World Cup Celebration

The World Cup soccer main event brings together the cream of football players from the 32 qualified nations to compete for the title of the best football nation on the globe. Even governments get emotional about it ! The event will be watched by an anticipated 29 billion people in 213 countries around the world. It is an organiser's nightmare with more than 41,000 hours of TV programming ahead. The tournament was held in the Asia for the first time in 2002 with outstanding success and now Germany has the added pressure this year to hold the captivating event.

HISTORY
Seventy-six years on from the first World Cup held in Uruguay, the world is again in preparation to come to a stand still for a month of everything soccer. The 2006 World Cup will begin on the 9th of June, with host city Germany matching up against one of the tournaments long shots, Costa Rica.

The first world cup was won by the host country Uruguay, but then the tournament was only contested by 13 nations. Interestingly, Italy and England were two countries that did not compete in that first World Cup, but have since gone on to hold the trophy in subsequent years. The tournament was introduced after Frenchman Henri Delauney and Jules Rimet conceived the idea whilst attending the FIFA congress in 1926. They declared that the most popular sport in the world needed to have its own World Championship, on a stage where the world's best players could compete for their countries rather than clubs. It would also settle arguments as to who was the best soccer nation of their time. Prior to the World Cup of Soccer, international football was limited within the confines of the Olympics, but this became unrealistic after many countries were not able to be represented by their best players in this competition as they were professionals.

After the shambles of the 1930 event in Montevideo, the Cup moved to Italy where again the host nation was the winner of the event. Interestingly, after 17 World Championships, there have been 6 host nations who have won on home soil and this is a feat that Germany will be out to emulate this year.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Brazil, the defending champions from 4 years ago, is again one of the favourites for the tournament with most online sports betting sites. With a world class line up that includes names like Ronaldo (2002 Golden Boot Winner), Ronaldinho and Adriano, it's not hard to see why most are predicting them to go very close to winning their sixth world championship. Joining Brazil at the top of most peoples' list are traditional heavyweights Argentina, France, England, Italy and the Netherlands. There are also a number of debutants taking the field, Togo, Ukraine, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago and Angola who are all headed to the World Cup for the very first time. Ukraine and Ivory Coast look the best out of this competitive bunch.

Ronaldo (favourite to lead the scoring again this year as he did in 2002) has the opportunity to surpass fellow countryman and world cup hero, Pele, in this year's competition. Both players have scored 12 goals for Brazil in world cup matches. Gerd Muller of Germany holds the tournament record of 14 goals. Ronaldo ("The Phenomenon") hasn't avoided the controversy that such a large stage offers either. In 1998, host nation France (who had not competed in the event since Mexico in 1986) and Brazil faced off in a final that Brazil was favourite to take out. The losing result stunned the nation and led France into a frenzied celebration as they had defeated the defending champions 3-0. Ronaldo had suffered a sudden convulsive fit which had almost ruled the champ out of the final altogether. The team later admitted that this event had destabilised the team at a critical moment in the tournament. Either way, in 2006 the world is sure to hear the name Ronaldo again, but his countryman Ronaldinho (FIFA World Player of the Year) may well provide the world with headlines of his own.

So when June 9 rolls up, be prepared to get up in the middle of the night and start screaming and shouting at the TV, speaking in a language unknown to most (such as "4-4-2", "off-side" and "lone strikers") because after waiting the 4 years since Korea and Japan's successful staging of the event, the world is about to go soccer crazy and turn its eye to Germany for the next month. At the end of it all there will be a new World Champion crowned for the next 4 years.

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