Germany striker Miroslav Klose will celebrate his 28th birthday in front of a 65,000-Munich crowd and hundreds of millions of TV viewers when the hosts get the 2006 World Cup started against Costa Rica on Friday.
If he makes the same sort of impact he did at the start of the last World Cup it will be quite a party at the glorious new three-tiered Allianz Arena, regardless of whether captain Michael Ballack recovers from his calf strain in time.
Klose scored a hat-trick in an 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia four years ago, his World Cup debut, and the performance set the Germans on their way to the final, which they lost 2-0 against Brazil.
Germany are outsiders this time but one of their three World Cup triumphs came in 1974 when they last had the tournament on home soil and they are confident of beating Costa Rica, who have struggled in their recent warm-up games.
"It's crucial to have a good start because we play in our own country," Klinsmann said in a recent chat with reporters.
"We'll try to give the fans confidence and the players self-belief."
Germany will not be complacent, especially considering what happened in the opening match of the last World Cup.
Defending champions France had the honour of opening that tournament and with Zinedine Zidane unavailable through injury they went down to a shock 1-0 defeat by Senegal. It was a similar story in Italy in 1990 when Cameroon upset Argentina.
WANCHOPE BOOST
Costa Rica have been boosted by the return to fitness of Paulo Wanchope, the country's all-time leading goalscorer who says he has recovered from a troublesome knee injury.
Wanchope, who scored eight goals in the qualifiers and has 43 international goals in all, will lead the country into their third appearance at the finals.
The Ticos reached the second round in 1990 and were unlucky not to match the achievement four years ago, when they lost out on goal difference to eventual semi-finalists Turkey.
"We are a better organised team," the striker told reporters this week. "Defensively we are stronger and we can also play good football and score goals."
So can Germany, who have developed an attacking style under the former World Cup winning striker Klinsmann, who had no coaching experience when he was handed the job by a desperate German Football Association in 2004.
If Ballack fails to recover in time, Tim Borowski, an elegant passer of the ball, will come in as a straight swap in a four-man midfield.
The two Polish-born forwards Klose and Lukas Podolski will start up front, with the 21-year-old Bastian Schweinsteiger on the left of an adventurous line-up.
Costa Rica will probably pack the midfield in a 3-5-2 formation and wait for their chance.
"I know these players," said coach Alexandre Guimaraes. "They'll go out and play the game that they know how, the way it suits us."
Poland and Ecuador meet in Gelsenkirchen in the second Group A game later on Friday.
The tournament final is at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on July 9.
Teams
Germany: 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
Coach: Juergen Klinsmann
Costa Rica: 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
Coach: Alexandre Guimaraes
Referee: Horacio Elizondo (Argentina)
