`Starting Whistle` and Goal Goal Goal

The 2002 World Cup finals in Korea and Japan has raised its historic curtain with the opening games followed by the colorful opening ceremony at the Seoul World Cup stadium on May 31 while six billion global villagers watch on.

The 17th World Cup finals is the first games in the 21st century and the first of its kind in Asian continent and jointly organized by two countries of Korea and Japan. The greatest concern is who would be a hero of `dream of field` and what team would hold the championship.

While a total of 16 World Cup games have taken place, nine times in Europe and seven times in America, and South American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and European countries such as Germany, Italia, England and France have dominated the World Cup games taking eight championships each, which makes the games of this time more interesting as it will be the stage for determining who really is the world football champion.

Brazil of four terms champion, Germany and Italia in three terms, and Argentina in two terms, and France, England, and Spain are the prime candidates of the games championship. Additionally, newly emerging strong powers like Portugal, Nigeria, and Sweden has thrown out the gauntlet for the championship.

The World Cup games has entered a heated contest for a month beginning from the opening games between France and Senegal, and a total number of 32 participating countries will go through play leagues in eight groups at twenty stadiums located in Korea and Japan till June 14, and then sixteen countries will take final tournaments to decide the eventual champion of the FIFA Cup beginning June 15.

In the group league, South Korea belongs to D group, which include Portugal, Poland, and the United States, and South Korea is keeping up its last training in a preparation camp in Kyungju to advance into the 16 strong.

South Korea will take the first play with Poland in Busan on May 4, and has a plan to advance into the final 16 by achieving scores of at least one win-one draw-one defeat.

The opening ceremony in the day, heralding a new historic beginning of the first World Cup in a new millennium, were attended by President Kim Dae-Jung, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro, Honorary President of the Japan Football Association Takama Donomiya who is a cousin of Japanese Emperor Akihito, President of East Timor Xanana Gusmao, President of Palau, Prime Minister of Dominica, former presidents including Chun Doo-Whan, and world renown personals like FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The ceremony staged a colorful show with a theme of `From the East.`

Following the declaration of the opening by President Kim, the opening ceremony were divided into four sub-themes with congratulatory dancing of dancing troupe and playful traditional dancers, and transmitted to the world an oriental `spirit of co-prosperity` using advanced information telecommunication technology South Korea is proud of.