Today's German papers do not exactly make happy reading for Jürgen Klinsmann, the embattled coach of the German football team. 'Disaster', 'Shocking' and 'Crass' were some of the politer words deployed this morning, after Germany's humiliating 1-4 defeat last night by Italy in Florence. There was little positive to say about Germany's performance during yesterday's friendly, which saw the team concede two goals within the first six minutes. By half time they were 0-3 down. It didn't get any better in the second half. Michael Ballack, Germany's captain and star player, failed to do anything. The team appeared terrible in defence, weak on attack, and generally clueless.
As the German tabloid Bild put it this morning - commenting on rumours that Ballack might leave Bayern Munich for FC Chelsea: '26,000 Euros a day at Chelsea? Yesterday Ballack's performance was at best worth a pizza.'
With 99 days to go until the World Cup, it is beginning to look as if the hosts Germany could face an embarrassingly early exit from the competition. Until now, I had always assumed that when my German friends said that the German team had little chance of winning the 2006 World Cup, this was merely a product of Germany's famous cultural pessimism. Germans, for obvious historical reasons, have a tendency to talk their national football team down - despite the fact that it has won the World Cup three times, and has a far better record in the competition than England.
Now, however, I'm beginning to think that my German friends might be right. The current Klinsmann team really isn't very good. Several players - Friedrich, Podolski and Mertesacker - were awful on the night. The only player who acquitted himself decently last night was Jens Lehmann, the Arsenal goalkeeper - and he let in four goals. This morning, German football pundits made little secret of their contempt for Klinsmann, who has faced months of drip-drip criticism for his decision to live in California while coaching the German national squad. Last night it became clear that his experimental defence arrangement wasn't exactly working. Klinsmann can only hope that once the current Champions League fixtures are over, his team will find better form.
