Squad Lists for the Friendlies against Italy and England

The last match of the year is approaching and the squad lists for U21 and senior level have just been released:

U21 (vs Italy, 18.11.2008 in Osnabrück)
Goalkeepers: Florian Fromlowitz (Hannover 96), Manuel Neuer (Schalke), Tobias Sippel (1. FC Kaiserslautern)

Defenders: Andreas Beck (Hoffenheim), Jerome Boateng (Hamburger SV), Sebastian Boenisch (Werder Bremen), Niko Bungert (FSV Mainz 05), Benedikt Höwedes (Schalke), Daniel Schwaab (SC Freiburg)

Midfielders: Gonzalo Castro (Bayer Leverkusen), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Marc Andre Kruska (Borussia Dortmund), Mesut Özil (Werder Bremen), Eugen Polanski (FC Getafe)

Forwards: Ashkan Dejagah (VfL Wolfsburg), Daniel Halfar (Arminia Bielefeld), Rouwen Hennings (FC St. Pauli), Aaron Hunt (Werder Bremen), Kevin Schindler (Hansa Rostock)

Senior (vs England, 19.11.2008 in Berlin)
Goalkeepers: Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)

Defenders: Marvin Compper (Hoffenheim), Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Andreas Hinkel (Celtic), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Marcel Schaefer (Wolfsburg), Serdar Tasci (Stuttgart), Heiko Westermann (Schalke)

Midfielders: Thomas Hitzlsperger (Stuttgart), Jermaine Jones (Schalke), Marko Marin (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburger SV), Tobias Weis (Hoffenheim)

Forwards: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Patrick Helmes (Bayer Leverkusen), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich)

Conclusions
You just can’t escape the all singing, dancing and scoring space monkeys from Hoffenheim at the moment. Jogi Löw decided to invite two Hoffenheim players to the senior squad and former Stuttgart player Andreas Beck now represents Hoffenheim on U21 level as well. I personally find the nomination of Weis and Compper quite premature though. Hoffenheim certainly have some interesting young players, but does that justify rushing them into the senior squad after they’ve just played one third of a Bundesliga season? Especially if you compare them with some established players from the U21 line up. Well, Löw definitely didn’t rush any Karlsruhe players into the team last winter, when Karlsruhe were the big surprise package… Though, maybe there is some kind of coordinated effort between the U21 and senior team going on. The U21 team will compete in the European Championships next year, so maybe they want to keep the team together. Both Weis and Compper are too old to play on U21 level.

Oh yes, and no Ballack (injured) and Frings (messy relationship with Löw) means more football and less gossip ahead of, during and after the game.

It won’t be the most glamorous glamour friendly between England and Germany I guess.