2006 World Cup Kicks Off In Germany

The world's biggest sporting event kicked off Friday in Munich, Germany. In the U.S. it's "soccer." To most of the world it's "football." For everyone it's the 2006 World Cup.

Thirty-two countries are competing in the World Cup over the next month. Host nation Germany is playing the opening match against Costa Rica. Poland faces Ecuador later on Friday.

German and Costa Rican fans poured through the streets of Munich before the kick off, singing and chanting amid tight security, dazzling fanfare and many mugs of beer.

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, a 20-year-old student from San Jose who will be among the 66,000 attending the event. "The whole world is going to know about Costa Rica."

More than 3 million people are expected to attend the quadrennial soccer championship, and billions more will watch on television. A million foreign visitors to Germany are expected to spend a billion euros.

The U.S. team plays its opening game Monday against the Czech Republic.

In Newark, N.J., home to tens of thousands Portuguese and Brazilian immigrants and their descendants, fans say the 2006 World Cup is good for the soul.

It's also good for business.

At Pegasus Sporting Goods on Ferry Street, sales have been up 75 percent in the past two months as enthusiasts snap up their national teams' jerseys almost as fast as staffer Michael Marques can put them on hangers.

"People are going crazy," said Marques, standing amid still-unpacked boxes of merchandise as shoppers swarmed the store Thursday, to purchase the Portuguese team's sleek black Nike-designed jerseys, retail price $70. "World Cup fever is in full effect."

Police have launched a crackdown on English soccer hooligans to prevent them from reaching Germany for the World Cup, reports . British police are patrolling the streets in major German cities, with help from their German colleagues.

"The cooperation's been first class and it's a good policing operation," said Constable Steve Thomas.

Most of the worst hooligans have had their passports confiscated and will be watching the World Cup from home.

One fan attending the World Cup says the German police seem to understand that not all British fans are thugs.

"They're going to police us on the basis of our behavior, not reputation, and that's really all you can ask for," he said.

Soccer hooliganism isn't just Britain's least-favorite export, it's also Poland's. Officials tightened Germany's border with Poland — an hour's train ride from Berlin.

Soccer has struggled for years to rid itself of racism. For this World Cup in Germany, the governing body of the world's sport is making harmony a central theme.

U.S. midfielder DaMarcus Beasley has heard the ugly words, vicious taunts screamed by fans in Holland simply because he is black.

Cameroon's brilliant Samuel Eto'o was so sickened by insults hurled his way that he threatened to walk off the field.

Even Thierry Henry, one of the world's best players and a spokesman for racial tolerance, has been stung by a slur — from Spain's coach, no less.

"Football, like most sports, is combative — you play to win. But it shouldn't have anything to do with racism or violence," said Federico Addiechi, head of a FIFA division that deals with corporate social responsibility. "The problem will not disappear in a couple of days in the World Cup, but it's important to highlight the problem when you have such a platform."

German police raided the headquarters of a far-right party in Berlin and confiscated about 3,000 guides for the World Cup with racist overtones, a spokesman said Friday.

The guides, produced by the National Democratic Party, known by its German initials NPD, warned of foreign infiltration into the German national soccer team, said Michael Grunwald, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors.

"A racist combination of pictures and texts warned that soon the German team would be made up almost entirely of black players," Grunwald said.

The raid followed a criminal complaint filed by the German Soccer Federation, or DFB.

In a special pre-World 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."

A Vatican archbishop says an anticipated flood of prostitutes into Germany for the World Cup would violate the dignity of women.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto told Vatican Radio that in Germany, where prostitution is legal, "Women become goods to be purchased whose cost is even less than that of a ticket to a soccer game."

He pointed to estimates that up to 40,000 women could be brought into Germany during the World Cup to work as prostitutes, many of them against their will.

The German government insists that forced prostitution is not tolerated. But some 400,000 German prostitutes are legally registered, pay taxes on their earnings and receive social benefits.