Germany & Ecuador kick off with wins

The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals kicked off in Munich overnight, with a Michael Ballack-less Germany proving too strong for Costa Rica, while the first upset of the tournament came in the other Group A game with Ecuador beating Poland 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals kicked off in Munich overnight, with a Michael Ballack-less Germany proving too strong for Costa Rica, while the first upset of the tournament came in the other Group A game with Ecuador beating Poland 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen.

A packed Allianz Arena in Munich, saw Miroslav Klose score twice as the home nation went onto win 4-2 over a gallant Costa Rican team.

Klose-s two close range efforts came in between two class finishes by Philipp Lahm and Torsten Frings, while Paolo Wanchope scored twice for Costa Rica to have his team in the contest right up until the last.

The six goals was a record for an opening match of a World Cup finals tournament and had the 60,000 mostly German fans in a good, but still cautious mood, after the match.

German fans didn-t have long to wait to start their celebrations, albeit from the unlikely source of left fullback Lahm. His strike from the corner of the penalty box after just six minutes was a sensational start, but it didn-t stop there.

Wanchope equalised in somewhat controversial circumstances six minutes later, when he raced onto a Ronald Gomez pass, beating the offside trap and slotting past Jens Lehmann. However five minutes later Klose grabbed his first, pouncing on a Bastian Schweinsteiger cross.

Klose then made it 3-1 after 61 minutes, scoring with a second bite of the cherry after his initial header was parried down by Jose Porras.

Wanchope again beat the offside trap to give Costa Rican fans hope of a draw with 17 minutes remaining, but Frings ended the Central American-s resistance with a stunning strike from 25 metres that gave Porras no chance.

Meanwhile in the other Group A match, Ecuador stunned Poland winning 2-0, with goals from Carlos Tenorio and Augustin Delgado.

Despite dominating play for long periods, Poland generally struggled to penetrate the Ecuador defence, although late in the match they did hot the woodwork on two occasions.

A long throw play saw Tenorio glance a header home after 24 minutes to give Ecuador a shock 1-0 lead and after defending for long periods in the second half, they made sure of victory with ten minutes remaining with Delgado side-footing home .

The second day of competition sees England in action for the first time in the tournament when they meet Paraguay in Frankfurt, while in the other Group B match Sweden is favourite to beat Trinidad & Tobago in Dortmund. There is also one Group C game with Argentina playing Ivory Coast in Hamburg.

Australia-s first game is against Japan on Monday June 12 in Kaiserslautern.