WORLD CUP WATCH: Germany-USA Report Card

Juergen Klinsmann won't be returning to California on a one-way ticket.

The USA made sure of that, gifting World Cup host Germany four second-half goals in a 4-1 defeat before 64,500 fans at Signal Iduna Park.

The fans whistled Germany off the field after a lackluster first half, but it came to life after Klinsmann, the beleaguered Germany coach, brought on midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger for forward Lucas Podolski to start the second half and told his players to go right at the Americans.

It took Schweinsteiger, wrongly accused of match-fixing in the latest scandal to rock German soccer, less than 30 seconds to score. Following Steve Cherundolo's foul on Michael Ballack deep in U.S. territory off the opening kickoff — a U.S. kickoff at that — Schweinsteiger's free kick from the left side floated into the box, where the ball bounced and skipped past U.S. keeper Kasey Keller without anyone touching it.

''Giving the game away on the opening kickoff of the second half is foolish,'' U.S. coach Bruce Arena said.

The Americans collapsed in the last 15 minutes, conceding three goals in six minutes to Oliver Neuville, Keller's teammate at Borussia Moenchengaldbach, Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack.

The USA lost its shape in midfield, and central defenders Jimmy Conrad and Gregg Berhalter failed to hold off the Germans as they attacked through the middle.

The score could have been worse, but Keller made a brilliant stop of a deflected ball over his head, and Cherundolo scored a gift goal on a ball from midfield that rolled into an empty net in the 85th minute when U.S. forward Eddie Johnson and Germany keeper Oliver Kahn collided at the top of the penalty area.

Arena, in his evaluation of what he termed ''the second team,'' said: ''I don't think too many players played themselves on our World Cup roster today.''

He was later more direct.

''There are players who played today who aren't going to be part of our World Cup roster,'' Arena said.

MLS players such as Chris Klein, who came on early when Josh Wolff had to go off in the 17th minute when he suffered a concussion and took five stitches, and Kerry Zavagnin, Klein's former teammate in Kansas City, weren't part of the picture at the beginning of the year and had played themselves into contention in the last two months but didn't help their cause against Germany.

Neither did Conrad, another long shot at the beginning of the year. Berhalter, the only player along with Pablo Mastroeni in the U.S. lineup who played against Germany at 2002 World Cup, won't be playing much in 2006 with a performance like he had at Conrad's side.

The poor form of MLS players was especially apparent up front, where Brian Ching, Taylor Twellman and Johnson lacked the sharpness to challenge the suspect German backline over 90 minutes.

Arena termed the play of Bobby Convey, the primary attacking U.S. player, as ''solid,'' better counterattacking than defending.

In his first game in almost 10 months, Cory Gibbs had a lot of territory to cover behind Convey on the left side but held his own.

With the USA already thin in the middle and on the left side of the defense, Arena needs Gibbs, who can play both places, to come through. Gibbs continues his rehabilitation when he returns to the Netherlands, where he hopes to debut this weekend for ADO in a match against Feyenoord, the club from which he was let go two months ago.

Misconduct Summary:
USA – Kerry Zavagnin (Caution) 28th Minute