Adler & Rolfes Stranded In Leverkusen

This is a real bummer. Any chance of Frings getting another shot in midfield?

Also, who do you think will be the starting back 4 for Germany? I hope it doesn’t include Westermann. Do you think Lahm will play on the left or right? It doesn’t seem like that is finalized yet. Here’s my back four from L-R, which is admittedly biased as a Hamburg fan: Dennis Aogo, Mertesacker, Boateng, Lahm

I know Aogo and Boateng haven’t got much of a chance yet, but Lahm is playing great on the right for Bayern, and Aogo is a very solid and consistent player. In fact I think he deserves more of a shot than Boateng does.

What do you think?

Frings won’t be going that’s already final. This is not because of performance, but a personal issue he has had with the trainer.

The starting back four right now according to Jogi would be Boateng-Mertesacker-Tasci-Lahm. Just waiting for a 1998 sized disaster. Lahm is set on the left either way. He has never played recently at least on the right for the national team and Jogi won’t change that now.

My preferred lineup is X-Mertesacker-Hummels-Lahm. Even the most biased HSV knows that Boateng has ups and downs. The two times he has played for Germany ended in a red and yellow card. He needs to make more intelligent decisions, but in terms of technical ability he should be the RB of choice lacking other options. Maybe Hoewedes or Westermann can play RB I don’t know, but Hummels needs to be the other CB.

I’m not that familiar with Hummels, but that sounds like a better option. I do worry about Boateng’s rash tackles. Plus he has a tendency to play the long ball – but when there is no one there to receive it. It just kills the chance to build from the midfield sometimes.

Maybe someone like Beck can play on the right if Low doesn’t want to switch Lahm. I use Beck in my back 4 on the new FIFA World Cup game at least, ha ha.

The problem with Beck is that he is not a balanced player. He excels in attack, but defensively his positioning is faulty and can be physically out-muscled without the ability as Lahm has to play out of trouble. The other option is Arne Friedrich who wold make a good Mertesacker replacement than anything else. He did shut Ronaldo out in 2008 though.

bad news about rene….anyway time for neuer to step up….

my back 4 from R-L

Boateng-Mertesacker-Hummels-Lahm

For anyone interested and can read German or bear a botched machine translation…

http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussball/dfb-team/1005/Artikel/rene-adler-wm-aus-wer-wird-neue-nummer-eins-tim-wiese-manuel-neuer-jens-lehmann-joerg-butt-joachim-loew.html

It’s a great in-depth review from experts of the criteria for who the new Number 1 and Number 3 should be.

There has been talk for some time now within the German camp of Rene Adler’s ability to provide the required leadership at the back for the Mannschaft.

After his performance against Argentina in Munich a few months ago (Germany 0 – 1 Argentina, March 2010), when he charged out of goal, completely missed the onrushing Higuain who skipped passed him and slotted home, he was crticized by the Kaiser (Franz Beckenbauer) no less, about his mental strength and ability to lead the team in the world cup. The Mannschaft deserved at least a draw that day even though both teams were clearly playing with their World Cup starting lineups – at half throttle, and feeling themselves out tactically.

Having watched that game, I felt he lost the number one shirt with that play. If you rush out of goal, you need to take the opposing player out even at the expense of a yellow card and allow the team to regroup. While he was supported at the time by club direktor Rudi Voller, who praised his ‘agressiveness’ and ability to make a tough decision, that was only to be expected.

I have watched Manuel Neuer at Schalke 04 all year, and he deserves to be first choice for the position in my opinion simply based on his performance – He has allowed only 29 goals all season compared to Adlers 37 in the the same number of matches. Neuer has been solid at the back with controlled agression but largely very intelligent play all year.

I actually question this news about Rene Adler’s supposed injury and operation – it seems all too convenient for the DFB who were losing faith in Adler, but this allows Adler to save face, keep his starting spot at Leverkusen and allow the DFB to take their first choice – Neuer – to South Africa.

My preferred starting 11:

RB CB CB LB
Boateng Mertesacker Freidrich/Hummels Lahm

RM CM CM LM
Ozil Ballack Schweinsteiger Muller

RS LS
Gomez Podolski/Klose

Nick, do you know if Odonkor will be selected? And what happened b/w Frings and Jogi, it’s the first time I’m hearing about it.

My preferred back line up

ANYONE-BUT-Boateng, Mertesacker, Hummels, Lahm. Watching some of Boatengs performance as of late regarding some of those rash tackles have been because he is SLOOOOOOOW!!!! The guy is good at CB but not on the outside. He is kind of like Badstuber at LB, too slow but when put at CB and paired with a quick LB, or RB in Boateng’s case, it gets to be a very solid right sided back line.

LUKE, FEEL THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE!!

By David Hirshey and Roger Bennett

Along with knockwurst and Werner Herzog, Germany’s great postwar gift has been to churn out soccer players the world could despise. English author David Winner claimed that “in the narrative that is the World Cup, Germany plays the role of villain: the bad guy who kills the good guys, the beautiful teams. A World Cup without Germany would be like ‘Star Wars’ without Darth Vader.” The World Cup has a rich tradition of Teutonic heels who have managed to incorporate in a single individual everything that is despised about their entire team.

HARALD “TONI” SCHUMACHER (1982, 1986)
A blacksmith and apprentice boiler-maker turned World Cup goalkeeper, Schumacher is remembered for the brown-blond mullet-and-moustache combo he sported and the violence he inflicted in the name of keeping the ball at bay. Most famously, in 1982 he stopped a breakaway by Frenchman Patrick Battiston by employing a flying hockey-style hip check that shattered the defender’s vertebrae and left him bloodied and unconscious — an act that transformed him into a despised figure overnight, and a recipient of death threats from around the world, even from compatriots. His autobiography, “Anpfiff” (Blowing the Whistle), a José Canseco-style tome rife with widespread allegations of substance abuse in his national team, cemented his position as the most reviled man in German soccer.

RUDI VÖLLER (1986, 1990, 1994)
His hair and moustache combination screamed porn star, but Völler was a world-class striker who appeared in two consecutive championship matches and had an annoying knack for scoring critical goals. Despite this achievement, he is best remembered for being on the receiving end of two of Dutch midfielder Frank Rijkaard’s greatest shots, volleys of spittle that landed and lodged in his curls as both men were sent off in 1990.

JÜRGEN KLINSMANN (1990, 1994, 1998)
With his flaxen, shaggy mane and slight build, Klinsmann was known as the “Golden Bomber” and looked like Siegfried without Roy. Blessed with terrifying speed, Klinsi used it to run at defenders, often flinging himself to the ground and writhing in agony as soon as they entered his general vicinity, even though — and replays proved it — there had been no actual physical contact. He was one of the great divers of all time. Referees never saw through his histrionics, even in the 1990 World Cup final itself, where he used them to con the referee into sending off a hapless Argentinian defender. When Klinsmann moved to play in the English league, he publicly acknowledged his own thespian trickery by flinging himself to the floor to celebrate his first goal. This became his trademark celebration, demonstrating at the very least that not all Germans lacked a sense of humor.

OLIVER KAHN (1998, 2002, 2006)
He was a brilliant goalkeeper, known as “The Gorilla,” whose fans delighted in pelting him with bunches of bananas thrown from the stands. His outspoken conservative political beliefs already made him a controversial figure, but it was his intensity and competitiveness on the field that made him so utterly detestable and led his own teammate Mehmet Scholl to declare, “I am afraid of just two things in life: war and Oliver Kahn.” It is said of him that, at a charity event where a number of small children lined up for the honor of shooting penalty kicks at him, he still could not stand to let anyone score.

STEFAN EFFENBERG (1994)
Few players have managed to alienate as many fans, teammates, coaches, and German FA bureaucrats in a single career as this midfielder, whose brilliance was matched only by his sheer arrogance. His World Cup experience ended abruptly when, while being substituted, he gave the bird to a whistling crowd of German supporters booing his mediocre performance. His career at German powerhouse Bayern Munich ended shortly after he launched a unilateral political attack on the nation’s unemployed, who, in his view, were “too lazy to look for work.” But he managed to top all that by stealing his teammate’s wife, and then posing with her in a series of erotic photographs to promote his tell-all autobiography, “I Showed Them All,” which became infamous for its mix of sexual content and butchery of the German language. In one of the promotional photographs, he and his new girlfriend show off their fresh tattoos, testaments to their newfound love. They, too, had spelling mistakes.

so Jorg Butt is going to be the number 3 GK, pretty cool!
the coolest is if he can get all the trophy this year, bundesliga, DFB Pokal, UCL, and WC!

@scalia

Only official by BILD, but probably true. Anyway the sniping has already began. Lehmann doesn’t seem none too happy. Nor does BVB.

Well at least Butt can help teach Neuer how not to be someone like Lamemann. Half the talent of Kahn and twice the mouth. But I will still miss that whiney b@st@rd in Bundesliga.

@Seth

Nobody has really heard of Odonkor since 2008.
Frings has said a lot of none too nice things about Loew.

Odonkor. That’s a blast from the past. But I’ll never forget his cross to Neuville to score the last minute winner against Poland in 2006. He’s immortalized in German football history for me!

@Seth

Nobody has really heard of Odonkor since 2008.
Frings has said a lot of none too nice things about Loew.