Germans, by in large, can be a pretty conservative bunch that shy away from radical change. This trait also extends to the national pastime of soccer, where Germany has long been known as a country that can get results -- including winning three World Cups -- but not one that necessarily always showcases inspiring play. But after a dismal performance at the European championships in the summer of 2004, most Germans were willing to admit that their national squad was in dire need of an overhaul. The German Football Association (DFB) chose former national striker Jürgen Klinsmann to lead the team -- even though he had no actual coaching experience. When he took over, Klinsmann made it clear he was going to ruffle some feathers. And he has consistently done so, right up until he named his 23-man squad  for the World Cup on Monday.

From the outset of his tenure, Klinsmann decided to bet the future of German soccer on the country's youth. He pitched out a number of aging stalwarts in favor of new, largely untested younger players. That rankled much of Germany's football establishment, but Klinsmann was given a chance to prove that promising talents like striker Lukas Podolski and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger could lead the country to sporting glory as Germany hosts the World Cup this summer. But whereas Klinsmann's youthful squad has shown promise upfront, the equally inexperienced defensive line has often proven highly unstable -- often with disastrous results such as Germany's humiliating 4-1 loss to Italy this spring.

Such shaky defending, however, didn't deter Klinsmann from making the even more controversial decision about who would be in the German goal this summer. He recently stunned the nation by demoting goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn -- who almost single-handedly got Germany to the 2002 World Cup finals against Brazil -- to number two in favor of Jens Lehmann. So perhaps surprises were to be expected when Germany's coach named his team on Monday. Klinsmann saved his biggest shocker for last: David Odonkor, a largely unknown and uncapped 22-year-old player for Borussia Dortmund, would be the last man nominated for the German squad. Blazingly fast on the pitch, his nomination still caused German fans, sports journalists and football experts to scratch their heads. A totally untested player will help us beat the world's best? And what about some of the coach's other picks? Forward Kevin Kuranyi -- who was dropped from the squad -- might not be in the best of shape lately, but nominated striker Mike Hanke can't even play in Germany's first two World Cup matches because of a red card he received in international competition last summer.

German newspapers were flush with coverage about Klinsmann's team on Tuesday, analyzing every aspect of the nominations from the ramifications for the tournament this summer to the impact for major advertising campaigns that bet on the wrong players.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung devotes a front-page editorial to Klinsmann's selection of Odonkor and the rest of the German national team. The paper acknowledges from the start that Klinsmann warned back in 2004 that nothing should be taken for granted in German football anymore. But the editorial says Germany's coach might be taking this logic too far: "Klinsmann is so thoroughly following this philosophy that by the presentation of the World Cup squad on Monday he's mostly binned his own experimentation of the past two years." The paper argues Klinsmann has essentially abandoned his mantra of pushing for attacking football by placing his hopes on players more known for their counter-attack abilities. "Klinsmann's World Cup squad isn't surprising because of personnel like Odonkor, but rather because it stands for a departure from his missionary zeal of the path towards the championship."

In a separate commentary in the Süddeutsche Zeitung's sports section, the paper calls Klinsmann "Columbus from California" -- playing off his controversial decision to keep his family in his adopted home, the United States, while serving as Germany's coach. Seen from afar -- say from California -- the German team could be viewed as a Columbus-like discovery of new talent, including Odonkor. However, from here in Germany, it will surely be seen as a squad lacking a number of apparently obvious choices. "If this team is the result of reform, then after the fact many of the personnel choices appear like actions made for their own sake," opines the paper.

Germany's top-selling boulevard daily Bild doesn't skimp on its coverage of "The Klinsi Bomb," dissecting the nomination of each of the 23 players. The paper writes it saw the disappointment for the rejected striker Kevin Kuranyi coming, but it expresses concern over whether Odonkor can carry Germany on to World Cup glory. "And just like that, you’re a national player," comments Bild. "No international caps, one goal this season! Can he make us happy?"

An editorial in the Berliner Zeitung chooses to focus on the implications for those companies that picked German soccer players for the World Cup advertising campaigns who didn't make it on to the squad. Striker Kuranyi had long been one of the anchors of Klinsmann era, so he has appeared in ads for everything from sporting goods maker Adidas to the chocolate-flavored breakfast spread Nutella. "Arne Friedrich and Bastian Schweinsteiger (both nominated) will now have to eat their toast alone. Kevin Kuranyi and Andreas Hinkel (both not nominated) can keep the bread spread and instead wipe the World Cup from their faces," writes the paper.

-- Marc Young, 12:00 p.m. CET

Germans Ponder a Flawed Education System

Six years ago, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) introduced a series of international tests to evaluate the performance of schools across the world by measuring the basic skills of 15-year-old students. In Germany, PISA (the Program for International Student Assessment) has become associated with a minor national trauma. The results of the first PISA study, conducted in 2000, revealed serious inadequacies in Germany's education system; the country ranked so far behind others that many commentators spoke of a "PISA shock."

Now the OECD has published the results of another PISA study that seeks to measure the degree to which students with an immigrant background are disadvantaged in the school systems of various countries. Once again, the results could be better for Germany. Several German papers devoted editorials to the new PISA results this Tuesday, making suggestions for reforming the education system, lamenting the short-sightedness of German politicians, and speculating darkly about the OECD's possible ulterior motives.

"The evidence is crushing," writes an editorialist in the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, warning that if Germany doesn't begin to improve the opportunities available to its first- and second-generation immigrants, "it won't just be the immigrants themselves who will suffer, but the whole country." Germans should overcome their annoyance with the PISA studies and begin thinking seriously about what to do, the editorialist argues. "While many people don't want to hear another word about PISA, Germans should really be grateful that the OECD researchers have given them this wake-up call, alerting the nation to the backwardness of its education and integration policies." One positive result of the PISA studies, the editorialist points out, is that reformers now stand a better chance of receiving the funds they need. "Yet it's not just a question of money," he adds, "but also of coordinating the various programs and efforts on a national level." Most importantly, reform of the education system needs to be coordinated with measures for integrating immigrants throughout society. "The new PISA study proves that students with an immigrant background are as motivated as others to do well at school; they obviously desire the integration that everyone is talking about these days -- but they're simply not being given a chance," the paper concludes.

The conservative daily Die Welt features an editorial that first dismisses the results of the new PISA study as old news and then suggests that the OECD is pursuing a political agenda, that of destroying Germany's three-tier secondary education system. The PISA project ends up looking like a grand conspiracy. "What goal are the researchers pursuing?" the editorialist asks ominously. Indeed, why has the OECD now published a study that simply confirms what was already discovered in 2000, namely that "education deficits among German immigrant students are dramatic" and "that integration is more successful in countries other than Germany"? Surely the reason is that "the OECD wants to intervene politically in the affairs of German education policy." The editorialist points out that the head of the OECD's Education Department, Barbara Ischinger, has called for the abolition of Germany's three-tier secondary school system (which sees the decision on whether students will have the chance to go to university being made as early as fifth grade). Surely Ischinger is dabbling in other people's business, especially since a close look at the latest PISA study shows that "levels of performance are high" in some of the country's Hauptschulen (the lowest tier in the three-tier system). "The OECD is no longer just conducting comparative studies," the editorial concludes, "but formulating political demands."

The business daily Handelsblatt features a much less defensive editorial. Germany is indeed "years behind" other highly developed nations in terms of integrating students with an immigrant background, the editorialist writes, and the new study proves that German schools have "failed miserably" in developing adequate language programs for first-generation immigrants as well. In short, the new PISA study demonstrates that "migrants are the victims of the two great failures of German politics: integration and education." Rather than speculating about the hidden motives of the researchers, the editorialist goes on to make some practical suggestions. "Childcare fees should be waived; language courses should be made available for immigrant parents and language programs in schools expanded; finally, we need more full-time schools."