Werder Bremen midfield ace Tim Borowski was on target to score Germany's third goal and secure a 3:0 win in their pre-World Cup opener dress rehearsal against Columbia. With only a week to go before the German side kick-off the greatest tournament of all against Costa Rica, again Germany could tank up on self confidence with an impressive display. With his goal, Borowski sealed his intensions of playing more than just a back up roll this summer. Trainer Jürgen Klinsmann brought Borowski in the 61st minute for Bernd Schneider. His team mates Miroslav Klose and Torsten Frings were both, as expected, part of the starting eleven.

JUst two and a half weeks after a serious elbow injury and subsequent operation, Philipp Lahm returned to his position of left full-back, wearing a specially designed cast, in place of Marcell Jansen who filled in at the back against Luxembourg and Japan. On the right side of defence Klinsmann recalled Berlin's Arne Friedrich with Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder at the heart of the defence. Bernd Schneider made the move from full-back to right wing after his defensive performance mid-week.

The DFB side made a bright and lively start in front of a capacity 45,000 crowd at the Borussia-Park in Mönchengladbach and had their first opening after two minutes. Some good combination play led to Bastian Schweinsteiger having a go with a low drive which missed the post by centimeters from a tight angle. The Bayern Munich winger had two more efforts (9'/12') which missed the target in the opening phase on a night which would become his own.

The busy Schweinsteiger was involved again with twenty minutes on the clock as he swung in a free-kick from the left. Captain Michael Ballack rose unchallenged to head precisely out of the reach of the keeper to make it 1:0 in his 65th international game. For the central midfielder who recently signed a lucrative deal with English Premier League champions Chelsea it was his 31st international goal. Having taken the lead, the three time World Champions, pushed for another and had chances through Bernd Schneider who chrashed a thunderous volley goalwards but was denied by the heroics of Columbia's keeper Oscar Cordoba. It was a further set piece that gave the host nation their second in the 37th minute. Schweinsteiger let a free-kick go from around 25 meters and drove past a poor two-man wall with a shot that clocked 119km/h to make it 2:0. Shortly before half time both strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski had chances to score but both failed at the final hurdle. Klinsmann decided against making any half.time changes to a team likely to start next Friday and the German side reacted by continuing to press forward whilst looking stable at the back. Philipp Lahm hit a shot over the crossbar (51') and Michael Ballack was blocked just as he was getting a shot away (55'). Just 120 seconds later Podolski tried his luck from distance two but set his effort over the bar.

With a half-hour left to play, the coaching staff decided to begin making changes and give some players a deserved rest. Local heroes Marcell Jansen and Oliver Neuville were introduced into the fray as were Sebastian Kehl, Gerald Asamoah and Tim Borowski who made the score-line 3:0 having only been on the pitch for eight minutes. The Bremen midfielder took on a pass from Metzelder with ease and hammered low into the far corner of the Columbia goal (69'). Five minutes later Jansen also tested the reflexes of the Columbian keper but unsuccessfully.

Even in the final stages of the game the home side were always in contral of their opponents who only had two chances in the whole game through Elkin Soto (61') and Hugo Rodallega (71').

The German team bid a hearty farewell to the fans in Gladbach for their unyielding support and presented a banner with the slogan: "Gemeinsam mit euch - ein Traum: 9. Juli 2006" (Together with you - a dream 9th July 2006).