Madness kicks off

The World Cup's underway, and already a big surprise, with Ecuador--which has never won in Europe--putting away the Poles 2-0. It was a great match, 1-0 for much of it after Ecuador scored on a nifty header combination off a throw-in. They iced it with a late, relaxed touch pass goal, but Poland made things exciting with two late strikes that hit the crossbar and the post. I feel bad for all the Polish fans who packed the stadium, for whom this World Cup was supposed to be the highlight of their year.

It was a 'stunning' win for Ecuador, not because Poland was so strong but because Ecuador was supposedly so weak away from the high altitude of home. But their manager, Columbian Luis Fernando Suarez, based on body language during the match, seems like a tough, confident taskmaster. He'd said beforehand the team was in great physical shape, and they played like it today, repeatedly darting to balls ahead of the bigger Poles.

Even though I had picked Poland to advance outof this group, the beauty of the World Cup is discovering teams like Ecuador--which played a lot cooler and more deftly than people thought. I'm officially on board their bandwagon; they should beat Costa Rica in the next game, setting the stage for their match with Germany where just maybe there could be a huge upset....

In the early game, which I saw just a bit of, Germany put up 4 goals but surprisingly Costa Rica stuck in 2 of their own in a match that shows how poor the Allemande defense can be, and will restir debate over whether Germany's famed goalkeeper Oliver Kahn should be the one starting.

Granted, da Germans didn't have their best player, midfielder Michael Ballack, but they shouldn't have given up two goals, both to Paulo Wanchope. At least Miroslav Klose matched him with two of his own (good news for my fantasy team... by the way, I'm picking Ukraine's Andriy Shevchenko to score the most goals in the first round).

Of course, a big part of the World Cup story is that it's being held in Germany, which has a problematic history when it comes to the overt displays of nationalism that the world's biggest sporting event engenders. Der Spiegel's Cup blog has an interesting post on how Germans are feeling it's okay again to be proud of being German; although, apparently, not too proud:

The World Cup opening ceremony has just concluded leaving over one billion viewers ever so slightly baffled. The German footballing authorities' decision to stage the first game in Munich now looks a little shortsighted as the ceremony was forced to accommodate a host of lederhosen-wearing, cowbell chiming Bavarians.

Opening ceremonies are always surreal, that is half the fun. Viewers expect to be titillated and exacerbated in equal measure and Germany did not disappoint. But, an army of men in Lederhosen banging drums and swinging cowbells between their legs in joyous enthusiasm pushed the boundaries of taste as well style. And the team of butch Bavarians rhythmically cracking their agricultural whips paid more tribute to the Village People than it did to modern Munich.

But storyline of the day is the strong play of the Latin Americans... it doesn't bode well for much-hyped England, which seems a bit distracted going into tomorrow's early-morning match vs. defensively-tough Paraguay.

To quote the Ecuadorean crowd at the Poland match (via the Times' live match blogger):

Si se puede! Si se puede! (Yes, we can! Yes we can!)

AFP photo of Germany's Mirsolav Klose via FIFA.

AFP photo of Ecuador's Edison Mendez and Poland's Michal Zewlakow via FIFA.