Saturday, 22 June, 2002, 12:50 GMT 13:50 UK
Beckenbauer says Germany will have to improve. Franz Beckenbauer says goalkeeper Oliver Kahn is the only reason Germany are still in the World Cup. Beckenbauer captained Germany to World Cup glory and was coach when they won the tournament in 1990.
And he said if he were still in charge, he would have been offended by the team's display in the 1-0 quarter-final win over the United States. "It was a very inadequate performance," Beckenbauer wrote in the German newspaper, Bild.
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I would have felt personally insulted if my
team had delivered a performance like that
Franz Beckenbauer |
"To put it bluntly, if we did not have Olli Kahn we would have been sent home a long time ago. We've barely scraped through in every match except for the match against the Saudis, who practically invited us into their goal."
Germany beat Saudi Arabia 8-0 in their opening game of the World Cup and they have struggled to beat Paraguay and USA in the knockout stages. "We're going to have to play a lot better in the semi-finals," he said. "I would have felt personally insulted as the trainer if my team had delivered a performance like that. In 1990, after we played a weak match against 10 Czechs, I threw a bucket filled with ice across the locker room.
"They're going to have to feel it for themselves that they have to raise their game." He added: "Rudi could put the whole team in a bag and, aside from Kahn, no matter who he pulls out to put on the field, it would be the right choice. "We don't have any bad players, but at the same time there aren't any truly good ones either."
Germany will play co-hosts South Korea in the semi-final and Beckenbauer says it is going to take more than another impressive Kahn show to get them through.
"We are in the final four and that is delightful," he added. "But only thanks to Oliver Kahn. And that isn't so delightful when you think that we had to use everything we had to stop the Americans. "That's not going to work forever. We can't always count on Olli. He's playing like a world champion, but he needs the support of the team."
Beckenbauer has nothing but praise for Kahn
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