Germany wins, 4-2 over Costa Rica in first World Cup match

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Friday, June 9, 2006

The 2006 soccer World Cup kicked off in the Allianz Arena in Munich, Friday, with hosts Germany cruising to a 4-2 win over Costa Rica.

The first match of Group A, which was full of attacking football, was a goal-fest for Jürgen Klinsmann's side, whose Miroslav Klose notched up a brace.

The highlight of the match went to German midfielder Torsten Frings for a 30-yard shot that sent the new tournament football swerving viciously past a hapless Costa Rican keeper.

The match had started brightly for the side, missing captain Michael Ballack, when on 6 minutes left-back Philipp Lahm curled in from the top-left of the penalty area.

But the joy the home crowd had after the spectacular start was punctured 6 minutes later by Paulo Wanchope. The Costa Rican striker broke through a static German defence to pass the ball neatly by Jens Lehmann.

Klose, who had 7 goals for the team in the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup, tapped in a second to again give the German side the lead with a quarter of an hour gone.

During the game possession of the ball was dominated by the hosts who, while looking vulnerable on the break, looked like scoring whenever they went forward.

They scored a third, Klose's second, on 61 minutes, when the striker was first to react to a rebound from his own header, which had been saved by Jose Porras.

Wanchope kept the home team on their toes breaking the German defence for a second time but any chance of the Central American team pulling off a shock was ended when Frings' bullet hit the back off the net.

The game was played in spirit, the only yellow card going to Costa Rica's Daniel Fonseca for a first-half challenge.