Johannesburg, June 7 (DPA) Three-time champions Germany became the latest team to arrive at the World Cup Monday and were set to hold an open training session later in the day.
Joachim Loew’s team arrived in the early Monday morning here on the first official flight of national carrier Lufthansa’s Airbus A380 super jumbo.
‘It was a great experience to be on the first A380 flight,’ said Loew.
The team then left for its base camp close to the nation’s capital of Pretoria. A first training session was set for the afternoon and it will be open to the public, with some 20,000 fans expected.
‘We want to show the South Africans from the outset that we are happy to be here,’ said national team general manager Oliver Bierhoff.
Germany play their first match Sunday against Australia, with Serbia and Ghana their other opponents in group D.
Also aboard the flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg was pop star Shakira, who sings the official World Cup song ‘This time for Africa.’ Shakira will perform among others at the tournament-opening gig on Thursday.
The opening matches are played Friday.
