Klinsmann Aims to Break Germany's Curse

Although the Klinsmann era has been, on the whole, a successful one so far, the German national soccer coach has one statistic he would like to put right while his tenure is still in its infancy. Germany must end their four-year winless streak against the world's top teams.

Klinsmann will be looking to right that particular wrong when his team host Argentina in a friendly on Wednesday in Düsseldorf. The former Germany striker and World Cup winner has pin-pointed the match against the twice-crowned world champions from South America as the one in which his young squad can overcome a major soccer power for the first time since Dietmar Hamann's free-kick landed Germany a 1-0 victory over England in 2000.

"It's time to bring this negative series to an end," said Klinsmann, whose are on a run of five wins, a draw against Brazil and one defeat by South Korea since he took over from Rudi Völler in August 2004. "Argentina will be the first highlight of the year for us and our goal is quite clear: we haven't beaten a great football country since the 1-0 win over England on October 7, 2000."

Dismal run to 2002 World Cup

After the victory at Wembley, Germany embarked on a dismal run ahead of the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea. Germany lost 1-0 to France, were thrashed 5-1 at home in the re-match with England and 1-0 to Argentina. At the World Cup, Germany beat Paraguay, the United States and South Korea before losing 2-0 in the final to a Ronaldo-inspired Brazil.

They have since lost 3-1 to the Netherlands, 3-1 to Spain, 1-0 to Italy and 3-0 to France. They at least put the breaks on the bad run against top teams when a spirited performance against Brazil was rewarded with a 1-1 draw in September.

They will have at least three more chances to set the record straight by the end of the year. They play Argentina, and possibly Brazil again, in the Confederations Cup and there are further friendly internationals to come against the Netherlands and France. "This year has a lot of highlights and it's going to teach us a lot," Klinsmann said. "We need such big games ahead of the World Cup. They're very instructive."

Coach keeps faith in Asia tour squad

Klinsmann continues to overhaul the Germany team and stamp his authority on it. To beat one of the major soccer powers for the first time in over four years would be a major coup for the coach who has ruffled more than his fair share of feathers at the top of the game since taking on the role last year.

He has resisted the urge to shuffle his pack for Wednesday's friendly, sticking on the whole to those players who featured on the recent trip to Asia.

However, German captain Michael Ballack will not take any part in the match on Wednesday evening. The Bayern Munich midfielder was feeling the effects of a cold when he joined up with the squad on Tuesday and Klinsmann ruled him out of the Argentina match. "Ballack has gone back to Munich," Klinsmann said. "He played in a similar condition against Brazil and it only made things worse."

Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann will play between the sticks in the Düsseldorf match despite not being first choice at his club as Klinsmann continues to spice up the competition for Bayern Munich's custodian Oliver Kahn. Bayern's Kahn will be back in goal for the next friendly against Slovenia, according to Klinsmann.

The Germany coach has included Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Paul Freier in his squad for the first time since last May but Chelsea defender Robert Huth has a knee injury and was not included. VfB Stuttgart's Philipp Lahm is still out of action and will also miss the game.

Probable Teams:

Germany: Jens Lehmann; Andreas Hinkel, Arne Friedrich,

Christian Woerns, Christian Schulz; Bernd Schneider, Torsten Frings, Fabian Ernst, Bastian Schweinsteiger; Kevin Kuranyi, Miroslav Klose

Argentina: Roberto Abbondanzieri; Javier Zanetti,

Maximiliano Rodriguez, Gabriel Heinze, Juan Pablo Sorin; Juan Roman Riquelme, Lionel Scaloni, Esteban Cambiasso, Pablo Aimar; Javier Saviola, Hernan Crespo