Group A has been defined
by Camilla Mancini
First impressions and players looking for the Golden Shoe
Germany and Costa Rica offered an exciting opening for the World Cup 2006. In less than 30 minutes they gave us three great goals. The two promising players for the inaugurate match were Miroslav Klose for the host team and Paulo Wanchope for the Central American squad. Both players made 2 goals. Despite, all the commentaries and expectations created around this match during the last weeks, both teams fought in the field and gave us a nice and friendly game.
After the 90 minutes of battle the result was 4-2, giving the victory of the very first match of this tournament to the Germans. Even though, the ‘Ticos’ lost their first match, in some interviews they agree on being pleased about their work in the competition, since the German team has more experience with the international soccer and demands for being the host of the World Cup.
Ecuador and Poland was the second match _and not at all_ less interesting than the first one. Both groups played really well and defended their sides but that didn’t stop the South American team from getting its 3 points.
The first goal came at the 24’, with Agustin Delgado providing a flick-on to Tenorio, who raced in to guide his header into the far corner of the net. Delgado scored the second goal in the 80th minute, who, completely unmarked, side-footed the ball into the empty net.
1 Goal enough for Germans… but not for Ecuador
At least that’s what it seemed to be for the Germans on yesterday’s match against Poland. Both teams really worked it out in the playing field and turned the crowd pretty eager for a goal. But nothing happened until the minute 91’, when the substitute Oliver Neuville converted the killer cross from Odonkor’s into Germany’s ticket to the next round of this tournament.
Now the hosts will have to wait and get prepared for the surprise revelation of the Group A, the Ecuadorians, who had played amazingly in their first two matches against Poland and Costa Rica.
Although there is one more match for every squad of this division, it’s quite obvious that the teams going to final eights are Germany and Ecuador, but still we are impatient to watch this confrontation and the results of it.
Group A coming games:
Germany (6 points) - Ecuador (6 points): June 20th, 16:00 (local time)
At the Olympiastadion, Berlin.
Costa Rica (0 points) – Poland (0 points): June 20th, 16:00 (local time).
At the FIFA World Cup Stadium, Hanover.
http://technorati.com/tag/Camilla+Mancini” rel=”tag”>Camilla Mancini
