...said the official WC website. Back home, we have the Star showing us photos of the opening ceremony in print... including one on Il Divo & Toni Braxton (accompanied by an orchestra) performing the official WC song, "Time of Our Lives".
BBC shows us the World Cup Opening in pictures while Expatica (Netherlands) describes the opening ceremony in words.
And it begins with a GOAL FEST!
Germany 4-2 Costa Rica. This match will go down in WC history as the first match with the most goals since 1930 when France won 4-1 against Mexico. The 1934 Italy 7-1 USA is not being counted it was 1 of 8 first round matches that were being played simultaneously.
Disclaimer: This information is a result from a little bit of reading... I'm no walking encyclopedia on football.
The most impressive play in this game must definitely be the run up to Germany's 2nd goal where Bernd Sneider (the acting skipper while Michael Ballack sits out on the opener on account of injury) used some fancy footwork to find his way out of a corner and fed the ball to Bastian Schweinsteiger in the area on the right. The ball was then crossed over to Miroslav Klose who had sprinted up to the left side of the post and GOAL!! And what a fantastic one it is to bring up the score to 2-1 in the 17th minute.
Birthday boy, Klose, later went on to celebrate his birthday by scoring another goal in the 61st minute... and setting his pace in the race for the WC 2006 Golden Shoe (overall top scorer).
For those who remember Rudi Voeller's team of 2002 - you will definitely notice a huge difference in the Mannschaft of Jurgen Klinsmann. Attack vs. an effective team with boring play. Yet danger looms for the German-side who have been rather slack in their defence.
The 2 goals scored by CR's dangerman, Wanchope, were the result of a huge slack in the German defence line... and a close-up of the expression on (German goalie) Jens Lehmann's face at both occasions shouts out a frustrated, "What were you guys doing when I needed the extra support?!"
But above all, the German team has done well and set to give an even more interesting show when Ballack returns to the fold. Can the host find their way to the Final again? We shall all wait and see.
0 comments:
Post a Comment