Germany v Costa Rica, Poland v Ecuador

The Germany v Costa Rica was a good match to start the tournament with. Beforehand, the silly niggling rumour-mongering conveyed a disruption in the German camp that Michael Ballack declared himself fit while Jurgen Klinsmann stated the new Chelsea man would take no part in the match. Turned out Klinsmann was right, and the implications of your national captain disputing with the national coach would echo heavily amongst the homeland as hosts. Sounds like someone was stirring pretty heavily but came up stuck as Ballack joined in on the bench. According to the BBC team line-up prior to kick-off, a player whose corresponding shirt number was in red indicated being unfit to play, as FIFA are informed of this before kick-off. Ballack's was red, therefore he was considered unfit to play by Klinsmann.

Great goals from both sides. , Philip Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger linking up well on the left for Lahm to cut inside and shoot past Jose Porras, only for old Premiership boy Paulo Wanchope to break the German offside trap for the equaliser, coolly taken despite being closed down by two defenders and the keeper. Schneider, skipper for the match, played well and ran down the right to cut back for Schweinsteiger, whose diagonal shot was touched in by Miroslav Klose. Klose continued his 2002 goal poaching by heading a cross at Porras and then following up to increase the lead but yet again Wanchope was on hand to break the defence again for Costa Rica's second goal. Yet the Costa Ricans' would go on the attack and then kill its advantage by playing it back or simply not moving forward fast enough, which allowed the Germans to come back in numbers, therefore the Costa Ricans' were made to sweat their way forward and then fail to make a breakthrough.

That being that, the Germans didn't give up on another goal and Torsten Frings was squared to by Schweinsteiger and unleashed a fierce drive from some 30yards that was caught excellently by the German defender and curled away from Porras. It was a fitting end to a good game that kicked off theWorld Cup 2006.


I received a text from T in regard to Poland's answer to Wayne Rooney (T's words), Jacek Krzynowek, who is known for a burst of speed, skill and a decent left-foot on him. With the expectation that he and Celtic's Maciej Zurawski would apply a stern test to the Ecuadorian defence, things fell very short for Poland. Skipper Ivan Hurtado and Giovanny Epinoza were holding very firm in central defence as Ulises de la Cruz and Neiser Reasco broke forward well on attack from full back positions.

De la Cruz took the throw that was headed on by another Premiership old boy on the day, Augustin Delgado, and Carlos Tenorio jumped the quickest and highest to nod Ecuador in the lead on 24mins. Poland gambled on the lone striker and for me they are better than this in 4-4-2. Ecuador began to make more runs, weaving in and out of midfield as Poland stood gazed and struggled to block their opponents out. Poland became slightly better in the second half with their attacks but couldnt find the right play in front of goal, and were superbly denied by a last ditch tackle from Epinoza on Radoslaw Sobolewski just as the midfielder cocked to shoot yards in front of keeper Christian Mora.

However Ecuador fially put paid to Poland's urgence for an equaliser as Luis Valencia and Edison Mendez, who both were influential in Ecuador's attacking play, linked up for Mendez to thread a through ball to Ivan Kaviedes, just onside, who squared it easily to Delgado past the despairing Artur Boruc for the second goal. Poland were very unfortunate with two hard strikes against the post in the closing moments through subs Ireneusz Jelen and Pawel Brozak, but had they gone in, Poland would have scraped a draw through those strikes they scarcely deserved.

I had expected a shock win for the Costa Ricans but they played at times quite lethargic other than the two moments when they scored, while Ecuador showed that they are a team not affected by altitude, as had been mentioned, to beat Poland.




RedsMan.