Cannon fodder

It seems to me that there's a pretty obvious flaw with Germany's plan to build confidence by staging a pre-Cup friendly against one of their diminuitive neighbors: Liechtenstein/Luxembourg might win.

Seriously. Liechtenstein drew Portugal in qualifying, and after they were two goals down to boot. And what opponent wouldn't be up for humiliating the Germans immediately prior to the World Cup?

I think the logic behind this is terrible: either you score a meaningless large victory against a minnow, or you end up with disappointment and/or humiliation. It's a no-win situation.

In other hot match-scheduling action, the US have arranged a closed-door scrimmage with Angola immediately prior to the tournament. Last time round in 2002, the US did the German plan and played a pre-Cup scrimmage against cannon fodder. The victims in question were US second division team Richmond Kickers, who, somewhat hilariously, managed to tie the US 2-2, (see? It can happen.) causing waves of apoplectic panic among US supporters. Bearing in mind it all turned out fine for the US in the end, I guess it all goes to show that you shouldn't take this kind of thing too seriously. (Although I can't help but notice in the Richmond-US match report that it was Jeff Agoos who got beat on one of Richmond's goals, which in hindsight was a definite precursor of his performance in Korea.)