On June 12, the German national football team arrived in Moscow for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The players were met with warm greetings from fans and journalists at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.
And so it starts… 😉 Off to Russia for the World Cup 🇩🇪✈🇷🇺 #WM2018 #DieMannschaft #zsmmn #SK6 @dfb_team pic.twitter.com/vVhmVIoovn
— Sami Khedira (@SamiKhedira) June 12, 2018
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) June 12, 2018
— Julian Draxler (@draxler_fans) June 12, 2018
On arriving, the team's attacking midfielder, Mesut Ozil, posted a photo to his Twitter account with an inscription in Russian, commenting that the tournament is an opportunity for him to learn more about Russia and its traditions.
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) June 12, 2018
TWEET: Arrived in Russia. I am not only looking forward to the beginning of the cup, but also willing to learn about the country, its people and culture, which is a part of every World Cup.
The next day, adoring fans managed to take selfies with the reigning World Cup champions, whom they greeted with cheerful chants and posters. The photos below show a boy who painted a poster, which says in German: "Thomas Mueller give me a t-shirt!"
📸✍🏼 #ZSMMN 😍🇩🇪#DieMannschaft #WM2018 pic.twitter.com/fDHnuS5LRs
— Die Mannschaft (@DFB_Team) June 13, 2018
On June 14, the facade of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow became part of a light show timed to coincide with the start of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. A series of unique projections about football, inspiring fans to support their teams, appeared on the building's facade. Mesut Ozil said he was proud to see his portrait during the installation.
Great surprise! Proud to see me as a projection on the Bolshoi Theatre 😬😊 #Moscow #HereToCreate #WorldCup2018 #thankyou @adidasfootball pic.twitter.com/c2FftzLBDJ
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) June 15, 2018
During the tournament, the German national team will be based in Vatutinki, a town outside Moscow, and will train at CSKA Moscow's base. As part of a public training session on Wednesday, the players had presented 1,000 soccer balls to the children training at this base. In addition, the team announced that over the next four years, the children's department of Moscow's CSKA, as well as the German School in Moscow, will get a team sponsorship totaling 80,000 euros.
#DieMannschaft verschenkt 1.000 Bälle an Kinder in Watutinki und fördert die Deutsche Schule in Moskau in den nächsten vier Jahren mit 80.000 Euro. #ZSMMN #WM2018
— Die Mannschaft (@DFB_Team) June 13, 2018
Mehr unter 👉 https://t.co/FzXQsrd1IF pic.twitter.com/JSQ5f7jWHY
The German national football team will face Mexico in its first FIFA 2018 World Cup game at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday.
From June 14 to July 15, Russia is hosting the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history, with matches set to be held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Volgograd, and Samara.
