Germany:Denmark 28/03/07 [R]

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Lots of changes

Hope to see something like:

-------------Hildebrand------------
Castro--Mertesacker-M.Friedrich-Jansen
-------------Schulz---------------
Fritz--------------------Trochowski
------------Schlaudraff
-----Helmes---------Kuranyi

Bench:
Enke
Madlung
Rolfes
Kießling
Hilbert
Hitzlsperger
Freier (why is he on this team, he's not even first choice in Leverkusen?

[IlTedesco]

This would be my line up:

--------------------------- Enke --------------------------
Fritz--------- Metzelder ---------- Friedrich ---------- Jansen

------------------------- Castro ----------------------------

Hilbert -------------------------------------------- Hitzlsperger

------------------------ Trochowski ---------------------------

---------------- Helmes -------------- Kuranyi ---------------

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Dunno, Fritz as RM against Switzerland worked very well, even Arne Friedrich got more involved offensively with Fritz than Schneider (how that works out, I don't know). Hilbert is a good player, but I think Fritz in this case works better.

I don't want Metzelder to play this match either, he was a bit of a doubt before the Czech game and after bouncing around with Koller for the full 90, I'm not too keen. If that means we play Madlung, so be it really. This game already has taken its role as a virtual B international for us anyways.

[ForeverRed]

Lots of changes

Hope to see something like:

-------------Hildebrand------------
Castro--Mertesacker-M.Friedrich-Jansen
-------------Schulz---------------
Fritz--------------------Trochowski
------------Schlaudraff
-----Helmes---------Kuranyi

Bench:
Enke
Madlung
Rolfes
Kießling
Hilbert
Hitzlsperger
Freier (why is he on this team, he's not even first choice in Leverkusen?

Schulz as DM? I'ven ever seen him play that position before. This will be an interesting match and a great opportunity for a lot of players who haven't gotten playing time. Mertesacker will be one of the players rested.

I'd go with this starting XI:

-------------------Timo--------------------------

Fritz---------M. Friedrich--Madlung----Jansen

-------------Hitzlsperger-----------------------

Freier---------------------------Trochowski

----------Schlaudraff------------------------

-----Kuranyi-----------Kiessling-----

Hildebrand just might captain the team for this one :D

Subs:

Enke
Metzelder, Castro
Hilbert, Rolfes, Schulz
Helmes

[IlTedesco]

Either Kuranyi or Metzelder will be captain, they've got the most caps. They'll maybe have to roll a dice if neither of them plays...

:D:o

BTW: Schulz is slightly injured so I doubt he'll be part of the starting eleven. Hitzlsperger as DM wouldn't be the ideal choice, either.

[Miran Klosnic]

Schulz is indeed more a DM than a leftback. For Werder he only played this position due to lack of decent alternatives in the squad. For U21 he always played as a DM!

[IlTedesco]

Schulz is indeed more a DM than a leftback. For Werder he only played this position due to lack of decent alternatives in the squad.

And because he couldn't get past Baumann in DM.

;)

[squidward123]

mertesacker got sent home with the rest right?

[IlTedesco]

Yep.

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Forgot about that

Can Loew callup someone still if he decides to drop Metzelder?

[aloisius]

This is gonna be an erich ribeck-level bad game.

Both the danes and the germans played their serious games on saturday. The players will be more concerned about getting back to their clubs to prepare for the weekend games than about this.

[Borussia]

http://www.dfb.de/typo3temp/pics/56f6f540a8.jpg

Löw releases eight players after Prague win

Germany's coach Joachim Löw on Sunday rung the changes for Wednesday night's friendly against Denmark by announcing an inexperienced 16-man squad aimed at blooding some of his rising stars. Loew called up two uncapped players: striker Patrick Helmes of second division 1. FC Köln and midfielder Simon Rolfes of Bayer Leverkusen.

Having opened up a three-point gap at the top of their Euro 2008 qualifying group after a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic in Prague on Saturday, Löw will rest his first-choice side for Wednesday's game in Duisburg.

Schalke 04 striker Kevin Kuranyi, whose headed goals either side of half-time gave Germany the valuable win in Prague, is the most experienced player in the squad with 37 caps.

Alongside captain and Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack, the Bayern Munich trio of Philipp Lahm, Lukas Podolski and BastianSchweinsteiger, as well as Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, the Werder Bremen players Torsten Frings and Per Mertesacker and Bayer Leverkusen's Bernd Schneider are amongst the group who have been sent home.

"It's all about giving other players their opportunity," said Löw. "Saturday's game was an important and hard fought win for us. The team played well as a unit and put together some intelligent phases of play, but we need to look at other options with a view to the future."

Having only come back into the national side in last month's 3-1 win over Switzerland, 25-year-old Kuranyi is staking a strong case for his place in the first-choice side and is hoping to build on a superb performance.

"Kuranyi has proved that he is in a good vein of form and is scoring some good goals", said Löw, "it's nice to have someoptions up front."


The friendly is a sensible time for Löw, who has an impressive record as coach of seven wins and a draw having succeeded Jürgen Klinsmann last year, to look to the future.

With no more Euro 2008 qualifying fixtures until the visit of minnows San Marino in June, Denmark, who lost 2-1 to Spain in Madrid at the weekend, will provide a good work out for his inexperienced side.

(www.dfb.de)

[Hendrik]

According to Metzelder himself he will stay with the team but won't play. Makes sense. :rolleyes:

This is gonna be an erich ribeck-level bad game.

Both the danes and the germans played their serious games on saturday. The players will be more concerned about getting back to their clubs to prepare for the weekend games than about this.
I don't know about Denmark, but the German players will be thrilled to prove themselves. For some it might be the last chance for quite some time.

[IlTedesco]

I don't know about Denmark, but the German players will be thrilled to prove themselves. For some it might be the last chance for quite some time.

Precisely! Dunno what lead Aloisius to the conclusion that this is bound to be a horrible match between two unmotivated squads. The only real problem I see is that they have never played together before (and most likely never will after Wednesday). Still, I'm totally looking forward to see Castro and Helmes making their debut for the German NT!

:)

[squidward123]

yeah helmes i'm looking forward to seeing too but kiessling will probably start.

[super_bayern]

Would be really nice to see Helmes play

[IlTedesco]

yeah helmes i'm looking forward to seeing too but kiessling will probably start.

Think so, too. Generally the players who have been with the team for the last couple of days already (Castro, Hilbert, Kiessling) should have an advantage over the others who joined them later. Only fair...

[aloisius]

Precisely! Dunno what lead Aloisius to the conclusion that this is bound to be a horrible match between two unmotivated squads. The only real problem I see is that they have never played together before (and most likely never will after Wednesday). Still, I'm totally looking forward to see Castro and Helmes making their debut for the German NT!

:)

I posted that before reading that loew has released 8 of the senior squad members .

I think that’s a great decision and will make for a much better game.

[IlTedesco]

Ah, gotcha. Glad we're on the same page!

:);)

[meininki]

According to the DFB website (http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=500014&tx_dfbnews_pi1[showUid]=10673), Robert Enke is going to play the full 90 minutes on Wednesday.