Although Romanian defender Dorin Goian shook them up with an early goal in the third minute of play, it took nearly half the game for the Germans to come back strong.

Thanks to captain Bernd Schneider's first-ever head ball score in the 42nd minute, the teams went into half-time at a draw. Despite a series of sloppy passes in the first half, the goal was enough to earn him a hearty applause from the 44,500-strong crowd when he was rotated out after an hour of play.

"In the first half we didn't move enough and that made the combination game suffer," said national coach Joachim Löw. "At half-time we asked ourselves how we could shake up this team," he added.

Second-string strategy

Despite the weak first half, Löw stuck with his strategy of sparing his key players and sending out the second-string -- one that hadn't proved successful in the 0:1 game against Denmark six months ago.

The next goal came from David Odonkor (65th minute) just moments after he'd been sent onto the field along with teammates Arne Friedrich, Simon Rolfes and Gonzalo Castro. Odonkor first score in an international match was "assisted" with a fumble by the visiting goalie Danut Dumitru Coman.

Lukas Podolski secured the Germans' 2:1 lead with a final goal in the 82nd minute -- his 23rd score in the 40 international games he's played.

Though the "alternative 11" didn't quite shine as bright as the A-Team did during the recent victories against England (2:1) and Wales (2:0), they managed to claim revenge for Germany's embarrassing 1:5 loss against Romania in April 2004.