Friday is for friendlies

Two big ones today.

Germany beat Colombia 3-0 in what was apparently a lively and confident performance. Just as the win over America in March erased the hangover of a previous loss to Italy, so will this ameliorate that tie with Japan earlier in the week. With as much of a battering as this team has gone through in the home press, this was an important result to achieve in order to get some stability for that Costa Rica game in a week's time.

And Italy were held 0-0 by Ukraine. It stretches their unbeaten run to five matches, says the wire report jauntily, but surely this is another disappointing result for the Italians, who looked so good until fairly recently.

Man, I would so totally take 0-0 against the Italians on the 17th. But maybe I'm being too pessimistic.