The national soccer team arrived in Germany early Wednesday morning, Korean time ahead of the World Cup that opens Saturday.

The 43-member squad led by coach Dick Advocaat left its training camp in Scotland for Germany's Cologne-Bonn International Airport, where the players were greeted by officials from the German World Cup organizing committee and the South Korean embassy in Berlin.

The squad then moved to Bergisch Gladbach, a small city of a hundred-thousand residents, some 16 kilometers from Cologne. A thousand local and ethnic Korean residents greeted the team with a welcoming ceremony at their lodgings at the Grand Hotel Bensberg Castle.

Training will begin in the afternoon.

Korea's opening match against Togo is on Tuesday.