Soccer: Germany face anxious build-up

IBARAKI, Japan - Instead of starting a relatively relaxed few days looking forward to their assured place in the second round of the World Cup finals, German coach Rudi Voeller and his squad face an unnecessarily anxious build-up to their final group E match against Cameroon next Tuesday.

Germany were just over a minute away from becoming the first team to reach the second round when they led Ireland 1-0 at the Kashima Stadium here on Wednesday, but they let that slip when the Irish equalised in injury time with a well-deserved goal from Robbie Keane, named as FIFA's man of the match.

Germany returned to their base camp on Thursday with Voeller saying they were "very disappointed" by the way the match ended.

But he said he had no real fears that their scorer Miroslav Klose would miss the Cameroon game at Shizuoka next week.

Klose, who scored his fourth goal of the finals with a well-taken header after 19 minutes, was replaced after 85 minutes by Marco Bode and had his right knee heavily bandaged.

"It's nothing serious, just a precaution, said Voeller, "He will be fine for the next game."

Of more concern to the German coach is lifting the spirits of his men, who were on a high after beating Saudi Arabia 8-0 in their opening match but were brought crashing back down to earth by an Irish team that never stopped battling on Wednesday.

"What hurts the most is that we conceded that equaliser so late. Had it come earlier, we wouldn't be as disappointed," said Voeller. "We lost to a very good Irish team.

"But our fate remains in our hands. A draw against Cameroon should be enough but obviously this is tough. The players already saw themselves in the second round, they'll have a bad night, but after that, we will get back to work and we can still make it."

While the Germans were suffering a hangover from the result, Ireland's army of ecstatic fans will no doubt be suffering self-induced hangovers of their own on Thursday -- if they can afford to drink that much at Japanese prices.

They cheered as ecstatically at the end as if their team had just won the World Cup itself and, in the circumstances, forcing a 1-1 draw with the three time world champions is probably as good as it has ever been for the Irish.

The result was one of the greatest in their soccer history and is on a par with their penalty shoot-out victory over Romania in the second round of the 1990 World Cup finals and their famous 1-0 win over Italy in the United States four years later.

The result gives them a real chance of a place in the last 16 because if they beat Saudi Arabia as expected at Yokohama next Tuesday, and Germany beat Cameroon, Ireland should go through.

Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, who played in the match against Romania 12 years ago, said: "I'm not thinking about the next round. I've just told the players we've got to go out and beat Saudi Arabia now and finish the job off."

McCarthy has already shown his mettle more than once since the squad left for their Pacific island retreat in Saipan to prepare for the finals. But having sent captain Roy Keane home after a very public row, McCarthy has warmed to his task.

"I said don't play Germany off the park and come off losing 1-0. That was my parting shot to them at halftime. We close down, we work very hard for one another. There's great team spirit."

The players, remembering McCarthy's words, fought hard to make sure that did not happen although, as midifelder Matt Holland was well aware, they left it very late.

"The important thing was not to get beaten against Germany, and losing 1-0 with a couple of minutes to go -- it looks like your chances of progressing are slim. But we got the result we wanted in the end," said Holland.

"The fans were exceptional -- they got right behind us throughout the game. So after nearly being out of the competition we're still very much in it. We need to win the last game, but with five points you hope that you should be able to go through.

- REUTERS

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