Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Only 96 days to go now. The weather may be appalling, bird flu might be in the air and it would appear that the last government's oh-so principled stand against the war in Iraq was nothing but a tawdry charade, but these trifling matters aside, there's the prospect of winning the World Cup and returning the Fatherland to its rightful place among the nations of the earth. At which point all will be forgiven and forgotten.

Well, that was the position until Wednesday night. Then, Italy intervened. By crushing Germany 4-1 in Florence, the Azzurri exposed the 2006 tournament host team as, well, hopeless. With so many dreams riding on a good show in June-July, a minimum of competence had been expected, but now that the Kaiser has been exposed as having no clothes, a feeling of panic has replaced the guarded optimism that was making itself felt throughout the land. After all, the economy is showing green shoots, the new chancellor is knitting up a comfy trans-Atlantic relationship and heaps of gold medals were bagged at the Winter Olympics in Turin. Which brings us nicely back to Italy.

After the 2002 World Cup, in which Germany bored its way into the final, and following Euro 2004 in which Greece, with the help of a German coach, improved the formula and bored its way to victory, leaving the creators of the recipe with no option but to pack their bags early, the Deutsche Fußball-Bund decided to try a new tactic next time round. Jürgen Klinsmann was hired to inculcate the basics of intelligent, attractive football, but on Wednesday night, it was obvious that this experiment has failed totally. The big question being asked now in informed circles is: can we go back to the old way of doing things? Can the defensive wall be rebuilt on home turf, and in time? We'll all be a bit more enlightened on 22 March when Germany play the USA. As an indicator of how things are today, the USA is now ranked joint 6th in FIFA's international rankings and Germany is, that's right, 19th, and heading down. No one wants to think of what might happen if the Yanks were to win in Dortmund.