Chapter 106 World Cup Group Stage Begins

The World Cup is about to start in a few days. Ricardo, who was cooking porridge with Sarafina in the evening, was surprised to receive a notice that the little princess would also come to visit the set...

"But aren't you preparing for your high school graduation exam? Even though you've received the admission notice, you still have to take an exam to get your graduation degree certificate!"

"Oh... it's the holiday before the graduation exam. It starts from the afternoon of June 6th to June 9th. It's used to prepare for the graduation exam. Then when we go back from the holiday, we will take the graduation exam and the graduation ceremony?"

"Okay then, plan to watch the first and second rounds of the group stage, then go back for the exam?"

"But... Sarafina, let me tell you, are you here to see the national team perform, or to see me? If you're here to see me, then I probably won't have many opportunities to perform..."

"Oh, then you will watch the first round of the group stage and then go back to prepare for the exam, right..."

"Yeah, that's good. I'll pick you up at the airport on the afternoon of the 9th. Flight number..."

So on the afternoon of the opening match of the World Cup, Ricardo picked up the little princess at the airport. She was wearing burgundy Mary Jane high-heeled leather shoes and a long, waisted, rouge-red Chinese cheongsam. She was so cute and sexy that Ricardo drooled...

Sarafina walked like a model to the side of Ricardo, whose eyes were wide open, and threw her luggage to the pig's hoof. Then she naturally took Ricardo's arm, who was wearing a dark blue Dolce & Gabbana national team black suit, and stood on tiptoe to whisper in Ricardo's ear: "The cheongsam I'm wearing today has a slit. I wore it specially to wish you a successful start!"

"Also...I wish your purple ass can work!"

(￣??￣*) Ricardo looked at the charming little princess beside him in surprise: "You know such traditional Chinese culture? Did I teach you?"

Sarafina was very satisfied when she saw Ricardo's expression, which was not sure whether it was surprise or eagerness, but she obviously misunderstood. She took Ricardo's passenger seat and shyly whispered, "It's a lace suit..."

?(?﹃??) Fortunately, although the national team has started a curfew today and is required to report back to the hotel and rest before 9pm, it does not prohibit bringing family members to rest in the hotel!

In the evening, Ricardo did not watch the World Cup opening match with the whole team. Instead, he asked the hotel to deliver dinner and fruits to him in the luxury suite of the newly opened hotel, and watched the TV broadcast on bed with Sarafina... As for the details, they are encrypted!

Voice-over 1: The Italian national team, which is full of handsome men, has won the favor of the world-famous fashion brand D&G. During this World Cup, the Italian national team will wear formal and casual wear of the brand in all occasions other than games. D&G not only provides all kinds of clothes for the national team players for free, but also pays an additional sponsorship fee of 100 million euros.

At 2006:6 on the evening of June 9, 18, local time in Germany, at the Allianz Arena in Munich, after a brief but exciting opening ceremony, the host Germany team and their opening match opponent Costa Rica team were the first to appear.

世界杯在32年后重回德国。将近32年前，同样是在慕尼黑，联邦德国队夺得了第10届世界杯的冠军。德国人希望继1990年以后第4次问鼎大力神杯。安联球场温度21摄氏度，气候条件相当理想。

It is reported that in addition to the 6.5 fans on site, 200 billion people in more than 15 countries will watch the opening game live on TV.

This is the first time that the host country has played in the opening match since 1970. The last time Germany played in the opening match was in 1994, when they beat Bolivia 1-0 as the defending champions, with current head coach Klinsmann scoring the only goal.

Here is a side note, that is, Germany's starting striker Klose celebrates his 28th birthday today, which reminds Ricardo of the debut match of the World Cup in Japan and South Korea four years ago, when Klose scored a header hat trick to help Germany beat Saudi Arabia 4-8.

After the game started, both sides played at a fast pace. Unexpectedly, Costa Rica was not at all afraid of the host and the traditional powerhouse Germany, and they opened up a large-scale offensive!

However, just 6 minutes into the game, German defender Lahm scored the first goal of this World Cup, which was also the second fastest opening goal in World Cup history. This tricky arc ball helped the German team get off to a dream start.

However, Costa Rica's record scorer Wanchope soon equalized the score in the 12th minute of the game, with a straight pass, a diagonal pass, and a successful offside shot that went through the German team's goal.

Then, Klose, the winner of the "Silver Boot Award" in the last World Cup, kicked the ball over his head in the 17th and 61st minutes, helping the German team to surpass the score again with two goals, and celebrating his 28th birthday.

Although Wanchope narrowed the score again in the 72nd minute, Frings' wonderful long-range shot before the end of the game helped the German team secure the victory in the opening match of this World Cup with a score of 4-2!

Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2, maintaining its unbeaten record in four opening matches. Excluding the two World Cups in 4 and 1934 where multiple games kicked off at the same time, it set the record for the most goals scored in the opening match of the World Cup.

Ricardo watched the game in a disjointed manner, and only saw a few goals clearly through slow-motion replays. After all, he and Sarafina had other serious matters to attend to... um, eating steak, eating steak...

After the German team got off to a good start, the 2006 World Cup finals competition kicked off in full swing.

In the next match, Ecuador defeated Poland 2-0 in the match between the other two teams in Group A.

England, the favorite in Group B, also got off to a good start, beating Paraguay 1-0; in another match in Group B, Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden teamed up to achieve the first 0-0 draw of this tournament.

Then on the second match day, Group C played two games, in which Argentina defeated Côte d'Ivoire 2-1. Messi did not appear on the field. Crespo and Saviola scored for Argentina, while Drogba scored the first goal for Côte d'Ivoire in the World Cup finals shortly before the end of the game.

In another match in Group C, the Netherlands also defeated Serbia and Montenegro 1-0.

Then the four teams in Group D started fighting against each other. First, Mexico defeated Iran with a score of 3-1, and then Portugal also defeated the World Cup newcomer Angola with a score of 1-0. Ronaldo started the game but did not have a standout performance.

Then the competition entered the third match day, and Italy's Group E was about to make its debut. However, before the teams in Group E made their debut, Group F had a game to play first.

This is an atypical Asian derby, because Australia's qualifying process has nothing to do with Asia, but they left the Oceania Football Confederation and joined the Asian Football Confederation shortly after qualifying, and were drawn in the same group as Japan, giving the World Cup the opportunity to stage a rare Asian showdown of technology and strength.

In the end, Australia miraculously reversed the Japanese team with a score of 9-3 with three goals in the last nine minutes of the game.

After this atypical Asian confrontation, it is finally the turn of the teams in Group E to make their debut!

In the first match of the first round of Group E at the Gelsenkirchen World Cup Stadium, the Czech Republic defeated the United States 3-0, and the United States lost all eight World Cup games in Europe.

Next, it will be Italy's turn.

……

Italy's prospects in this World Cup have been overshadowed by a domestic football scandal, which has made the qualifying situation in Group E, which is already full of strong teams, even more confusing.

Although the procuratorate is no longer directly investigating members of the national team, it has told Cannavaro, Buffon and others that it will not talk to them again in the future.

But according to the Italian media, this was just a stopgap measure to allow the national team to play well in the World Cup, and things did not end so easily. On the day of the opening game, Lippi, who could not bear the huge pressure, also announced that he would resign after the World Cup.

Moreover, the Italian national team suffered a wave of injuries in the past two weeks. Key players such as Nesta, Gattuso, Grosso, Zambrotta and others were injured one after another, and half of head coach Lippi's main lineup was lying on the sickbed.

But fortunately, the injury situation has improved significantly. Except for Zambrotta and Gattuso, the rest of the players can participate in the first group match against Ghana, including the offensive core Totti.

In addition, in the history of the Italian team, they have never lost to an African team.

Regarding Italy's opponents, many players on the Ghana team, which is participating in the World Cup for the first time, have experience playing in Italy and their strength is impeccable.

Their problem lies in their attitude. Before the game, both the players and the coach said they would give Italy a hard time. Midfielder Gapia said defeating Italy was not a problem at all. Head coach Dujukovic, who always makes surprising remarks, said with full confidence that Ghana could reach the semi-finals.

Such an attitude is in stark contrast to the low-key attitude of the Italian side. If they really go to fight against the experienced Italians with such an arrogant mentality, they will definitely suffer a great loss.

It is worth noting that the 23 players of the Ghana national team come from 23 different teams. Ghana can be said to be the national team with the most widely distributed players. The summer record holder, African buffalo Essien, who was selected into the 50-man candidate list for European Footballer of the Year, is undoubtedly the soul of this team.

In contrast to Ghana, all 23 players of the Italian national team, except for Ricardo Licci, are from their own country's Serie A league, and coach Lippi is also a pure domestic product. This may be related to Italy's over-reliance on the level of Serie A and their conservative character.

In the view of the bookmakers, although the Italian team is under great pressure, its strength is still a level higher than that of Ghana. Their winning odds are 1.60, while the Ghanaian winning odds are 6.00. The draw odds are a more normal 3.45. Italy can basically remain unbeaten.

德国当地时间6月12日晚上21时，晴16摄氏度至29摄氏度，在汉诺威下萨克森球场开始的E组首轮第2场比赛展开争夺。

Italy used a 4-3-1-2 formation. With Zambrotta and Gattuso out due to injury, Lippi's starting lineup was as follows:

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Buffon;

The back line from left to right is No. 3 Grosso, No. 5 Cannavaro, No. 13 Nesta and No. 2 Zaccardo;

The midfield combination is No. 20 Perrotta, No. 21 Pirlo and No. 4 De Rossi supporting No. 10 Totti in the attacking midfield;

The forward line combination is No. 11 Gilardino and No. 9 Luca Toni.

Li Qi, Materazzi, Camoranesi, Del Piero and Iaquinta started the game from the bench.

The Ghanaian team, which entered the World Cup for the first time, has the youngest average age in this World Cup. Essien, Appiah and Muntari form a strong attacking midfield, the defense is led by Kufuor, and the forwards are Gyan and Amoah.

With the referee's whistle, the Italian team in blue shirts, blue pants and blue socks and the Ghanaian team in white shirts, white pants and white socks began their match.

After the opening, Italy firmly controlled the situation on the field with more sophisticated techniques, tactics and cooperation.

Ricardo only watched for 5 minutes and felt that the game was likely to be a win, because Ghana's strategy and tactics did not exceed Lippi's tactical arrangements before the game and were completely targeted.

Ricardo recalled the analysis report Lippi made for the whole team three days ago. The data support for this report seemed to come from a scientific institution in Brescia - the Data Football Project Research Laboratory. They specially counted the specific data of the Ghana team, and derived certain regular commonalities from the friendly match process, individual performance, overall coordination, ball control, passing, shooting and other technical aspects.

The results were first given to assistant coaches Ferrara and Pezzotti, who studied them and then further studied them with Lippi; then a comprehensive "anti-Ghana" plan was formulated.

Ghana doesn't like to attack through the midfield, but rather long passes. Their non-ground ball organization rate is as high as 31% per game. The figure for Serie A is 24%. Serie A is practical enough, but Ghana is more practical.

Paradoxically, it is the Ghanaian midfield that most people are worried about, but the Ghanaian team does not rely on this strong midfield to create chances.

The second data is the frequency of use of the wing. In Ghana's offense, there are an average of 14.7 crosses per game from the wing, while in Serie A this number is 12.1 times.

In addition, Ghana's midfielders Appiah and Muntari are used to long shots outside the penalty area. Given that the match ball for this World Cup, Team Star, is lighter and has a more irregular trajectory, Germany's Lahm and Frings have scored unimaginable goals, and Buffon and Peruzzi have strengthened their long-range shot saves in training.

There was also further analysis of Ghana's set-piece tactics and Ghana's procrastination in organizing the attack. Usually the first player to get the ball was not decisive enough. So Lippi asked his forwards to run and grab the ball more...

In general, Ricardo believes that the tactics arranged by Lippi and the coaching staff for this game are comprehensive, and the confrontation and trend after the start of the game also developed according to Lippi's predictions.

As the game progressed, Italy began to threaten Ghana's goal frequently, while Ghana could only create some offensive through individual skills and sporadic counterattacks.

In the 11th minute, Italy quickly counterattacked. Totti, who had his hair shaved short and looked more energetic and handsome, passed the ball to the right. Pirlo made a low pass from the right, and Perrotta pushed the ball in front of the goal again...

Toni made a sliding shot from 4 meters in front of the goal but missed the ball. Gilardino made a small angle shot from the far left side, but the goalkeeper blocked it. The ball bounced and hit the inside of his calf and hit the side net.

In the 23rd minute, De Rossi from Italy intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack. Pirlo and Totti then cooperated in the middle. Totti then made a lob pass to the penalty area from the front of the penalty area. The ball was first headed out by the defender, but the ball was headed high but not far. Tony's back-hook shot from 11 meters in front of the goal was confiscated by Kingston.

In the 27th minute, Gilardino received a straight pass from Totti and played the ball with his back in front of the penalty area. Toni followed up and headed the ball past Kuffour. He volleyed with his right foot at the edge of the penalty area on the right side. The ball flew out like a cannonball!

But unfortunately, the ball hit the bottom edge of the crossbar and bounced in front of the goal line, right into Jinster's arms...

As the game progressed, Italy played with momentum both in offense and defense. The defense prevented Ghana from having a single shot on target in the first half hour, while the offense got closer and closer to scoring. Ricardo felt that a goal could happen at any time in the next second!

"It seems like Italy will have a good start, but I don't know if I can get the chance to make my debut..." Ricardo pondered and began to consider whether he should start warming up during the halftime break.

……