Kaaahhhhnnnn!

Everybody loves a goalkeeper controversy! And Germany's is a tough one: a choice between 36 year old Bayern Munich keeper Oliver Kahn, and 36 year old Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann. Adding to the piquancy is the fact that they hate each other's guts.

Jurgen Klinsmann has been preferring a rotation policy in the Germany goal over the last year or so, alternating between picking the two. But as Eteocles and Polynices could tell you, these power-sharing agreements never work out, and sure enough, it's just made Oliver and Jens both miserable. And of course Klinsmann will have to make a decision before the Cup. Conveniently, Kahn is injured for the Italy friendly on Wednesday, but that just puts off that decision for another day.

It's hard for a neutral to know who to root for. Four years ago I'd have said Kahn, who not only looks like the love child of Neil Young and Peter Noone, but also has some amusing homonymic namesakes. But Lehmann has been mightily entertaining in the Arsenal matches I've seen this year, leaping out of goal to play emergency sweeper, and generally being a bit bonkers. So may the funniest man win.

P.S. Germany has already controversially purged itself of one drama queen: defender Christian Woerns sounded off about his exclusion from the Italy squad and now Klinsmann says he's off the Cup squad. A Steve Sampson/John Harkes shark-jumping moment? It's fair to say that if Germany lose against Italy this Wednesday there'll be an increasing sense of panic about Deutschland's chances.