World

Europe

Germany

Germany In Azerbaijan

August 6th, 2009 | By: Nick | 5 Comments »

Summer is almost over and Germany returns to Asia – no wait far-eastern Europe according to UEFA.

The trip to Azerbaijan, further east in longitude than the UAE, is not yet another crazy promotion by the DFB. Germany plays a double-header against Azerbaijan for World Cup Qualifying 2010. Löw reportedly did not want to make any experiments for the fixtures. His reasoning is that despite the good showing of some players in the U-21 the Bundesliga season is yet to start. So here is the lineup for the first August 12 fixture in Baku, Azerbaijan.

DFB-Kader

Tor: Robert Enke (Hannover 96), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)

Abwehr: Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC Berlin), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Marcel Schäfer (VfL Wolfsburg), Serdar Tasci (VfB stuttgart), Heiko Westermann (FC Schalke 04)

Mittelfeld: Michael Ballack (FC Chelsea), Christian Gentner (VfL Wolfsburg), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Marcell Jansen (Hamburger SV), Sami Khedira (VfB Stuttgart), Mesut Özil (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (FC Bayern München), Piotr Trochowski Hamburger SV)

Angriff: Cacau (VfB Stuttgart), Mario Gomez , Miroslav Klose (beide FC Bayern München), Lukas Podolski (FC Köln)

True to his word there are not many surprises in the lineup.

Löw has gone back to the old guard for goalkeeping positions. A little disturbing given that Enke’s team has already been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal and that poorly-positioned Wiese is there instead of Neuer. Nonetheless, we are playing Azerbaijan and Wiese deserves a go.

I suppose the U-21s are just that before the season starts. Still it seems a lot more dangerous to experiment with Tasci and Westermann rather than Boateng, Hummels, and Höwedes. Another blast from the past is Löw’s mention of Friedrich as a possibility on the right. This is temporary certainly?

On the other hand, Frings has been dropped with the reality that he will probably not be back again soon and not be fit for 2010. It’s good that he’s finally set aside, but it seems that there is still no replacement midfield enforcer. Löw mentions Hitzlsperger as Frings’ competition, but Hitzlsperger is at the end of the day a decent distributor of the ball at CM. The same goes for Khedira who is finally back in the setup. Maybe Gentner can have a shot at it? Özil got the nomination he deserved and Ballack is back in training at Chelsea. Hopefully the former will play a lot more than the latter given that we are playing Berti Vogt’s Azerbaijan.

We’ll see what happens, but for now back to enjoying what’s left of summer!

Tags: Germany National Team News, Group A, Players, World Cup 2010

Germany World Cup RSS Feed

Comments

By Armando | August 8th, 2009 at 11:50 am

Wow, that’s a good lineup. The only guys missing in my opinion are Beck, Neuer, and Helmes, but Helmes is injured and that’s why he isnt called up most likely. Still though, with this lineup, Germany can play a simply awesome 4-3-3, like this:

—————Wiese
Lahm–Mertesacker–Tasci–Schafer
-Schweini—–Ballack—–Gentner
——Klose—-Gomez—-Podolski

By Nick | August 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

UPDATE

Poldi is injured and will not travel. Klose is not totally fit. It’s a real shame Helmes is injured because that leaves ONLY the former Stuttgart pairing to do the job. Speaking of which Tasci didn’t impress against Wolfsburg. Frings is on the other hand stinking up the tabloids about his omission.

By Nick | August 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

I don’t know what was worse the defense (Mertersacker) or Löw’s absolutely retarded decision to not substitute him.

By Jan | August 12th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

Given that it’s part of Löw’s duties to train the defense…

Anyway, both Tasci and Mertesacker are excellent central defenders and there are many highly talented youngsters on the horizon. There’s really no reason to have such a shaky crappy defense. I can understand that players won’t do the running necessary for effective collective backtracking for low profile friendlies and qualifiers, but there’s no reason not to properly communicate and coordinate each other.

Posted from Germany

By Nick | August 12th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I hope you are being sarcastic.

There were perfectly capable substitutes (Friedrich) on the bench that Löw just didn’t use. What if Mertesacker injured himself or Klose for that matter? Instead he brings on Jansen at left midfield just as the opponents attacked our right side throughout the second half. Also what did he expect Özil to do in 7 minutes? I buy the excuses that it was hot and preseason and the players did not want to exert themselves, but Löw looks completely lost. I sure hope Wales somehow beats Russia cause at this rate we won’t.

Comments are closed