Mallorca Diary 31.05.08

May 31st, 2008 | By: Jan | 3 Comments »

Miroslav Klose The training camp in Mallorca is over and it’s time for a last round up of all the news, which came out of Spain over the last few days.

Joachim Löw has received some negative press following his Euro squad “casting”, with the journalists questioning whether it was necessary to pick 26 instead of 23 players in the first place - especially when he suspiciously chose to send home the ones with the least experience. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung sees it as a fallback to the pre-Klinsmann era, where players where often picked based on status and experience rather than actual quality and performance. Cologne’s (Helmes) and Gladbach’s (Marin) sporting directors where not amused either, criticising Löw for not giving the youth a chance or for having the players go through the selection process in the first place - especially Marin seemed to have been hit hard by the decision.

Michael Ballack has asked Löw to stop experimenting and play his first choice Euro XI against Serbia, to help the team find their rhythm. He will have his wish granted except for the strike partnership, where Löw will swap Klose/Podolski for Gomez/Kuranyi. But the offence is the least of Germany’s problems.

Torsten Frings has warned his team, that they need to eliminate all the defensive mistakes they made against Belarus and backed Jens Lehmann, who is living on borrowed time with the press, after his unconvincing performance against Belarus.

Some last details from the extensive fitness training regime where revealed. Namely the term Shit-Sandwich. Oliver Schmidtlein in an interview with 11 Freunde: There are a lot of ways to make the training more palatable. E.g. when we perform different exercises, we call it a “Shit-Sandwich”: we pack things the players don’t like in between exercises they like.

Back in Germany, schools have been urged to postpone exams until after the Euros. It’s not yet clear whether this is supposedly for the good of football loving pupils or for the good of football loving teachers.

Tags: Euro 2008, Germany National Team News, Joachim Löw, Michael Ballack, Players, Torsten Frings

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Comments

By diana | May 31st, 2008 at 10:23 am

Postponing exams? That is very interesting. Whenever the World Cup or the European Championships come around, many will have finished their mid-year exams here already. For those having post-secondary education, it depends on how their school semester is like.

Normally by the time the tournament ended, it’s already back to school for many. Even if the Euros ended faster than the World Cup, primary and secondary schools here start a new term on the final week of June. I still remembered back in the 2002 World Cup, the following day after the final, almost everyone was discussing the match in class.

Posted from Singapore

By Andreas Marcou | May 31st, 2008 at 12:08 pm

What german players need to do is actually get in the field and play to win…what’s this crap about not scoring?i mean some of the best strikers in the world were germans(muller,hoeness,klinsmann,bierhoff etc.) and now they have podolski,klose,kuranyi,helmes,gomez,schlaudraff and ofcourse neuville and midfielders/wingers like schweinsteiger,trochowski,schneider,hitzlsperger,rolfes and they cannot create a wonderful attack to score?and the defenders!!!oooooooooooooooooo…childish mistakes…shame,shame,shame because throughout the year players like mertesacker,lahm,friedrich and jansen had some splendid appearances…
and last but not least…WHY LEHMANN?!!!i mean he’s ok but he’s 37 years old and this year in arsenal he wasn’t so consistent…why not enke?and could someone please explain WHY HILDEBRAND IS OUT???!!!HORRIFIC MISTAKE…anyway,i’ve said enough…CHEERS

By Nick | May 31st, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Still awaiting approval…

The Serbia game… this is probably the level of play the group phase teams will put up. Things probably need to change. At least everyone looks fit. Maybe not Metzelder.

Looks like Metzelder needs to get a lot faster than he has been or sit down. Once again Kuryani demonstrated he can not seem to score very much, and Podolski squanders chances like no tomorrow.

At least the substitutes seem to have done well.

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