Germany-Australia: Young guns take the wheel

March 28th, 2011 | by: Anne | Comments Off

I can’t overstate how busy I truly am, so here’s just a few points about tomorrow’s friendly against Australia. The match will kick off in Mönchengladbach at 2:45 PM EST (8:45 PM CET). The match will be available for streaming live on ESPN3 and on a delay on ESPN Deportes at 4:45 PM (Spain’s EQ takes precedence). I will put up a live chat but I won’t be able to monitor it because I have class at that time. Please behave!

Jerome Boateng picked up a meniscus injury in training that will require surgery, so he has been sent back to Manchester and will be obviously unavailable. He was the planned replacement for Lahm, who has also been sent home to Munich to get a much-needed rest. Also rested are Özil and Khedira who have been sent back to Madrid.

Similar to the Sweden match, this will be an almost entirely experimental squad. A large portion of it has already been confirmed by Löw and looks like this:

Wiese

Träsch – Friedrich – Hummels – Schmelzer

?? – ??

?? – ?? – Schürrle

Gomez

Hansi Flick said the midfield is still up in the air. Schweinsteiger remained with the team, apparently wanting to play against Australia, but he may or may not start. I’m fairly certain we’ll see Bender and Kroos in the starting lineup, and probably Götze as well. Of course this means that expectations must be tuned accordingly – this is an XI that has never been on a pitch all at once, and while there’s some individual familiarity, from Dortmund and the youth teams, it will be lacking in cohesion. I personally hope that Hummels and Schmelzer will put in fantastic performances, and a goal from Schürrle or Götze would be pretty snazzy as well.

Australia will be missing Tim Cahill due to a foot injury, as well as a couple other regulars. They recently had a great run in the Asian Cup but lost 1-0 in the final to Japan. They’ll also be looking for revenge against Germany after the 4-0 World Cup drubbing, but they will be facing a squad with almost no players in common with that WC team. Will the 2nd string Germany side be able to repeat the WC accomplishment?

Not really sure what to expect out of this game. Australia will pose more of a challenge than Kazakhstan, and it’ll be interesting to see how our young guns rise to that challenge.

In the meantime, the team has spent their time zipping around in fancy Mercedes and skidding them through puddles on camera. You know, as you do.