Klinsi: Warring Keepers to be Separated

During the Confederations Cup Bayern Munich custodian Kahn and Arsenal goalkeeper Lehmann looked agitated when warming the substitutes' bench and Klinsmann has decided it best to only include either goalkeeper if they are certain to start the match.

The 36-year-old Kahn will be in goal for the friendly match against the Netherlands in Rotterdam next Wednesday and the subsequent warm-up matches against Turkey and China on October 8 and 12.

Lehmann will then take centre stage for the Slovakia friendly on September 3 before facing South Africa nine days later and France on November 12.

VfB Stuttgart glovesman Timo Hildebrand will be the back-up goalkeeper for all six friendly matches leaving Kahn and Lehmann free to concentrate on their club duties.

Klinsmann's decision to constantly rotate his goalkeepers ahead of the 2006 World Cup on home soil has prompted criticism from certain quarters, but he has stuck by his policy and vowed not to announce his first choice custodian until shortly before the tournament.

Jens vs. Oli: The story continues

The domestic media have turned the goalkeeping duel into a soap opera with Kahn and Lehmann heightening the drama by criticizing each other in newspaper interviews.

The two top goalkeepers in the squad have been engaged in a war of words for almost 18 months. The widely accepted instigator, Arsenal shot-stopper Lehmann, has always claimed that he is the rightful number one, not the incumbent, Bayern's Khan.

What started out as a well-publicized moan about not being in the team back in February of last year soon escalated into a full-blown row that dragged in German soccer monarch Franz Beckenbauer and Kahn's team chief at the time, Ottmar Hitzfeld.

The controversy started after Germany stumbled towards the ultimately disastrous Euro 2004 campaign. Lehmann gave an interview with German soccer magazine Kicker in which he criticized Oliver Kahn's performances in the qualifiers and stated that he is the best German goalkeeper and should replace Kahn in the national team.

Lehmann claims to be the best

"The better player has to play," Germany's number two was quoted at the time. "My performances are more consistent. I can't really say that anybody else is better than I am."

Lehmann and Kahn have made no secret of the fact that they don't get on and refuse to speak to each other. "I didn't know we were supposed to talk," Lehmann said last year at the height of the public spat. "I don't have a 24-year-old girlfriend. I have a different life." His comments referred to Kahn's affair in 2004 with a Munich barmaid that started when his wife was pregnant and made headlines in Germany for weeks. The pair eventually split.

Jens lower than a snakes belly, says wounded Kahn

Kahn retaliated while playing the role of victim: "I am deeply hurt by Lehmann's statements," he told reporters. "Lehmann can believe what he wants. I’ve never needed to stoop to such a level as it sometimes appears (in the Kicker article). What you read can sometimes be incredible, but everyone can decide for themselves how low they want to go. This is as low as it can get."

“Lehmann can’t cope with being the number two, he doesn’t seem to be able to live with it,” added Kahn who plans to carry on until the 2006 World Cup finals on home soil.

The severity of the row even reached the upper echelons of the sport with Bayern president and German World Cup statesman Franz Beckenbauer joining in, unsurprisingly, on the side of his team's number one. "Lehmann's statements are cheeky, uncooperative and in bad taste," said the World Cup-winning captain and coach.

Hildebrand brands Oli "immature"

The tensions between the keepers were exacerbated towards the end of 2004 when number three goalie Hildebrand threw in his two cents worth claiming Kahn should be showing more maturity on the pitch at 35. Kahn was blasted for a fracas with international team-mate Miroslav Klose last season, when he pushed his gloves into the face of the Werder Bremen striker.

"You do not put your gloves in the face of a fellow player especially when you play together for the national side," Hildebrand told Die Zeit newspaper. "At his age and after all he has achieved in football that aggressive nature should not be needed."

Hildebrand, ten years Kahn's junior at 25, insisted that he, unlike Kahn, can keep his emotions under control. "I am not the type of person to treat team-mates like that and I do not want to be someone who goes for the throat."

Hildebrand is widely assumed by both fans and critics to be the natural successor to both Lehmann and Kahn and has regularly been voted as the best German keeper by soccer magazines in the country.