Brazil all the way! Good luck to you guys tomorrow firefly

World Cup 2006 set for kick-off

Fans are already gathering at the Allianz Arena in Munich
Hosts Germany will kick off the 18th football World Cup on Friday after the opening ceremony in Munich.
They face Costa Rica in the opening game of the tournament at 1700 BST at the 59,000-capacity Allianz Arena.

The opening ceremony got under way at 1520 BST and more than 150 players who have won the World Cup, including Pele and Diego Maradona, will be on display.

More than one-and-a-half billion people are expected to watch the opening of the tournament on television.

Our man in Munich, Mandeep Sanghera, reports: "A massive cheer went round the ground as Germany's players came out to take their seats for the opening ceremony.

"The German flags are waving with conviction to the sound of the country's version of the song Football's Coming Home.

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Our man in Munich for the opening ceremony
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"A corner of the ground is dominated by the flame red of the Costa Ricans who are also in party mood, while there are still a few empty seats left in the ground."

The winners will be crowned after the final in Berlin on 9 July, with England, who face Paraguay on Saturday, among the favourites to win.

Pele, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970, is to carry the trophy on to the pitch of the futuristic Munich stadium, and he will be accompanied by German supermodel Claudia Schiffer.

The second game of the competition, alongside the Olympics the biggest sporting event in the world, is Poland v Ecuador which will take place after the Germany match on Friday, kicking-off at 2000 BST in Gelsenkirchen.


Munich's Allianz Arena hosts the opening match on Friday
Germany will be expected to overcome the outsiders Costa Rica, but will be well aware of previous opening game shocks in 1990 (when cup holders Argentina were beaten by Cameroon) and 2002 (when the defending champions France lost to Senegal).

World Cup organisers are expecting about one million people to visit Germany for the tournament, with as many as 100,000 of those from England.

More than one billion people worldwide watched the last World Cup final in Yokohama, Japan in 2002, where Brazil beat Germany 2-0.

The cumulative worldwide television viewing figures for the tournament are expected to top 30 billion.

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English fans have an official allocation of about 5,300 tickets for the opening game with another 14,000 likely to have bought tickets on the internet.

But Frankfurt mayor Petra Rogh expects about 30,000 supporters in all to flood the city, with many hoping to buy tickets off touts or watch on big screens.

All police leave has been cancelled across Germany as security forces brace themselves for a massive operation.

Frankfurt's police chief Achium Thiel insists their hope is for fans to be happy and said that exuberant England supporters singing songs about World War II will not face action from his officers.

Rogh added: "We are ready for our British guests. I am certain we will commemorate a great and peaceful party in the best English tradition."

BBC News' Laura Smith-Spark reports there has only been one arrest so far - a Costa Rican for selling fake tickets for the game who released after paying a fine.


Nelsons' Column in London is decorated for the World Cup

Five-time winners Brazil - the only team to play in all 17 of the previous World Cups - are the favourites to win again this time round.

They will need to emulate their cup-winning side of 1958, who lifted the trophy by beating Sweden - the only time a non-European team has won the competition in Europe.

England, captained by David Beckham, are many people's second favourites and are expected to perform well.

But Argentina, Holland, Italy, Spain are among the other fancied teams, while the hosts have an excellent World Cup pedigree and can never be discounted.


BBC Sport's TV coverage includes Saturday's England's match against Paraguay, with all BBC live games also broadcast live on the BBC Sport website to UK broadband users. Radio Five Live will have live commentary of all 64 games in the tournament.

Posted by Silverfuel:

Posted by firefly:

Rooting for Brazil to win is like rooting for Jordan to win..... you just cant do it unless your Brazilian. Its not fair on the other teams.

Here something that scares all the Brazil fans. Every time the Brazil National team has been favored to win a Cup, they have lost.

The way I see it, they have the most stacked team in history. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Kaka, Robinho, Lucio, Cafu and Gilberto Silva. 9/4 favourites. They can't win. Thats the way it works. The best team never wins.

Go RED!

Well, I hope Spain does a good tournament, but I'm not very confident about my team. I'm tired of Raul... Let's hope Reyes gets a lot of playing time.
Good luck to England firefly ;) and to the USA team. I just want to see some good matches and lots of goals.
I still like soccer a lot, but I have been a a lot more into the NBA for a few years. Anyway F.C. Barcelona rules the world! Ha!

Oh and by the way, good luck to Spain. I like the team they have outside of Reyes. Look out for Fernando Torres.

Germany now up 3-2. Darn.

Posted by firefly:

Highlight was Torsten Frings' 35 yard screamer with the ball bending half the width of the goal to beat the 'keeper.

firefly: Is the type of the ball they are using somehow different from what they used in the last few cups? I thought I heard them say Lehmann hated the ball. Why is that?

P.S: Germany looks real good. Even though CSC's goalie (Porras I think) totally sucked! Imagine them with Ballack!

Let's go all teams from the Americas...North and South...