The American actress/singer took to the stage to sing the official Fifa World Cup song We Are One (Ola Ola), alongside Pitbull and Brazilian pop start Claudia Leitte. The ceremony began with children jumping up and down on trampolines and people dressed as trees walking around a huge globe in the centre of the pitch. The were followed by dancers performing a variety of routines, some solo and others together.
Later hosts Brazil started off the football against Croatia in the first game of the tournament, which ended 3-1 to the hosts and was watched by a crowd of more than 60,000 people, including 12 foreign heads of state.
Fans around Rye are showing there for support for England by decorating there houses, flying flags from there cars and some even dressing up this can only mean one thing World Cup fever has hit Rye.
The pubs are filling up with fans eager to watch the games on big screens and landlords are joining in the fun by decorating the inside and outside of there pubs with the flag of St George.
England began there campaign on Saturday against an Italian side that most experts thought they would beat, unfortunately this was not the case as Italy left the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus with a 2-1 victory, despite the defeat fans were left with a lot of optimism after pleasing performance from England.
Uruguay all but ended England’s World Cup dreams in Brazil, with Luis Suarez the star man for La Celeste. The Liverpool star man not fully fit, scored twice to give Oscar Tabarez’s side a 2-1 win in Sao Paulo at the Corinthians Arena. Suarez put Uruguay in front in the first half, before Wayne Rooney scoring his first World Cup goal brought the Three Lions level during the second half with 15 minutes remaining, However, Suarez was to have the last word when he latched onto a long clearance from Fernando Muslera, which flicked off the head of Steven Gerrard and evaded England’s defence, before smashing ruthlessly past Joe Hart and breaking English fans hearts in the process.
For England to progress in the World Cup they needed Italy to beat Costa Rica to give them any chance to get through to the last 16, unfortunately this wasn’t the case as Italy came out 2nd best losing 1-0 after a fine performance from the unfavoured Costa Rican side.
England’s last game in the group is this Tuesday against Costa Rica, fans are hoping that the manager will pick a youthful side to give them the experience of playing at a World Cup. In September they will then start there qualifying campaign for the European Championships in France in 2016.