Lehmann the hero for Germany
Germany were grateful they had Jens Lehmann after the Arsenal goalkeeper kept out a half dozen chances from Japanese players in Tuesday's World Cup warm-up.
Lehmann's superb reflex saves against Hidetoshi Nakata, Atsushi Yanagisawa and Naohiro Takahara helped Germany come away with a 2-2 draw in his first full match as number one goalie ahead of Bayern Munich's Oliver Kahn.
"We let Japan have too many chances," Klinsmann said. "Jens played an excellent match. Thanks to him we came out of this with a draw. He played a superior match. All in all he's taken on a very important role."
"He has an incredible amount of experience that he brings with him and he can read the match extremely well," he added. "We're fortunate he's here and we're all happy he's here."
Klinsmann had gone out on a limb by picking Lehmann over Kahn, who had an excellent World Cup four years ago and was largely responsible for Germany's advance to the 2002 final against Brazil.
J. Lehmann
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