Newspapers taking it to Juergen Klinsmann

As expected, newspapers in Germany are letting national coach Juergen Klinsmann have it after his side was demolished by Italy 4-1. The daily Blid (pictured) warns "Mamma mia we're bad!" Going on to say, "Only 99 days to the World Cup and our national team is playing worse than ever before. If we play like that at the World Cup we'll be obliterated."

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's headline reads, "1:4 - Germany shrinks to a soccer dwarf." Continuing on to say, "the four-man defensive line played in such a way that the excluded Christian Woerns was the only German winner of the evening, albeit a sad one."

Klinsmann is trying to stay calm saying that his team has learned a valuable lesson.

"The truth is that after conceding two goals in the first six minutes we were unable to react - we did not have the strength to put Italy under pressure.

"We made lots of mistakes and we did not play well. In any case our journey towards the World Cup continues and I am still confident my young team can do well in the World Cup."

Interestingly enough, captain Michael Ballack said of his team's performance, "Thank God the next match is only three weeks away. You will see a different German team then."

And who will the German's face in three weeks? None other then the US of A. The March 22nd match is not an official FIFA international date, so more then a few of the best players from both sides will be absent. Still, with this match being played in Germany, the US have got to be seen as big time underdogs.

The German side will be looking for a win to quiet the press circus, and what better way to do so then knocking off a highly ranked team that recently beat one of your World Cup opponents.