EC qualifier #1: Lithuania vs Germany, 9/7 (R)

[olafgb]

Rudi Völler announced the team for the first qualifier next week Saturday in Kaunas/Lithuania:

Goal: Kahn, Lehmann
Defence: Baumann, Hertzsch, Kehl, Linke, Metzelder, Ramelow, Ziege
Midfield: Ballack, Böhme, Frings, Hamann, Jeremies, Schneider
Offence: Asamoah, Jancker, Klose, Neuville, Zickler.

[Brihodge]

Wow, practically the WC squad, guess the younger guys didn't impress much in the last friendly.

[KarlMai]

You're right, Brihodge, but... on the other hand that's really great, because if they had really impressed, who should have played for the "Team 2006"? ;)

(thinking if I should post an own thread for this team's match, or just include it here...hm)

[Ethel The Frog]

The lineup is not that surprising given that this is the very beginning of qualifiers. Rudi won't want to take big risks in actual qualifiers until Germany has a solid lead.

Linke is the surprise to me. I guess I just under-rate him.

Also, I thought that Deisler was healthy, but have not seen him in recent Bayern lineups and he is not listed below.

[wolfsburgh]

I believe that Deisler is still recuperating and is not expected to play for Bayern until after the winter break (and therefore would not likely be selected for NT games for some time after that).

[olafgb]

Originally posted by Ethel The Frog
The lineup is not that surprising given that this is the very beginning of qualifiers. Rudi won't want to take big risks in actual qualifiers until Germany has a solid lead.

Linke is the surprise to me. I guess I just under-rate him.

Also, I thought that Deisler was healthy, but have not seen him in recent Bayern lineups and he is not listed below.

Linke is something like a standby national player. He's just coming in important emergency cases. Regarding Deisler read wolfsburgh's comment.

The only ones I'm complaining about are Hertzsch (no international standard, even Friedrich with 3 BL games is better), Jancker (no season game/no shape yet), Zickler (no regular player) and Asamoah (no shape/used as defender in Schalke).

[Alex_K]

Originally posted by KarlMai
You're right, Brihodge, but... on the other hand that's really great, because if they had really impressed, who should have played for the "Team 2006"? ;)

(thinking if I should post an own thread for this team's match, or just include it here...hm)

Let's do it here ;)
The squad for the game against Turkey B (9-6)

Goal: Timo Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart), Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund
Defence: Frank Fahrenhorst (VfL Bochum), Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC Berlin), Benjamin Lense (Arminia Bielefeld), Martin Meichelbeck (VfL Bochum), Timo Wenzel (VfB Stuttgart)
Midfield: Tim Borowski, Fabian Ernst (beide Werder Bremen), Peer Kluge, Bernd Korzynietz (beide Borussia Mönchengladbach), Markus Kreuz (1. FC Köln), Sebastian Schindzielorz (VfL Bochum)
Offence: Daniel Bierofka (Bayer Leverkusen), Markus Daun (Werder Bremen), Paul Freier (VfL Bochum), Marco Vorbeck (Hansa Rostock), Clemens Fritz (Karlsruher SC)

Projekt 04/06, Projekt 04/06, Prooooooojeeeeekt nuuuuulll-vierrrrrr/nuuuullllll-säääääächssssssss

[olafgb]

Originally posted by Alex_K

Projekt 04/06, Projekt 04/06, Prooooooojeeeeekt nuuuuulll-vierrrrrr/nuuuullllll-säääääächssssssss

So, your opinion on the hot yesterday issues:

- which players of Viktoria Köln make it to the 2006 roster?
- who was having sex with Claudia Strunz-Effenberg on the tribune while her husband was playing?

:)

[Alex_K]

Originally posted by olafgb


So, your opinion on the hot yesterday issues:

- which players of Viktoria Köln make it to the 2006 roster?
- who was having sex with Claudia Strunz-Effenberg on the tribune while her husband was playing?

:)

1.: Viktoria's Jancker. Or one of Ratingen's players(Viktoria didn't impress me much).

2.: They are married ? I don't think that it was Matthäus. Maybe Peter Pander ?

[olafgb]

Originally posted by Alex_K


1.: Viktoria's Jancker. Or one of Ratingen's players(Viktoria didn't impress me much).

2.: They are married ? I don't think that it was Matthäus. Maybe Peter Pander ?

Well, actually the whole level seemed to be quite low in this game.

No, they aren't married. Pander is a good guess - something like the Geenen/Angela Häßler combination, huh? I didn't expect that Wolfsburg is caring that much for Effenberg that they even entertain the girlfriend during the game :)

[olafgb]

Ziege is out for the Lithuania game as his mother died. On Monday Rudi will decide whether nominating somebody else.

[olafgb]

Little Lithuania introduction by ex-pro Valdas Ivanauskas:

SOCCER IN LITHUANIA:
The first division has ten teams. The level is about German 3rd division. An important reason is that that anyone who's causing a little attention is bought by foreign clubs. FBK Kaunas, Zalgiris Vilnius and Atlantis Klaipeda are the three dominating clubs.

NATIONAL TEAM:
Nobody really thinks that the national team could be a serious rival for Germany or Scotland. We've got to compete with Iceland and Faroe Islands, with a little bit of luck we can surprise a little. The recent 2-4 loss vs Israel proved insecurities in the defence.

STARS:
We don't have stars. The best one is forward Jankauskas - he is at least regular starter at former European cup winner FC Porto. He and forward colleague Poskus are causing the biggest hopes.

PERSPECTIVES:
In the last decade a lot went wrong. The old officials missed to care for the youth. Because of lacking support, many of the biggest talents went away.

No game against Germany yet.

[fuxer]

http://photodb.kicker.de/photodb/schemen/litauen_dfb.gif

[Basti]

WHY WHY WHYYYYYY is Ramelow in defense!!

[Mehr]

"WHY WHY WHYYYYYY is Ramelow in defense!!"

Good Question! Why doesnt Voller put Kehl in there??? He was there against paraguay and he looked pretty solid. Paraguay is definitely better than Lithuania, so why not??? Even Jeremies would be better.

[olafgb]

Despite of what the officials in Leverkusen say, I still think that Ramelow is one of the weak points in Bayer's line up. Nevertheless he played an outstanding WC final as defence organiser, which doesn't make it look completely stupid to name him for this position. Kehl had one good half against Paraguay and one awful half against the USA (kicker rating 5 or 5.5 I think), he isn't playing this position in the team, so why should Völler risk a change with him? Jeremies is in current good shape, but when has he played defence organiser for the last time? He's defensive mid since years and he's mainly living of his power and not the tactical skills, so he'd be a risk on this position as well.

I mean, Nowotny is the only one on international level who is used to play this position, but we won't see him back this year. Until Ramelow doesn't do something really bad in the national team, there is no reason to change this position - as you correctly said "it is only Lithuania", so why bothering? The main question for me is whether it was really necessary to get Linke back for this game, it would have been a good chance for Baumann or Friedrich to prove themselves in an easy international competition game.

THE EXPECTED LINEUP:

Kahn - Metzelder, Ramelow, Linke - Böhme, Ballack, Hamann, Frings, Schneider - Klose, Jancker

[olafgb]

The lineup was the one being expected before. Substitutions in the game: Neuville for Jancker (69), Jeremies for Schneider (86).

Germany won 2-0 [1-0 Ballack (27. Schneider), 2-0 Stankevicius (59.own goal)].

The game was rather mediocre. Germany never really was endangered to lose, though the own goal exactly was in a moment where you could not expect a German goal. This game hardly was able to amaze someone, but with better strikers a higher victory would have been possible.

[BrianCappellieri]

SoccerNet (http://www.soccernet.com/europe/2000/20020907/reports/60621_full.html)Solid Start

A first-half effort from playmaker Michael Ballack and an embarrassing own goal gave Germany a 2-0 win over Lithuania in their opening European championship group five qualifier on Saturday.

[BrianCappellieri]

SoccerAge (http://www.soccerage.com/en/13/h0866.html)Germany Take Care Of Business In Lithuania

Beaten World Cup finalists Germany produced a produced a thoroughly professional but unspectacular performance in a 2-0 win away to Lithuania, thus overcoming the first hurdle in their quest to qualify for Portugal 2004.