Last week we had a bunch of exhibition games – friendly games, to use the soccer anachronism – featuring teams that will play in the World Cup in June.

Warm-up games is another name for them, though the Brazilians might be wondering about that. They traveled to Moscow and took on Russia in subzero temperatures. After the game, Brazil’s coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, had little to say about his team’s 1-0 win, but a lot to say about the weather: “This was the coldest match I have ever been involved in with any sort of team at any level … I was freezing on the bench.”

His main concern, he said, was making sure that none of his players got injured. But there was never any fear for his superstar, Ronaldinho, who did not make the trip – an absence that highlights the unreality of these games. They are too close to the big event for teams to take risks. Even if something approaching a full team is on the field, the players know – they don’t need a warning from the coach – that avoiding injury is paramount. The results of the games are not considered that important, and no player is about to jeopardize his chances of going to the World Cup.

Except that … these distorted games usually feature a few borderline players who may well feel this is their last chance to ensure a place on the World Cup squad. For such players, what better way to impress the coach than by playing hard? Take Ghana’s Emmanuel Pappoe. In his country’s 1-0 loss to Mexico on Thursday, Pappoe made sure his presence was noticed: He put on an overtly physical display that climaxed with a frightful studs-up tackle on Gerardo Torrado.

Fortunately, such intensity is rare, and the games usually reflect their “friendly” status. Coaches, needing to look at as many players as possible, agree to relax the three-substitution rule – Mexican coach Ricardo La Volpe used six subs during the game against Ghana.

The results, it is generally agreed, are not all that important. Until, that is, there comes a result so ominous that it has to be taken seriously. We got such a scoreline on Wednesday. It came from Florence, and it read Italy 4, Germany 1.

This extraordinary result demanded attention. Italy is not known as a highscoring team. Germany is not known as a team that lets in too many goals. Yet the Italians were leading 2-0 before the game was seven minutes old!

Italian coach Marcelo Lippi was quick to play down the importance of what was Italy’s biggest score against Germany since 1939. Overconfidence is a constant worry of World Cup coaches, and Lippi remarked, “I wouldn’t say Germany are a poor team.”

An opinion that was not shared by the German press. “Mamma Mia, Are We Bad!” was the headline in Bild. The crushing defeat was a heavy blow for coach Jurgen Klinsmann. As coach of the host nation – and a host nation that has won three World Cups – Klinsmann is under enormous pressure to produce another winner.

He is already under criticism for choosing a number of unconventional methods in his preparation of the team. Foremost among those is the fact that Klinsmann lives in California and has refused to move back to Germany to take closer command of the team. He has further antagonized many Germans by his decision to use American fitness specialists to prepare the team. Recently, he sent German soccer eyebrows rocketing skyward with his suggestion (ignored by the German authorities) that a field-hockey coach should be appointed as technical director of the national team program.

But not all of Klinsmann’s problems are of his own devising. When he took over in 2004, he inherited a team that was already on the skids, not having beaten a major soccer power in four years.

Klinsmann has now seen that painful statistic stretch to six years, and time is running out for him to convince his detractors that Germany will not become the World Cup’s laughingstock.

“Germany Shrinks to a Soccer Dwarf” was the headline of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the possibility of national humiliation is weighing heavily on the minds of German politicians. “The match against Italy was gruesome,” said Norbert Barthle, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU. He went on to suggest that Klinsmann should be called before the government’s sport committee: “The federal government is the biggest sponsor of the World Cup. In light of that, I’d like to get a few answers from him.”

Miriam Gruss, of the opposition Free Democrats and a member of the sport committee, demanded: “He should stop experimenting and inform the sport committee of his plans.”

No doubt most Germans would find the idea of political fiddling with the national team more gruesome than the loss to Italy, but there was another source of criticism that Klinsmann should find much more threatening. It came from Franz Beckenbauer, German soccer’s most influential figure. Beckenbauer slammed Klinsmann for not attending yesterday’s pre-tournament confab of coaches.

“He should have been here,” Beckenbauer said, adding that Klinsmann should spend more time in Germany: “I don’t know how many times I’ve spoken with him about it, but clearly there is no point.” Also, Beckenbauer said, “After the 4-1 defeat in Italy it was necessary for [Klinsmann] to be here to pick up the pieces.”

The German captain, Michael Ballack, claimed the team would recover immediately: “Thank God the next match is only three weeks away,” Ballack said. “You will see a different German team then.”

A matter of some interest for the Americans, who will be Germany’s next opponents in Dortmund on March 22. Coach Bruce Arena’s team has been progressing smoothly, scoring 12 goals in warm-up wins against Norway, Japan, and Guatemala. On Wednesday, the USA claimed a 1-0 win over Poland in a game played in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Suddenly a game that ought to be just another tune-up for the USA, a game that could be approached loosely, looks a good deal tougher. To lose in Germany is hardly a disaster, but the Germans will be looking for a big win. For them, this game is not about avoiding injuries or looking at new players.

Another loss – and this one on home soil – would surely be the end of the line for Klinsmann. Or maybe not. Should Germany lose to the USA, Klinsmann could well be saved by the awful question that would follow his dismissal: Who on earth would want the job, with so much pressure building and so little time to make any moves?

pgardner@nysun.com