I don’t usually like the style in which the Germans play their football. Add to that - (a) they were playing against a weak Costa Rica team and (b) the poor ESPN-Star preview for the World Cup, I was deflated soon after I switched on the TV set. Harsha Bhogle is a good cricket presentor but why bring him to football. The commentator for the opening game was also pretty drab - the player looks up in the blue sky as he scores.

There was gloom given the history of low scoring dull matches we have seen for inaugral matches for the world cup historically - only 9 goals in the previous 10 matches. The six goals in the opening match then, exceeded my expectations. Germany were playing more attacking football than they usually do, Wanchope provided excitement for Costa Rica. I did not like the game as much despite the many goals. However, given my early deflated spirit, I was more than happy with match 1. The big pointer from game 1 was this though - Germany let weak Costa Rica score twice. The German defense was shown up in this match and it is a big worry for them for the tougher matches in the second round.

The second match for the day proved brilliant. It is, in all likelihood, the most crucial encounter for the group with the winner, in all possibility, advancing as the second team along with Germany. The opening 20 minutes or so saw Poland dominate attack. However, Ecuador kept pushing and thwarting the Polish attacks physically if there was even an hint of the Polish coming near the Ecuador box. Then, Ecuador scored. The match changed significantly from then on with Ecuador playing one touch football and being the team which kept attacking. They could have scored 2 more goals during a short period had the strikes materialised. The first half, thus, can be split into two.

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The opening day sees, if you have been living under the roof, the following matches:

• Germany vs Costa Rica [Sky]
• Poland vs Ecuador [BBC]

Do drop in a comment while you are here..

My predictions:

Germany 2 Costa Rica 0
Poland 1 Ecuador 0

For part 6 of the series, I caught up with Marvin Zumbado. At 23, Marvin is studying computer engeneering and will complete his graduation next year, His favourite soccer team is Saprissa, Currently, he works for an American horse racing company. Marvin is deeply passionate about football, music and extreme sports.

I thank Marvin for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about Costa Rica’s football history and the football culture which exists.

Costa Rica is a definitely a soccer country, our life is surrounded by soccer, we have a very competitive local league and we get lots of international games in TV everyday. You can find a soccer game everywhere you go, every town has it’s own soccer field and team, you can also find kids playing soccer in every neighborhood, a soccer game can paralyze my country and it has done it a few times in the past.

Costa Rica has qualified for 2 World Cups, the first was in Italy 1990, where we amazingly won our opening game vs Scotland 1-0, then we lost to brazil 1-0, and in the 3rd game of the group stage we defeated Sweden 2-1 and made it to the second round, where we played Czechoslovaqia and got spanked 4-1. Our second WC appereance was 4 years ago in Korea/Japan 2002, we finished with a 1-1-1 record, after a 2-0 win over China , a 1-1 draw with turkey and a 5-2 loss with Brazil.

Turkey advanced over us due to goal difference, eventually Brazil won the cup and Turkey finished 3rd. We have also played in most of the Concacaf Gold cups and also in a few Conmebol America’c cup, also our U23 teams has played a couple of times in the Olympic Games.

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