THE PARTY HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED!

Soccer fans are celebrating at the central Fan-Party for the soccer World Cup at the Boulevard ‘Strasse des 17. Juni’. Up to 400,000 of these lucky bastards can celebrate the World Cup at the party area named ‘Fan-Mile’. The letters in the background read: ‘Welcome to the Fan Party Berlin’. (Anyone wanna avoid a suicide attempt on my part and send me a ticket to Germany? Pretty pa-leeze)

Pele is seen here on the big screen at the Fan-Mile (L) and pouring salt in the wounds of an 80’s girl, is Jim Kerr (R), lead singer of the Simple Minds, as he performs during the opening ceremony for the official Berlin fan party.

WAYNE ROONEY
British sports minister Richard Caborn said Rooney’s injury was receiving too much attention, so I thought I would give it more. Caborn said “I think the media has gone a bit mad on it and it masks a little bit that we are taking out the strongest squad probably that we ever sent out since 1966…I still believe the squad that is going out there can actually bring back the World Cup.”

Word is that the little guy is gonna be fine. Rooney was cleared to rejoin England’s World Cup squad after having his right foot examined, although there is no “official” confirmation from either the English Football Association or his club, Man-U. The results of the scans took place at an exclusive hospital and Rooney was smiling as he left. It is not known when, or if Rooney will return to England’s World Cup base near Baden-Baden, a spa town in southern Germany. The results of the scan may not be available until Thursday.

MY HOMEBOYS HAVE LANDED

The Italians have landed in Germany and at this point, I’m on my knee’s praying for a ticket to drop out the sky.

Italy’s two hottest, and most valuable players, Luca Toni (L) and Francesco Totti (R), arrived at Duisburg’s Landhaus Milser hotel where the team will be staying during the World Cup.

ONE OF THE LUCKY FEW

This little rug-rat holds a ball signed by Portuguese national soccer players after a training session Wednesday. I gotta get this kid on my team.

Julio Fernandez dressed his dog “scrappy” in an Ecuadorian soccer team jersey in Quito, Ecuador! Ecuador’s President Alfredo Palacio has announced that public and private companies can both work half-days the day of the match between Ecuador and Poland to allow people to enjoy the game. It is indeed a beautiful game.

A giant portrait of Germany’s captain, Michael Ballack may be all we see of the hottie during the games. Ballack failed to complete the last training session and may not be “fit” enough to play. I’m not sure why missing one training session would render him unfit, and I suspect that Germany will take another look at their roster and get Ballack in the saddle.

A German model dons the “World Cup” hairstyle created by German hairdresser Waltraut Schlagwein. In her garnet-red dyed hair, she has small flags of all 32 participating countries of the upcoming soccer World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Now this is my kind of hang out. An unidentified Gulf Arab man smokes a “water-pipe” and watches soccer today at a coffee shop in Manama, Bahrain.

That’s it for today. As always, thanks for reading. Delinda