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Germany and Ecuador take points in goalfest opening day
Prior to kickoff there was mountains of preassure was on German coach Jurgen Klinsmann, however despite a fewe nervous moments, Germany have begun the FIFA World Cup with a 4-2 win over Costa Rica.
With just 9 goals in the past 10 opening matches of a world cup this six goal extraveganza got underway early. Germany's early preassure lead to Torsten Frings to fire the first shot of the tornament. His shot beat keeper Jose Porras but landed ontop of the net. On six minutes however Philipp Lahm found some space on the left wing, cut back inside his defender and fired a shot from the corner of the 18 yard box, cleaning the cobwebs as it found the far top corner of the goal.
Costa Rica however weren't going to let Germany take over and through their first attack they equilised. Paulo Wanchope beat the offside trap as he ran onto Ronald Gomez's through ball. Wanchope easily beat Jens Lehmann to level the scores on 12 minutes.
Germany kept piling on the preassure though and took back their lead just five minutes later. Bernd Schneider fed Bastian Schweinsteiger from the base line who inturn crossed low for Miroslav Klose to push the ball into an open goal.
Klose continued to take his shots, forcing Porras to save on 24 minutes. Danny Fonseca found himself the first man booked in the world cup for a poor challenge on 31 minutes. Wanchope proved he's Costa Rica's target man again as he ran onto another through ball on 38 minutes. His attempted chip went wide but wouldn't have counted anyway due to an offside flag. Finally Germany had the last real chance of the half when Lukas Podolski curled a free kick over the Costa Rican cross bar.
With a 2-1 half time scoreline Germany would have been happy but not content and went looking for more goals against the unfancied Costa Ricans. Podolski typified this in the first 30 seconds when he hit a drive over the bar. Fonseca retaliated by flashing a diving header across the German goal.
Germany's persistance paid off once more in the 61st minute when Lahm's cross found the head of Klose. His initial shot was parried away but Klose hit the loose ball into the top of the net to extend the hosts lead and start his run for the golden boot.
Wanchope wasn't about to let Klose get away with this lead and broke through the defensive line once more in the 73rd minute. Fending off a defender rushing back, Wanchope skipped across the ball and flicked with his right boot to beat Lehmann once more and bring the scores back to 3-2.
Costa Rica, despite being just behind, didn't seem to push forward as much as was expected at this point however with germany controlling possession for large chunks. And at the death it paid off as Germany played the ball back to Frings who hit a piledriver from 25-30 yards out, beating Porras all ends up (87 min, 4-2).
Germany predictably held off the Costa Ricans from here and took the three points in a spectacular match. However while they were expected to win the match, they weren't expected to leak goals as well. this weakness will be something Poland and Ecuador will look to exploit in coming days.
In the other Group A game, Ecuador stunned Poland 2-0, showing they aren't the easy beats away from home. The result puts Ecuador in the drivers seat for the second round as a result against Costa Rica would probably be enough to progress.
Poland dominated the opening 20 minutes of the match, holding possession and creating opportunities left, right and centre. It started to become a little bogged down in midfield after about 20 minutes until Ecuador struck. On 24 minutes Ulises de la Cruz put a long ball in from a throw in and found the head of Agustin Delgado. His flicked on header found the feet of Carlos Tenorio who guided his header into the far corner of the net. Poland were stunned as teh South Americans took a surprise lead.
Ecuador started to take the game to Poland now and efforts from Delgardo, Edison Mendez and Luis Valencia all forced Polish keeper Artur Boruc into saves. Ecuador went into the break 1-0 ahead and extremely happy.
Again Poland dominated possession in the second half but nothing could be made from their opportunities. With the clock ticking down Ecuador doubled their lead on 80 minutes. Mendez split the defence with a pass of perfection, finding substitute Ivan Kaviedes. Kaviedes drew Boruc and squared up for Delgardo to tap into an open net.
In the last phases of play, Poland went all guns blazing. however it was obvious it wasn't going to be thier night when both Ireneusz Jelen and Pawel Brozek struck the frame of the goal within the final five minutes of the game. Their agony wouldn't let up until the final whistle and Ecuador came away with the three points.
10 June, 2006 |
