Germany has its issues, but fate may shine on hosts

	As usual, Germany will rely on its captain in the midfield, Michael Ballack. AP
	RELATED • World Cup team profiles complete archive • Full '06 World Cup draw and schedule

By Mark Bechtel, SI.com

Through late April, SI.com will profile two World Cup teams a week. We continue with Germany. Click here for the full archive.

FIFA world ranking: No. 19.

How they qualified: Hosts of the tournament.

Previous World Cups: 15 appearances (1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002). Champions in '54, '74, '90, runners-up in '66, '82, '86, '02.

Manager: Jürgen Klinsmann, third year with team.

Key players

Polish-born striker Lukas Podolski's club résumé doesn't exactly bowl you over: 12 goals in 30 games. But the 20-year-old plied his trade for relegation-bound FC Cologne -- a very bad team. Surround him with world-class players, though, and he's proven to be a goal-scoring machine. He's found the net seven times in nine games with the national team, which caught the attention of the big boys, including Bayern Munich.

Podolski appears set to sign with the Bundelsiga giants, but he'll be disappointed to find that Michael Ballack won't be there to set him up. The 29-year-old attacking midfielder -- who is one of the best in the world at directing the action from the middle of the pitch -- stuck around with Bayern because he wanted to be playing in Germany leading up to the World Cup. Now he's England's highest-paid player as Chelsea's newest signing. Ballack missed the '02 loss to Brazil in the Cup final after picking up a yellow in the semis. Had the dazzling playmaker been on the pitch, it might very well have been a different result.

What to watch for

Former national-team star Klinsmann took over after the Germans were bounced from Euro 2004 in the group stages, and he didn't waste much time cleaning house. Only three of the projected starting 11 in '06 started the '02 World Cup final against Brazil; only four started Germany's final Euro '04 game, a 2-1 loss to an undermanned Czech Republic team. Klinsmann has curious methods, to say the least: He lives in California, has fallen in love with self-help book and recently had a mountain climber address the team before a game.

As a result, this is not your typical German side. They are horrible in defense (they conceded 11 goals in five games at last summer's Confederations Cup -- 11 in four if you throw out Germany's 3-0 win over lightweight Tunisia -- and were throttled 4-1 by Italy on March 1), and instead rely on their attack. The Bayern Munich midfield trio of Ballack, Bastien Schweinsteiger and Sebastien Deisler gave the side a decidedly un-Teutonic elan, but Deisler recently suffered a knee injury and will miss the Cup. Schweinsteiger, meanwhile, was implicated in a match-fixing scandal earlier this year. He has denied wrongdoing, but it is an unwelcome distraction for the 21-year-old.

Still, this team is explosive. That, combined with a favorable draw and homefield advantage, gives the Germans a decent shot at advancing to the semis for the 11th time in the country's history.

Group: A (Poland, Costa Rica, Ecuador).

Key match in group stage: June 9 vs. Costa Rica. The only potential bugaboo for the hosts in the group stage is if they fail to deal with the pressure of playing at home and come out tight. Should that happen, the Ticos could pounce on them. If not, it should be smooth sailing to the round of 16.

Oddsmakers' line: 8-1.