Germans relieved after World Cup draw

Germany's soccer pundits and football writers heaved a collective sigh of relief on Sunday after the three-times champions were drawn with Cameroon, Ireland and Saudi Arabia for next year's World Cup finals.

German soccer has suffered a crisis of confidence since the national team were hammered 5-1 by England in September and had to beat Ukraine in a playoff to make the finals in South Korea and Japan after coming second to England in their group.

Germany head coach Rudi Voeller told Bild am Sonntag newspaper he was confident that Germany would get through Group E, although the former World Cup striker warned that Ireland would be tough to beat.

"The Irish knocked out the Dutch, and I bet that if the Dutch were here, everyone would be treating them as favourites," Voeller said.

"I don't know anything about the Saudis yet, Cameroon is Africa's top team and their players are all at European clubs, like Rigobert Song at Cologne," Voeller said.

"At least we haven't got a killer group like England with Argentina and Nigeria. This is a reasonable group," he said.

Former international Paul Breitner said watching the draw was like Christmas coming early.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

"Rudi, this wonderful group is an early Christmas present for us," Breitner wrote in Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

"With all respect to Saudi Arabia, Ireland and especially Cameroon, I think Germany will come out as group leaders and into the second round. The opposition there would be Paraguay -- we can also beat them," said Breitner.

Welt am Sonntag said it was now Germany's "duty" to qualify from Group E.

"I looked at Rudi Voeller's smile and thought: man, what a lucky boy," Udo Lattek wrote in the paper.

"As long as I can remember, Germany has never had problems in the preliminary rounds but at least we have had serious competition for winning the group. In this draw we have been given the easiest teams by far," Lattek said.

"Our biggest threat could be arrogance," he said.

The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said drily: "Germany's remained true to its tradition of being lucky in the draw for the World Cup."

"For example, they could avoid meeting one of the tournament favourites France, Argentina or Brazil until the final in Yokohama on June 30."

The newspaper remarked that Voeller had already enjoyed the feeling of taking part in three World Cups, but said that the current generation was unlikely to go all the way to the final.

"Voeller was a winner in 1990. But the German World Cup team of 2001 may be somewhat too far out of it," the newspaper said.