like the game to watch in Group A will now be Germany vs Ecuador, not Germany vs Poland.
Germany vs Costa Rica | LiveBlog
Germany 4 (Lahm 5, Klose 16, 60, Frings 86)
Costa Rica 2 (Wanchope 11, 72)
That ball might be swervy, but the players still have to strike it properly to get on the scoresheet. Philipp Lahm and Torsten Frings did just that, with one glorious long range effort each (Frings’ is the early leader for goal of the tournament), while Miroslav Klose scored twice from much, well, closer. His second was predatory, reacting quickly to the rebound from his own shot, and Klose may already have one foot in the Golden Boot (that’s just a metaphor, you can’t actually wear it).
Germany attacked with conviction, but looked a shambles at the back. Paulo Wanchope and his long legs made a mockery of their offside trap (note to German defenders: just raising your arm isn’t enough to make someone offside) twice breaking through to score past Lehmann. Costa Rica never looked like turning Germany over, but if Wanchope can keep scoring the Ticos could still bounce back from this defeat.
Go here for goals and highlights.
Photo of the day: German fans at the Brandenburg Gate screen, 10 minutes before kick off.
Follow the links for more World Cup Blog photos and video, or submit your own to the site.
Did we get it Right? No we did not. Not one of the five man World Cup Blog prediction panel saw this coming. Nick, Sean and Chris all predicted Costa Rica would fail to score (they obviously reckoned without Paulo Wanchope). Peter predicted a 1-0 Costa Rican victory (he obviously reckoned without the magic, swervy ball) and Bob predicted a 15-2 German win (he obviously had a bad case of World Cup fever).
Want to discuss todays action? Go to the Germany and Costa Rica team pages.
Poland vs Ecuador | LiveBlog
Poland 0
Ecuador 2 (C. Tenorio 23, Delgado 80)
Ecuador looked pretty impressive, playing some attractive football while recording this victory over Poland. Agustin “Tin Man” Delgado weighed in with a goal and an assist. His flick-on set up Tenorio for the first, before he sealed the win by scoring from close range with ten minutes to go. The Poles refused to go quietly, hitting the frame of the goal twice late on, but it was a disappointing day for the Polish fans who made the trip across the border.
Go here to see FIFA’s official match highlights
Photo of the day: Ecuador fans at half-time.
Follow the links for more World Cup Blog photos and video, or submit your own to the site.
Did we get it Right? Yes! Peter correctly predicted Ecuador’s 2-0 victory, and Chris was close with 3-1 to the boys in yellow. Sean’s 1-1 didn’t happen, while Nick backed a loser with 1-0 to Poland. The less said about Bob’s 7-4 to Poland the better.
To discuss this game further head over to the Ecuador or Poland team pages.
In other news:
Italian coach Marcello Lippi has promised to shave his head if Italy wins the trophy.
Mexico’s Guillermo Franco scored a double hat-trick in their final warm up.
Sylvie Meis (wife of Rafael van de Vaart) won the Most Beautiful Player’s Wife contest.
Paraguay’s Nelson Cuevas’ guitar playing has been red-carded, but who by?
Switzerland’s Johan Vonlanthen is refusing to go quietly. The Swiss team say he’s injured and want to replace him with Hakan Yakin, but Vonlanthen claims he’s fine and has sent FIFA his medical records to prove it! What’s the German word for awkward?
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Comments
By Altintop | June 10th, 2006 at 2:02 am 
Spot on, Ecuador vs Germany is the game to watch. I won’t be surprised if Ecuador tops the group.
Posted from 
United States
By Anna | June 10th, 2006 at 2:08 am The German word for awkward? That has to be “seltsam”…
Posted from 
Germany
By sam | June 10th, 2006 at 2:14 am Great Ecuador/Poland match. I gotta say, I’ve never seen so many jheri curls since the Michael Jackson “Thriller” music video.
Posted from United States
By B'slav | June 10th, 2006 at 2:17 am Its that damn ball, it favours attacking teams.
Posted from 
Australia
By daryl | June 10th, 2006 at 2:18 am Thanks Anna!
Posted from United States
By Ninj | June 10th, 2006 at 2:55 am fantastic first day. It felt like christmas when I woke up this morning!
Posted from United States
By Trent | June 10th, 2006 at 2:56 am Yeah, nice breakdown, daryl. This group may yet turn out to be interesting.
If–IF!–Ecuador and Germany win next week, that last ECU v. GER match will be massive!
Counting, chickens, hatch, etc.
By Shirley | June 10th, 2006 at 3:24 am Awesome first day!! Linked you in my blog.
By eltomas | June 10th, 2006 at 4:14 am of course ecuador won, they are very good team, I followed each match of the south american qualifiers since I’m colombian and saw this coming, it irritates me when I read a bunch of reviews saying that ecuador winning was a surprise, do your homework people!!!!
Posted from United States
By Philip | June 10th, 2006 at 4:14 am Trent,
If Ecu and Ger both win, wouldn’t that make their match fairly anticlimactic? History teaches that avoiding another group’s #1 in the next round is rarely enough of a motivation to produce great soccer.
By Trent | June 10th, 2006 at 4:31 am Philip – I think that in this case, (likely) avoiding England and a fit Wayne Rooney would be some motivation.
But you could be right. In that scenarion, they may just sleep walk to a 0-0 draw. I hope not, though.
By zé | June 10th, 2006 at 4:36 am Awesome first day.
This might help tomorrow when trying to watch game streams, I’ll have to remember to test it –
Available stream “channels” are on the right.
Posted from 
Brazil
By Adrian Wagner | June 10th, 2006 at 5:08 am Hm. I don’t get the ‘ball blame game’. It favours ‘attacking teams’? Attacking teams can still run into two, three counter-attack and loose despite ‘Teamgeist’. Italy will show us soon!
Great first day. Man, it’s going to be tough to watch here in Oz. 5am the last match finishes and usually I will have to get up at 7 am. Argh. But this first day made some promisses, so we will have to ’suffer’.
Now looking forward to the next surprise: Paraguay drawing England today!
Posted from Australia
By Philip | June 10th, 2006 at 7:12 am Adrian: How do you think the Americas felt last time around? 
But in fairness, you all have had this problem many more times when the WC has been in Europe, and both times when Australia has qualified to play in Germany.
By Dave Hamilton | June 10th, 2006 at 10:48 am It was indeed refreshing to see the folks here in Heidelberg celebrating for a justifiable event rather than whining in protets against Americans in Iraq. They need to GET OVER IT, move on, and support their team — which BTW isn’t going anywhere with that excuse for a back line they have.
Posted from Germany
By FIFAworldcup.com - The Un Official Site of Fifa World Cup 2006 | June 12th, 2006 at 8:50 am Video: World Cup Song
Below is a video of Toni Braxton and II Divo singing the World Cup song titled “The Time Of Our Lives” at the opening festivities held at Munich Stadium.
An excellent performance by the two stars making us feel and heightening the euphor…
Posted from United States
By gogermany | June 15th, 2006 at 12:46 am GOOOOO GERMANYYYYYYYYYYYYY W0000000000000000000000000000T!!!!!
Posted from 
Canada
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