The mob gathers

A couple of years ago, German defender Stefan Effenberg retired from professional football so that he could concentrate on his other full-time job: being an asshole. In that capacity today, he has told Bild that he thinks former teammate Jurgen Klinsmann should be fired as soon as possible:

"If I was in charge then I would get rid of Klinsmann right away and get Ottmar Hitzfeld in," Effenberg told Bild daily. "I would even suggest doing that before the United States game."

Needless to say, that would be pretty much bonkers. But with Franz Beckenbauer ominously muttering that "time is running out," it's fair to say that even if the lynch mob is not actually pounding on Klinsmann's door, they are down at the hardware store stocking up on torches and pitchforks.

All of which makes the forthcoming friendly against the US very interesting. Anything less than a victory against the Americans will bring the cries for Klinsmann's head to a fever pitch. And let's face it, realistically this will be difficult. The USA is unbeaten in 2006, confident, and, since they're playing a top nation at home, under very little pressure. We've done pretty well in friendlies against Germany in the not too distant past, and even in that game, the US was certainly the better team (if it had been a meaningless friendly instead of a World Cup quarter final, the Germans would have been slammed for that performance.) So tune in on Mar 22nd; it should be fun.

P.S. I realize that one of those "friendlies" I linked to was actually a Confederations Cup game. But... you know... the Cornfed Cup is pretty much still a meaningless tournament.