Bits and pieces: Gomez out of Italy game, Italy squad

February 6th, 2011 | by: Anne | Comments Off

Mario Gomez has been pulled from the friendly with Italy due to a strained knee ligament suffered in Bayern’s game against Köln this weekend. (He scored, but Bayern lost. Let’s not talk about it.) No replacement will be named, so this means that we have a 21-person squad… with only one real striker. Hmm. Jogi better hope Klose doesn’t pick up a knock during training (or during the game!). I would love it if Klose got the full 90 minutes – he and Podolski really have a score to settle with Italy.

Additionally, André Schürrle will not travel with the U-21s after all – he suffered a hairline fracture to his pinky toe over the weekend.

The Italy squad has been announced. It’s a fresh crop of faces, with only one holdover from that fateful semifinal – keeper Gianluigi Buffon. Let’s hope our boys can get one (or two or three or…) past him this time.

As for this weekend’s club action, well, most of our boys will be coming off either a draw or a loss. The Dortmund boys, Neuer, and Mertesacker all had hard-fought draws, while the Bayern reps, Friedrich, and Adler suffered losses. The exceptions are Träsch (Stuttgart), Podolski (Köln, who conquered Bayern), Boateng (Man City), and our ex-pats in Madrid who dismantled Real Sociedad (though Khedira did not come off the bench for an unknown reason). Westermann will be fresh because Hamburg’s game was called off. None of our guys scored except for the aforementioned Gomez, but Neuer notably had one of the performances of his life against Dortmund, singlehandedly leading Schalke to a 0-0 draw. My Twitter feed was filled with such superlatives as “god”, “superman”, and “the best keeper in the world,” an assessment Der Kaiser agrees with at least. Hyperbolic? A bit. But take a look at this highlight reel:

Essentially, Dortmund 0-0 Neuer. What a beast! All I can say is, I’m glad he’s ours. Neuer could be our beast for the next decade plus. Germany sure knows how to make keepers!

Keep an eye on this space for more updates as the friendly draws closer. Follow me on Twitter at @cheekybackheel (my personal football twitter) or @GER_WorldCup to keep up to date!