The Asia Nominations

Any VfB fan wants to comment on Träsch? Only things I heard of him were from Jens’ mouth. I also heard he was never nominated for the U21 and played last year for VfB II. What’s his normal position centre or right back? Better Träsch than Westermann anyway.

I give Jogi Löw a lot of credit for really trying everything to get Mario Gomez’ national team career back on track. If Gomez can’t score even when he’s reunited with his Stuttgart team mate Cacau, then we can just as well leave him on the couch for the World Cup.

I’m looking forward to finally see Friedrich in central defense and I guess players like Jones, Kehl and Owomoyela can kick their national team career in the trash can, as they can’t even get into this “reserve” team.

Posted from  Germany

Träsch is an allrounder, but usually plays as a right back for Stuttgart. Could be an interesting alternative to Andreas Beck.

Posted from  Germany

Kehl probably deserves another chance, but it’s too bad he doesn’t play for Stuttgart. The other two have been good lately, but nothing special. It makes you wonder why Träsch is around aside from the U21 priority. Speaking of which I am surprised Neuer is here – probably the U21 have a good enough substitute.

Jones is never being nominated again unless he does something phenomenal. This is due to the fact that he’s Kevin’s buddy and he seems the most obvious scapegoat for the embarrassment in that friendly against England.

Enke has to leave 96. Wolfsburg beat them to a pulp and this is not the first time they have lost 0-5. After a while you just get use to conceding goals no matter how good of an excuse of a poor defense you have.

low should of also call howedes and hilbert

Posted from  United States

‘If Gomez can’t score even when he’s reunited with his Stuttgart team mate Cacau, then we can just as well leave him on the couch for the World Cup. ’
Jan, you are killing me.

For every goal Gomez scores for VfB, I always wonder why he just cannot do it with the national team. Seriously, there are times I thought of wanting to pull my hair out as a VfB supporter. Time and again it puzzles me why the bundestrainer just keep giving him chances.

At the end of the day, if Gomez starts to score again for the national team, I will keep my mouth shut. But for now, ugh.

Posted from  Singapore

What about Metzelder? Huth is such a klutz.

Posted from  United States

Now that you say it. A Friedrich/Metzelder central defense would be an interesting (and experienced) alternative to test in the two games. I’ve got to say, I didn’t see a single game with Huth in it this season, so I have no idea whether he has significantly improved or something.

Posted from  Germany

What about the strikers , klose,podolski,gomez,kiesling,i think sebastian freis from ksc can added value ,
im very happy that cristian gentner nominated from jogi he is the best midfielder in current season .

I have seen a bit of Huth in the Premier League this season. Clearly, with Boro almost certainly going down, it hasn’t been a good year for anybody there, but Huth was generally the better of their central defenders and was picked by Gareth Southgate (who presumably knows something about central defending, this having been his position) whenever he was available. Boro’s problems tended to be more on the attacking side than defensively, anyway. So, I’m moderately optimistic that a Huth/Friedrich central partnership would be more solid than most of what we’ve seen over the past year or so (which were generally accidents waiting to happen).

Metzelder is injured yet again that’s why he was not selected. Otherwise he has been pretty good lately. Huth well from what I heard and the above he hasn’t made any glaring errors. Howedes will be at the U21 training camp, though it would be interesting to see him play. Westermann and Tasci hopefully will not be used again as central defenders. A Mertesacker / Friedrich pairing looks real promising and along with a backup of Metzelder/Huth should carry us through qualification.

I wouldn’t rule out Tasci yet. He’s doing well at Stuttgart and we’ll have to wait and see, where he’ll be in his development next season. It’s the same with a player like Höwedes.

Posted from  Germany

Apparently Trochowski is a little bit injured too. (So is most of Hamburg, but who knows maybe they can pull off a 0-22 score against Frankfurt and hope Dortmund don’t win.)

Maybe they should have invited Timo Boll (table tennis) over as well. Then they would have the three most popular German athletes in China ready to tell the Chinese about the wonders of German football and the national team players could stay at home, take a rest and enjoy their holidays.

The preliminary U21 squad for the Euros has been announced as well, if anyone’s ineterested:

G: Ralf Fährmann (Schalke 04), Florian Fromlowitz (Hannover 96), Manuel Neuer (Schalke 04), Tobias Sippel (1. FC Kaiserslautern)

D: Dennis Aogo (Hamburger SV), Andreas Beck (1899 Hoffenheim), Jerome Boateng (Hamburger SV), Sebastian Boenisch (Werder Bremen), Benedikt Höwedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Mergim Mavraj (VfL Bochum), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund), Daniel Schwaab (SC Freiburg)

M: Daniel Adlung (VfL Wolfsburg), Änis Ben-Hatira (MSV Duisburg), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Borussia Dortmund), Gonzalo Castro (Bayer Leverkusen), Patrick Ebert (Hertha BSC Berlin), Mike Frantz (1. FC Nürnberg), Dennis Grote (VfL Bochum), Fabian Johnson (1860 München), Sami Khedira (VfB Stuttgart), Mesut Özil (Werder Bremen)

A: Ashkan Dejagah (VfL Wolfsburg), Chinedu Ede (MSV Duisburg), Marko Marin (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Sandro Wagner (MSV Duisburg)

Posted from  Germany

Speaking of the Asia tour I just watched a tape of the 2002 WC semifinals. I cannot believe how good Metzelder was or how lacking in depth the Germany squad was. (Apparently we did not have any fullbacks at the time, so Metzelder effectively played as left back.) The only time recently I saw Metzelder make a run forward was during Euro 2008 against Portugal. Despite everything that’s been said about him, he is still the most proven center we have next to Mertesacker. I really hope Arsenal sign him this summer so he can be back in form for 2010. Alternatively he can move back to Germany and partner Howedes at Schalke.

As for the U21, we have a tough group and it seems like we have no strikers. Defense is good, midfield good, and goal excellent, but no clinical finishers. As long we can make it out of the group alive we have a shot at winning it.

‘Then they would have the three most popular German athletes in China ready to tell the Chinese about the wonders of German football and the national team players could stay at home, take a rest and enjoy their holidays.’
Jan, this got me being reminded of England’s friendly away at Trinidad & Tobago last year (this happened some days before Euro 2008). It was seen as some way in pulling votes for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. No exhibition game scoreline (to paraphrase Nick) at that time, because the FIFA website told me after I did my ‘research’ that it was 3-0 to England then.

But then again, what do I know of the scoreline on Friday. As for now, I don’t see any sign from the TV listings that this friendly match will be shown here…even if the timing fits where I am. China and Singapore share the same timezone. And our national team will be playing China in August for a friendly actually. It has been almost donkey months since we last played an opponent…

Nick, since you mentioned Oliver Kahn…you know it was actually the 2002 WC I first knew about Kahn. And a certain someone called Michael Ballack. For some reason at that time during the tournament, those two names stood out for me in regards to who was on the German national team, other than knowing Rudi Voeller was the national team coach then. It has been seven years.

Posted from  Singapore

I was amused reading what Mario Gomez has to say after they landed in Shanghai. He was surprised at the temperature checks when they arrived. But then again, there had been cases of people being infected with H1N1 in China. Precaution is always important.

And this is coming at a time when today, my country had been added to the growing list of countries being affected by the H1N1 outbreak. Though the first infected person here recently came back from the United States and she had the symptoms when she flew back home. Her case was confirmed yesterday.

Posted from  Singapore

I can’t believe Friedrich is doubtful AGAIN. It is as frustrating as when you leave messages for someone and they don’t call you back for two weeks.