Voller may turn to boy wonder

14 April 2012

Rudi Voller was the latest to be heard singing Wayne Rooney's praises here in Lisbon today, but Germans are desperate for their coach to show more interest in blooding their country's own great teenage hope in tonight's make-or-break clash with the Czech Republic.

No wonder Voller was coveting our wonder boy. His strikers have been so dismal here that he must have fancied putting on his own shooting boots again and doing a better job.

The fact that Kevin Kuranyi, Miroslav Klose, Fredi Bobic and Thomas Brdaric have not remotely looked like scoring over 180 useless minutes has prompted a clamour for 19-year-old Lukas Podolski to be given his chance.

Voller fears the Polish-born kid is too green but may have his hand forced. If his strikers draw a blank again tonight - a flukey free-kick strike from midfielder Torsten Frings versus Holland is their sole success so far - and the Dutch, as expected, beat Latvia in Braga, then the World Cup finalists will be on their way home, having failed to make the knockout stages just as in Euro 2000.

Before the tournament, Voller unveiled Cologne's Podolski, who was still playing for his club's under-19s seven months ago, as his "secret weapon". He made an electric impression with the senior team, but Voller admits that he has been reluctant to deploy him since because "though he's a great talent, he's here to learn".

Voller, though, may be tempted to gamble on youth since it has paid dividends for other coaches here, including Eriksson who has trusted in Rooney.

"What impresses me is not only Rooney's great skills but also the fact he keeps running and is a great team player," said Voller. "He's only 18 but you can see that he has acquired plenty of experience in the Premier League."

Podolski, blessed with fantastic pace and a cool head in front of goal, has in contrast played just 18 games, albeit with an excellent 10 goals. Basically, until he got Voller's call, he was expecting to be taking his driving test back in Germany while this event was going on.

So behind one of the other misfiring strikers, Germany may again have to rely on their driving force from midfield, Michael Ballack, the national team's leading scorer with 18 goals, to bail them out. Either that or a favour from Czech coach Karel Bruckner who, with qualification already in the bag, has hinted at picking a seriously weakened team minus Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky and Jan Koller.

"Maybe they (the Czechs) won't be taking it so seriously," pondered defender Christian Worns. He must have been joking. As Voller noted: "Everyone wants to trip Germany." Indeed, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn thinks the Czechs are bluffing and will play their best team. Over in Braga, one man will be desperately hoping so. Dick Advocaat is 90 minutes away from getting the chop as Dutch manager should they go out tonight.

Already slaughtered for supposedly throwing away victory in the epic with the Czechs by taking off Chelsea's rampant new winger Arjen Robben, one group of Dutch fans have had a whip-round to raise the 163 Euros needed to buy Advocaat a one-way ticket to Brussels because they don't want him let back in the country.

The Oranje fans, you can gather, do not hold out much hope of a German slip-up.

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Voller may turn to boy wonder

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