Hosts Plot Costa Rica's Downfall as World Cup Kicks Off

Since that ecstatic night in Zurich on July 6, 2000 when Franz Beckenbauer's glitzy team of soccer legends, celebrities and politicians won the right to stage the tournament, enough column inches have been written on Germany's preparations to stretch from Berlin to San Jose. Now the real action starts.

Germany remain confident that their first opponents will not spoil the opening party. Assistant coach Joachim Löw revealed earlier in the week that the staff and players had studied DVDs of the Central Americans' warm-up matches and that the belief was that the hosts would get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start.

"It is the first match and we are a bit nervous but we have done our homework and I think we are in a position to beat Costa Rica," Löw told reporters. "If we turn up and show our strengths we will win the match."

Germany manager Jürgen Klinsmann has forced all of his players to watch clips of their opponents and Löw claims Costa Rica were no longer an unknown quantity.

"We have collected a lot of information on them by watching DVD clips of league games and international matches," said Löw. "We know their strengths and weaknesses but of course we will not be discussing them in public."

Costa Rican culture, lifestyle as well as tactics studied

Klinsmann seems to have left nothing to chance. The coach has even had his stars studying Costa Rica's culture and lifestyle for clues on how their opponents will play in the opening match. The German team have been viewing a short film about the friendly Central American country, famed for its diverse wildlife and the fact that it has no military forces.

"We introduced the players to the country, how the people live there and what their mentality is like," Löw added. "We've also seen from games that they're technically skilful and they love to play beautiful soccer. That's a reflection of the national character."

Germany captain Michael Ballack, who will not be playing because of injuries, said everyone had enjoyed the lesson.

"It was highly educational," Ballack said. "We all loved hearing about Costa Rica and getting an insight into the culture."

While having as much knowledge as possible of their opponents will give the German team a sense of preparation, the real revelations will come on the pitch. And the hosts will be wary of any surprises.

Coach Klinsmann set to start with standard formation

Klinsmann is likely to deploy a standard 4-4-2 formation to counter Costa Rica coach Alexandre Guimaraes's promise that his team are going to abandon their nice guy approach and hit their opponents with a new aggressive form of their renowned free-flowing style.

The defensive back four charged with repelling Costa Rican strikers Alvaro Saborio and Paulo Wanchope is expected to be the one which kept Colombia at bay in the last test match: Arne Friedrich, Per Metesacker, Christoph Metzelder and Philipp Lahm, with new number one Jens Lehmann tending goal behind them.

With Ballack missing, the midfield will probably feature Bernd Schneider, Torsten Frings and Bastian Schweinsteiger. The combative Tim Borowski is most likely to take Ballack's place while Sebastian Kehl is also on standby.

Responsible for getting Germany's first goals of the tournament will be striking partnership Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

Costa Rica's trainer says his team is no soft touch

Costa Rica are unlikely to roll over for the hosts just to get the party started on an upbeat note. Coach Guimaraes, who was also in charge four years ago in Japan/Korea, has returned after the unsuccessful tenure of the American Steve Sampson and has built a new-look team which are tougher and more mature than in the last World Cup when they were considered a soft touch.

"Before, Costa Rica were a fair play team, naive and just interested in attacking," he recently told reporters. "This time, everybody's going to notice the difference."

Costa Rica's World Cup debut performance in Italy in 1990 saw them reach the last 16, shocking Scotland and Sweden on the way. Guimaraes is optimistic that his team can at least emulate that despite struggling through the qualifying rounds.

Their main threat will come from Paulo Wanchope, their all-time leading scorer with 43 goals including eight in the qualifiers. Despite losing some of his pace, the striker has a wealth of international experience garnered from a career spent in the English and Spanish leagues.

World Cup experience from back to front

The team's spine consists of the other remaining members of the class of 2002; including defenders Harold Wallace, Luis Marin and Gilberto Martinez, midfield playmaker Walter Centeno and forward Ronald Gomez.

But while these players may be well-known, Germany will have to be wary of the newcomers Alvaro Saborio and midfielder Carlos Hernandez whose inclusion helped turn a near-disastrous qualifying campaign into a ticket to Germany with spectacular and important long-range goals.

It all adds up to a potentially thrilling game with the whiff of an upset curling around the FIFA World Cup Stadium in Munich.

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, 13-Michael Ballack, 7-Bastian Schweinsteiger; 20-Lukas Podolski, 11-Miroslav Klose

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