For the friendly matches against Chile (Köln) and the Ivory Coast (Gelsenkirchen) Löw has nominated the England prospect Aaron Hunt, the mercurial Thomas Müller, the Bundesliga topscorer Stefan Kießling, and of course the ever present Thomas Hitzlsperger.
Overall this is a good selection, but one wonders why a player like Hitzlsperger merits a call up [...]

The crowd was right to jeer a hapless first-half performance by an “experimental” German side in Hamburg in the final DFB 2010 World Cup qualification fixture. With a ninth win the 2010 qualification campaign would have been Germany’s most successful ever. Thanks to a determined Finnish side and some horrible performances by a team arranged [...]

Despite the unfamiliarity with the artificial turf and the hostility of a fervent 80000 strong Russian crowd in Luzhniki Stadium Moscow, the DFB-Elf secured their ticket to South Africa 2010. Here are the ratings for the team with more analysis to follow after a thorough celebration…

Adler – 8.5 : Adler was as good as a [...]

With his 48TH national team goal Miroslav Klose (in 96 appearances) has not only secured Germany’s ticket to South Africa, but has also climbed to 3RD in the all time German goal table behind Gerd Müller (68) and Joachim Streich (52). Klose celebrated his 1-0 goal by somersaulting in the air and landing awkwardly [...]

The national team landed early in Moscow ahead of their crucial Group 4 encounter thanks to a tailwind from Germany – perhaps it is a good sign? Here are the facts…
Germany has never lost a World Cup Qualifier away from home.
Germany has always qualified for every World Cup it has entered.
Germany’s biggest margin of victory [...]

Wins against South Africa and Azerbaijan were expected this past international week. What wasn’t were the positive signals that Germany is gaining momentum ahead of the World Cup. Still there are persisting questions regarding the Nationalmannschaft ahead of the crucial game in Moscow against Russia. For now let’s explore the winners and losers of this [...]

Years ending in nine mark big anniversaries in German history. Accordingly, 2009 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic and also twenty years from the glorious blunder that resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Celebrating alongside Germany’s triumphs is Adidas – a company that has become synonymous with German [...]

Germany hosts South Africa in Leverkusen for an international friendly on September 5TH before welcoming Azerbaijan for a World Cup qualifier in Hannover on September 8TH. In the meantime there have been rumblings from Michael Ballack about a need for improvement by the nation team in order to seal automatic qualification and to seriously contend [...]

The Bundesliga season has only entered its third match day, but already the race for the Number 1 jersey in South Africa has heated up again. Timo Hildebrand has declared his intention to compete for a place in South Africa, despite Joachim Löw’s insistence that only Robert Enke, Tim Wiese, René Adler, and Manuel Neuer [...]

Summer is almost over and Germany returns to Asia – no wait far-eastern Europe according to UEFA.
The trip to Azerbaijan, further east in longitude than the UAE, is not yet another crazy promotion by the DFB. Germany plays a double-header against Azerbaijan for World Cup Qualifying 2010. Löw reportedly did not want to make any [...]