< Germany 4 Costa Rica 2 >

Introduction
Finally, the World Cup is here!
One month of non-stop football action starts here.
Football on TV almost everyday. What could be better?
I’ll admit to being no expert when it comes to international football, or even about just football in general. Sometimes when I think I already know a lot, I end up getting embarrassed when I realise I don’t even know simple things like Arsenal’s Adebayor being from Togo.

I haven’t exactly watched much football action outside of Liverpool. I’ve heard of names like Podolski and Torres, but have seen neither of them playing before.

Thus this World Cup, my first watching as a real football fan, will be an enriching learning experience for me.

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Germany v Costa Rica – Pre-match thoughts
OKAY!!! I’ll make this clear first, I know hardly anything much about all the teams in the WC except for England! Grr. Yes, I don’t even watch Brazil play. WHAT! After all, I said this was my first WC as a football fan right!

The last time I watched Germany play was when they played Brazil in the WC Final in 2002. Only German names I knew then were Oliver Kahn, Michael Ballack (who was suspended for the final due to his “tactical foul”) and Miroslav Klose (he did score a lot in that WC).

From the stuff I’ve read, it seems like the German fans don’t have much faith in their national team. Seems like they only rate Ballack, and even then they don’t like him that much because of his decision to move to Chelsea. Totally agree on the latter part, because I don’t like him either. Haha.

Let me see… so who do I like from the German squad?
I know Philip Lahm, as in how he look like, from Euro 2004. Heh. I think he’s damn cute. To be frank though, it’s hard to exactly place a finger on who I like from Germany when the only German I’ve seen playing before (besides those from a rather vague 2002 memory) is Lehmann.

Still, I really don’t understand why the German fans don’t believe in their national team more. They do sound as though they’ve quite a few good players, perhaps a little young and inexperienced, but I’ve heard enough of Podolski and Schweinsteiger (I HATE SPELLING HIS NAME. But I did that without referring.) to convince me that they are good enough. I remember seeing both of their scoring stats for the national team which were quite impressive.

Host nations always seem to do well, so I don’t think it will be much different this time. I do think they’ve a good chance of clinching the trophy you know.

Moving on to Costa Rica.. hahaha. Umm… what do I know about them? Let me see… they’ve Paulo Wanchope right? He used to be from Man City, but I don’t think I ever saw him play. Ahhh… I do remember Bolanos though. Remember that guy? From Saprissa and had a trial with Liverpool too.

I suspect my father has placed a bet on Costa Rica because he’s been going on about his “the ball is round” quote all day when talking about predictions for the game. Yah yah, I know, the ball is round, but I really think Costa Rica are too big an underdog for this game, and Germany simply can’t afford to clinch anything but a win.

I’ll be rooting for Germany in this game. Hopefully they’ll kick off the opening game with a bang, and instill more faith into their fans!

I’m especially looking forward to seeing exactly how good these two chaps, Podolski and Schweinsteiger are…

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Fantasy watch:
This is the portion about the players I have in my fantasy team.
For this match, I’ve got 3 German players in action.
Lehmann, Schweinsteiger, and Podolski.
I even have Schweinsteiger as my “captain”. That’s quite a lot of faith placed on someone I’ve only seen in Football Manager!

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Half-time thoughts:
2-1 to Germany right now.
Surprisingly, it has been a rather open game. Though the Germans mostly have the upper hand, if they do not extend their lead, Costa Rica do have a very likely chance they could nick a goal back into the game. I never thought Wanchope could look so threatening, but he has! He has been his side’s main goal threat. His goal was a little “controversial”, because he did look on the brink of being offside, but in my opinion, it was just that. It was quite marginal, but I think he did time his run well enough to keep himself just onside when the ball was played. That darn Arne Friedrich looked to have played him onside.

I messed around with my player cam channel for a while at the start of the game. Altogether I’ve got 4 World Cup channels. One’s the main one I’m watching, another one is called “tactical” and it seems to be the overhead view… and the remaining two are the player cam channels, focusing on one player on each team for various stages of the game. I watched Schweinsteiger for a while, seeing him hopping up and down was quite weird. When the Aussie game comes, I hope I can catch Harry on this player cam thing… it makes you feel strangely “close” to the player somehow. Schweinsteiger was caught sticking out his tongue at one moment.

The thing though, is that I couldn’t really see what’s going on in the game through the player cam channel. I didn’t even know the game had kicked off (because I switched over to the channel before it kicked off) until I saw Schweinsteiger going into a tackle. The player cam channel is really just like for stalking purposes. Hahaha.

Anyway, I did feel a pinch when Lahm and Klose scored! That’s because I had both of them in my fantasy team at some stage! I had Klose in my team until some guy told me that he’s shit and won’t score many, so I was like, just listen to him since I’m stupid right? And I had Lahm until this morning, when I decided I just wanted Podolski, and anyway, I didn’t think Lahm was a scoring defender!

And one thing I want to ask… WHY IS PHILIP LAHM SO SMALL!!!!!???!!!

Earlier I said I knew he was cute from Euro2004… what I didn’t mention was that I just saw this pic of his face close up, and thought he looked damn cute. Yah, he’s cute. BUT HE’S TINY!!!! HE LOOKS SO TINY!!!!! When I saw them lining up before the game, I was like, “wait.. this shortie here… is he who I think he is?”

I must go check his height after this. For goodness sake, he looks like my size!

Alright, 2nd half kicking off now. Hopefully more goals. And please, from my Podolski or Schweinsteiger (I tell you, typing his name is a chore. Takes quite a bit of time.).

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Full-time thoughts:
Ok, better keep this short since I was already dozing off towards the end there. I did catch the screamer of a goal by Frings, but besides that, 2nd half went by in a blur for me because I was just so sleepy.

I’ll just make a couple of statements:
Great goal by Frings. Super super goal that made my eyes open wide, and that was quite a feat considering the state I was in.

Klose… ARGH. Shouldn’t have listened to other people and just went for him in fantasy. After all, I should have known that WC stars aren’t always the ones we talk about. Look at Wanchope too.

Credit to Costa Rica. They made sure they were never totally out of the game.

Germany were brilliant in attack, especially in the opening stages of the first half. But they have a really big problem in defence. Don’t want to say Ballack’s right about Klinsmann’s tactics, but they do have a major problem defending.

Though neither Schweinsteiger or Podolski scored, these two… hmmm… they certainly never showed signs of inexperience or fear and freezing up on the big stage. There’s just something in their attitude that just seems to exude that kind of confidence I admire a lot. And Lahm too… German fans should have more faith in their young players.

I realise I know one more player from Costa Rica. Ronald Gomez. He’s from Saprissa. I recognized him instantly when I saw him. I must tell my brother tomorrow about the guy from Purple Monsters… It’s a private joke between the two of us. Haha.

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FINAL SCORE
GERMANY 4 COSTA RICA 2

Scorers for Germany: Lahm (6), Klose (17, 61), Frings (87)
Scorers for Costa Rica: Wanchope (12, 73)

Team for Germany: Lehmann, Lahm, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Borowski (Kehl 72), Frings, Schweinsteiger, Schneider (Odonkor 90), Podolski, Klose (Neuville 79)

Team for Costa Rica: Porras, Gonzalez, Marin, Martinez (Drummond 67), Umana, Centeno, Fonseca, Sequiera, Solis (Bolanos 78), Gomez (Azofeifa 90), Wanchope

Other match result:
Poland 0 Ecuador 2 (Tenorio 24, Delgado 80)
- HA! See! I said Ecuador will go through remember! The Straits Time's "guy" said Poland. Bleah. Ecuador!!!!!!!! Hahahahaha.