Germany vs Turkey: Group A Qualifying Match Preview

October 7th, 2010 | by: Luke |

Front runner Germany and Turkey in Euro 2012 qualifying group A meet Friday night in Berlin in what could be a pivotal match in determining which team finishes top of the group. While both teams have recorded very successful opening matches, both will be challenged by key injuries in the run up to this one. American TV fails you again if you’re looking to watch this one: But ESPN 3 will carry the match live from 2:45 p.m. Eastern. The earliest delayed broadcast in the US will be at 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN Deportes.

Guus Bumps
One imagines Guus Hiddink playing the old game, where one simply spins the globe, dragging an index finger across the surface and deciding to travel to the spot he lands on when the motion stops. The trouble for opposing teams is, that wherever Guus goes, improvement seems to follow, though Germany blocked the way for him when he coached Russia. Turkey dispatched Kazakhstan with ease in their opening match, before winning a thrilling dogfight against Belgium in which Bayern Munich disappointments Daniel van Buyten and Hamit Altintop starred for their respective teams.

This time around, Hiddink will be without Arda Turan, who is suffering from a groin injury. Turan has scored in each of the first two qualifiers. Selçuk Şahin is also unavailable for the visitors. But the match will be a moment of opportunity for another player with the same name, Borussia Dortmund’s Nuri Şahin. Nuri has been in mothballs since Hiddink took the helm, and will have gone a full calendar year without playing a match for his country. But his outstanding showing in the Bundesliga was probably too much to ignore on its own merits, even without any team injury concerns.

World Cup Blog Turkey’s Cem has the story covered from the Turkish angle, and you can see his preview and projected lineup here.

The Capital Elf

For the first time in what seems like a long while, the focus on German players who aren’t around won’t be on Michael Ballack. In fact, the biggest buzz has probably centered on the young players like Lewis Holtby who haven’t been called up to the squad, but will have to wait for the November friendly against Sweden.

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s loss to a foot ligament injury opened the door to experimentation for Jogi Löw, but it appears he will swap one Bayern player for another with Toni Kroos slotted in alongside Sami Khedira. The combination was competent if unexciting in World Cup run-up matches against Malta and Hungary, but one has to be a bit a concerned with Kroos ability to focus, as he has been lining up just about everywhere with the same moribund results at Bayern.

Kroos needs to turn things around

With Marcel Jansen also out, Löw will go back to the well with Jerome Boateng at LB. Unfortunately, the Boateng-Hamit Altintop duel didn’t occur in either Bayern-Hamburg match up last season, so we don’t have fresh data to look at on the specific matchup. But I do believe that if Boateng challenges Hamit, he’s going to win that battle more often than not.

Finally, it appears that Dortmund’s Kevin Grosskreutz will also not be available, apparently suffering from the flu. Grosskreutz probably only would have gotten into a lopsided match anyhow, in my view.

Player to Watch: Per Mertesacker
It’s going to be an interesting one for the Sack Man. When one realizes that Turkey gave up two header goals off dead balls to a CB last time out, you know that Mertesacker has a real chance to be an offensive x-factor. On the other hand, if his fitness level isn’t quite there (and it’s hard for me to say, having not watched him closely since he came back), one would prefer not to see him 10m behind the play on a Turkish break.

Dots and Dashes
*The wider cultural implications of a Germany-Turkey match up have been the topic of feature story fodder all week, especially with the shot fired across the bow of Mesut Özil by Hamit Altintop. But instead of waxing philosophic about it myself I direct you to Honigstein’s piece on the subject, probably the finest work he’s done on his CNN/SI column. Kudos, Rafa.

*Bad omen? The referee for the match will be none other than Howard Webb. Webb was the referee for Germany’s only loss in the Euro 08 qualifying, at 3:0 defeat by the Czech Republic at Allianz Arena in Munich.

*It will be interesting to see if German fans make a last minute shift to wearing black after it was reported that the stands are likely to resemble the Turkish flag colors, with Turkish fans in red and German fans in white.

Prediction
I really get the sense both teams are going to take a while to get their bearings with the adjustments they’ve had to make. The concern of course, is that the show of strong Turkish support in Berlin brings out the flowing aggression of the Turks that troubled Germany at Euro 08. But a lot has changed since then. It may take a late winner, but I predict that the world won’t be denied seeing it live by a thunderstorm…
Germany 2:1 Turkey