We're getting close to the host country's debut Friday night in Munich, so I figured I'd check out what the German press were talking about with just 48 hours to go.
The main sports headline in the tabloid Bild concered injured captain Michael Ballack, who is expected to be able to play Friday despite missing friendly's with a leg problem.
"Is our captain really broken," Bild's headline scrolled, using the fantastic German term "kaputt" that we all know and love.
Below the fold there was a feature on the style of Bastian Schweinsteiger, the young winger whose last name roughly means "Pig Farmer." "Schweini," as the Germans know him is sporting a Beckham-esque fo-hawk. "Pig hair is OK with Hoeness," is the headline above a story in which former German star and Bayern Munich manager Uli Hoeness is quoted in support of Schweini's piggish haircut.
The Morning Post, a Hamburg paper, came out with its World Cup preview today and it's main feature is about "Klinsi's delicate mission," how Southern California resident Jurgen Klinsmann has his work cut out for him as German manager this month. Since the U.S. is training Hamburg, there is also a full-page feature on the U.S. team entitled "The Americans from A to Z." Something got lost in translation, of course, because the publication used the feature as an excuse to use an underdressed young American vixen in red, white and blue atop the caption "More than 20,000 hot US girls will follow the team."
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