This west central German city will host the second match of Group A in the football World Cup 2006 on Friday, June 9, when Poland takes on Ecuador at 9.00 pm local time.

Gelsenkirchen, 40 kilometres from the Dusseldorf International airport, will also witness a series of rock concerts with the likes of Bryan Adams (7 July), Simple Minds (8 June) and Status Quo (28 June) celebrating the arrival of Soccer World Cup in Germany at Schalke's former Gluckaufkampfbahn stadium.

Dortmund, Cologne and Bonn airports are also points to alight while going to Gelsenkirchen.

History is on Poland’s side when they descend in Germany for the World Cup. Last time they came in 1974, they went back with an impressive third place in the World Cup. Only in Spain in 1982 could they repeat the feat. Poland also got the third place in Munich Olympics.

After the 1986 world cup in Mexico, where they defeated fancied France to get the third place, Poland’s fortunes in football slumped. They had to wait 16 years again to qualify for the World Cup soccer in Korea and Japan in 2002.
But the Poles failed to latch on to that, making a first round exit in 2002.

This time Coach Janas has to be a contended man, going by the formidable show put up by the national soccer team in the qualifiers.

Janas’ lead strikers Maciej Zurawski and Tomas Frankowski together scored 14 goals, spurring hopes of a revival of fortunes for the European team. Poland has qualified six times to the world cup – 1938, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986 and 2002.

Poland takes on Ecuador, whom they have never played in a world cup match. Ecuador is ranked 38th by Fifa, while Poland is 12 ranks ahead at 26.

It was in the 2002 qualifying matches that Ecuador stunned its South American peers in football by qualifying even ahead of Brazil. This time too they qualified with an impressive show to earn a ticket to Germany, with a home draw against Uruguay, the team which won the first world cup.

Ecuador has a Columbian coach Luis Suarez, whose predecessor Hernan Dario Gomez was also a Columbian. After a sorry show in Copa America in 1994, Gomez stepped down to give Suarez the mantle of moulding the tiny South American team.

Ecuador qualified for the 2006 World Cup campaign with eight wins, six defeats and four draws, but critics attribute many of their successes to overwhelming home support.

But remember Ecuador had beaten Croatia in 2002, despite an otherwise lackluster performance. Croatia was the winner in the losers final in 1998.

Critics as well as their rivals in Group A in the world cup 2006 should also take into consideration Ecuador’s rising clout reflected in rankings. When the South American qualifiers started they had a ranking of 71. Their campaign ended with a ranking in the 30s club, including a shock defeat of champions Brazil.

Coach Suarez has an impressive talent pool in Christian Lara, Luis Valencia and Franklin Salas as well as the experience of veterans Ulises de La Cruz, Ivan Hurtado, Mendez and Agustin Delgado to rely on.

The Poles, Germans and the Costa Ricans have no reason to relax.