The German coach appeared confident for his preparations ahead of the World Cup 2006 opening match between Germany and Costa Rica today. "We can’t wait for it to start at long last," Klinsmann said, hinting that the team is 100% ready.

"We are really looking forward to this opening game. We have been working towards this for a long time," Germany's coach said. Klinsmann appears confident about his team's chances to win the opening game, even though the star midfielder and captain Michael Ballack was ruled out due to an injury.

The opening match will also be the first official International match for the German team in Munich's Allianz Arena stadium, even though a friendly with Bayern Munich took place in 2005.

"The mood in the team is outstanding. We can’t wait for it to start at long last. We are looking forward to playing before the Munich crowd and to the atmosphere."

"We are all excited. The preparation is now coming to an end and we have our first big test. We are full of confidence," Klinsmann said.

History is with the German side, who have won most of their previous World Cup opening matches, while during the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Germany lost it's opening match against Algeria. However this did not stop the German team to reach the finals.

"We have great respect for Costa Rica. We have watched them closely and we know every single player," Klinsmann said.

"They will be playing before a gigantic crowd. It’s their moment, they will be making life extremely difficult for us. It will be a lot of work and a game of patience. It will be one difficult game after the other."

Germany's assistant coach Joachim Low said earlier in the week that they have been watching videos and monitoring each Costa Rican player who is included in the World Cup Finals squad.

"It is the first match and we are a bit nervous but we have done our homework and I think we are in a position to beat Costa Rica. If we turn up and show our strengths we will win the match," Low told reporters.

"We have collected a lot of information on them by watching DVD clips of league games and international matches. We know their strengths and weaknesses but of course we will not be discussing them in public."

The coaching team of the Germans has also introduced the players to Costa Rica's culture, so that the players can get to know as much as possible about their opponents.

"We introduced the players to the country, how the people live there and what their mentality is like. We've also seen from games that they're technically skilful and they love to play beautiful soccer. That's a reflection of the (Costa Rican) national character" Joachim Low said.

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