World Cup Begins Friday With 2 Matches

Photo Courtesy: The BBC

MUNICH – AP - Fans from Germany and Costa Rica poured through the streets of this Bavarian city, singing and chanting in feverish anticipation as their national teams prepared to kick off the World Cup Friday amid tight security, dazzling fanfare and many mugs of beer. The other opening day match today is Poland vs. Ecuador.

More than three million people are expected to attend the quadrennial soccer championship, and billions more will watch on television.

The U.S. team plays its opening game Monday against the Czech Republic. Thirty-two countries are competing in the tournament over the next month.

Win or lose, Germans are counting on the world's largest sporting event — watched by hundreds of millions around the globe — as a chance to show off the "new Germany": reunified, rejuvenated and prospering.

Costa Ricans are also looking to the event to raise their nation's profile.

"For us, this is a once in a lifetime chance," said Roberto Carranza, 20, a student from San Jose who will be among the 66,000 attending the event. "The whole world is going to know about Costa Rica."

Germans are realistic about their team's chances against the 31 other top soccer teams in the world with many saying Germany should be happy to make it to the quarterfinals.

Yet others hold fast to dreams of a repeat of the 1954 "Miracle from Bern" when the underdog West German team beat Hungary for the World Cup title, catapulting the then fledgling nation out of the shadows of its World War II history and boosting self-confidence at home.

With the shadow of the Nazis ever present, Germans have long tended to steer away from overt displays of patriotism. But more than 15 years after the former East and West Germanys fused and 60 years since the war, such taboos seem to be melting away.

In Munich, the streets where packed fans bedecked in every possible incarnation of the German national colors, black-red-gold, including painted faces, caps and beaded rings and people who simply wrapped themselves in the nation's flag.

Germany stands to benefit from the million fans expected to pour into the country to attend the matches in 12 cities. Fans are expected to pack not only the stadiums, but hundreds of organized outdoor viewing points, as well as the nation's many beer gardens, pubs and restaurants.

"There are definitely some aspects of this World Cup that have to be taken seriously," wrote the Berliner Zeitung on Friday. "For example economic aspects — when the guests' money fills the registers and brings new strength to companies. Or political aspects — if the country is presenting itself as a good host and for once does not hunt down people of different skin colors."

Still, police aren't taking any chances. A spike in racially motivated attacks in Berlin and surrounding areas ahead of the tournament raised concerns that neo-Nazis could mar the event. An African group in the capital had even planned to issue a list of "no-go areas" for dark-skinned fans but decided against it after meetings with police helped allay their concerns.

British and Polish hooligans have also raised fears — hundreds of known troublemakers from England had their passports confiscated and officials tightening Germany's border with Poland — an hour's train ride from Berlin.

In a special pre-Cup service in Munich's famous Frauenkirche cathedral — where German-born Pope Benedict XVI once presided as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — Cardinal Friedrich Wetter prayed with hundreds of fans for a "festival of peace and friendship."

"Only a few can play on the field, but we can all participate with our hope and joy," he told the worshippers, from an altar behind a giant white soccer ball. "Only one team can be world champion, but the greatest achievement is when the games are played peacefully and joyfully."

One prayer was offered for the players, asking "to protect them from injuries and rough fouls."

The World Cup opens with indicators of business and consumer optimism running high and the German economy — Europe's biggest — picking up after several stagnant years. Economists say the tournament may contribute 0.2 percentage points of the 1.8 percent growth this year. A million foreign visitors are expected to spend a billion euros.

In her inaugural weekly video podcast, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged a "top-class performance" on and off the field.

"We all want to show that Germany is capable of top-class performances — and not just in soccer stadiums," Merkel said. "We are looking forward to guests from every corner of the Earth and we want to celebrate a great festival with them, peacefully and joyfully."

A potential cloud over the tournament is the political dispute surrounding qualifier Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has indicated he may travel to Germany to support the national team in person. No specific plans have been announced. Vice President Mohammed Aliabadi came to Germany and is expected to attend.

Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth" and said the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map," leading groups from Iranian dissidents to German Jews to Amnesty International to organize demonstrations ahead of the team's first game in Nuremberg on Sunday. German far-right activists are threatening to demonstrate in support of the Iranian president.

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Associated Press Writers Kristen Grieshaber, David Rising and David McHugh in Berlin contributed to this report.

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