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MUNICH, June 8: Germany striker Miroslav Klose will celebrate his 28th birthday in front of a 65,000-Munich crowd and hundreds of millions of TV viewers when the hosts get the 2006 World Cup started against Costa Rica on Friday.
But there was bad news for Germany captain Michael Ballack, who will miss the opening match because of a calf injury, coach Juergen Klinsmann announced on Thursday.
However, all eyes will be Klose if he makes the same sort of impact he did at the start of the last World Cup it will be quite a party at the glorious new three-tiered Allianz Arena.
Klose scored a hat trick in an 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia four years ago, his World Cup debut, and the performance set the Germans on their way to the final, which they lost 2-0 against Brazil.
Germany are outsiders this time but one of their three World Cup triumphs came in 1974 when they last had the tournament on home soil and they are confident of beating Costa Rica, who have struggled in their recent warm-up games.
“It's crucial to have a good start because we play in our own country,” Klinsmann said in a recent chat with reporters.
“We'll try to give the fans confidence and the players self-belief.”
Germany will not be complacent, especially considering what happened in the opening match of the last World Cup.
Defending champions France had the honour of opening that tournament and with Zinedine Zidane unavailable through injury they went down to a shock 1-0 defeat by Senegal. It was a similar story in Italy in 1990 when Cameroon upset Argentina.
Costa Rica have been boosted by the return to fitness of Paulo Wanchope, the country's all-time leading goalscorer who says he has recovered from a troublesome knee injury.
Wanchope, who scored eight goals in the qualifiers and has 43 international goals in all, will lead the country into their third appearance at the finals.
The Ticos reached the second round in 1990 and were unlucky not to match the achievement four years ago, when they lost out on goal difference to eventual semi-finalists Turkey.
“We are a better organised team,” the striker told reporters this week. “Defensively we are stronger and we can also play good football and score goals.”
So can Germany, who have developed an attacking style under the former World Cup winning striker Klinsmann, who had no coaching experience when he was handed the job by a desperate German Football Association in 2004.
Klinsmann said Ballack would be replaced in the opening game either by Tim Borowski or the more defensive Sebastian Kehl.
The two Polish-born forwards Klose and Lukas Podolski will start up front, with the 21-year-old Bastian Schweinsteiger on the left of an adventurous line-up.
Costa Rica will probably pack the midfield in a 3-5-2 formation and wait for their chance.
“I know these players,” said coach Alexandre Guimaraes.
“They'll go out and play the game that they know how, the way it suits us.”
Teams:
GERMANY (4-4-2): 1-Jens Lehmann; 3-Arne Friedrich, 21-Christoph Metzelder, 17-Per Mertesacker, 16-Phillip Lahm; 18-Bernd Schneider, 8-Torsten Frings, Tim Borowski/Sebastian Kehl, 7-Bastian Schweinsteiger; 20-Lukas Podolski, 11-Miroslav Klose.
Coach: Juergen Klinsmann.
COSTA RICA (3-5-2): 18-Jose Francisco Porras; 4-Michael Umana, 3-Luis Marin, 12-Leonardo Gonzalez; 20-Douglas Sequeira, 5-Gilberto Martinez, 8-Mauricio Solis, 10-Walter Centeno, 6-Danny Fonseca; 11-Ronald Gomez, 9-Paulo Wanchope
Coach: Alexandre Guimaraes.
Referee: Horacio Elizondo (Argentina).—Reuters
