Re: Ze German Thread

[rwo power]

The German U21 were drawn into a rather challenging group for the U21 Euro 2013 in Israel:

Group A:
Israel (hosts)
England
Norwegen
Italien

Group B:
Spanien
Niederlande
Russland
Deutschland

[VivaStPauli]

Meh, we'll go through at least 2nd, I hope.

Though it's always hard to tell, since our senior NT tends to steal U21's best players

[rwo power]

our senior NT tends to steal U21's best players

Exactly that's the problem

[VivaStPauli]

Well I think when the generation of Götze, Reus, etc. is properly integrated into the NT, the quality will be so high that future talents will probably develop a bit more, and only join the senior side when they're 23 or 24 years old... We had a talent-vacuum to fill, after all, to think back to the recent past, when we had to play the likes of Hitzlsperger or Trochowski, when we started Clemens Fritz as in midfield because we had no wingers...

[la bestia negra]

never understood why castro is being left out tbh

[Lupi]

why did i read this "Zeman thread"

[RealGunner]

LMAO

[urbaNRoots]

The squad for the upcoming friendly match against France on 6 February 2013 is out:

GK: Manuel Neuer, René Adler
Defence: Jérome Boateng, Benedikt Höwedes, Mats Hummels, Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker, Marcel Schmelzer & Heiko Westermann.
Midfield: Lars Bender, Julian Draxler, Mario Götze, Ilkay Gündogan, Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, Marco Reus, André Schürrle & Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Attack: Mario Gomez & Miroslav Klose.

[rwo power]

W00t! The Eagle is back! Even though I like the youngsters getting into the German goal a lot, too, it is great to see René Adler return to the NT after all of his injuries.

Pity that Stefan Kießling still gets totally ignored all the time by Löw.

[VivaStPauli]

Kießling and Sven Bender snubbed again

And I wonder what reason Löw is going to pull out of his ass to not start Höwedes again...

We better win this one.

[rwo power]

Well, on the other hand it is pretty cool that by now we have so many great players that in every call-up there will be injustice done as there are simply limited spaces.

[urbaNRoots]

Sven is kinda understandable as he rotates too much with Kehl, but decision not to call up Kießling who's in fantastic form is quite baffling. Gomez has not played much and Kießling is in better form right now and deserved it more.

[rwo power]

Germany U21 NT Call-up for the match in Italy on 6 Feb 2013:

GK:
Oliver Baumann (SC Freiburg, 9/0)
Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen, 5/0)
Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt, 10/0)

Defense:
Tony Jantschke (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 13/0)
Sebastian Jung (Eintracht Frankfurt, 17/0)
Jan Kirchhoff (FSV Mainz 05, 17/3)
Julian Koch (MSV Duisburg, 1/0)
Matthias Ostrzolek (FC Augsburg, 6/0)
Antonio Rüdiger (VfB Stuttgart, 1/0)
Lasse Sobiech (SpVgg Greuther Fürth, 13/2)
Oliver Sorg (SC Freiburg, 2/0)

Midfield:
Tolgay Arslan (Hamburger SV, 1/0)
Maximilian Beister (Hamburger SV, 13/6)
Patrick Funk (FC St.Pauli, 14/1)
Patrick Herrmann (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 9/2)
Moritz Leitner (Borussia Dortmund, 9/3)
Sebastian Rode (Eintracht Frankfurt, 2/0)
Kevin Vogt (FC Augsburg, 6/0)

Attack:
Alexander Esswein (1. FC Nürnberg, 11/5)
Peniel Mlapa (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 19/8 )
Sebastian Polter (1. FC Nürnberg, 6/4)
Kevin Volland (1899 Hoffenheim, 6/2)

Lewis Holtby wasn't called-up as Rainer Adrion wants to allow him to settle in with his new club for now.

The match against Italy U21 will be broadcast live at Eurosport at 18:30 GMT+1.

[VivaStPauli]

Whoah, that's pretty fully-German squad, I know it's coincidence, but I just noticed how I'm just not used to reading that long a list of German-sounding names anymore

That being said, some awesome prospects in that lineup.
The Frankfurt players alone!

Trapp, Jung, Rode - what an axis of awesome! Patrick Funk is the sauce as well, he'll really be going places. I'm just wondering about the forwards that have been called up. Mlapa is pretty boss, but I just wonder - aren't players like Petersen and Lasogga still elligible?
I have to go look up some birth dates.

[rwo power]

Well, Antonio Rüdiger is a sham package, name-wise XD

Nils Petersen is already 24, Pierre-Michel Lasogga (21) prolly should still qualify, but he was injured for pretty long (ruptured cruciate ligament) and hasn't played this season so far as it seems.

[VivaStPauli]

Speaking of Mogelpackungen: what's up with Alexander Merkel? He still in the U19 or just getting a big ol' snub?

[rwo power]

Hm. Alexander Merkel is 20, and transfermarkt.de has his last international match as some U20 match in November 2011.

[VivaStPauli]

Well because U20 doesn't happen outside of the world cup, no?
What about his U19 matches?

Or am I completely retarded right now? I got a light fever, so I might be borderline-delirious.

[rwo power]

Well, Alexander Merkel's birthday is 22 Feb 1992, that is, he will be 21 in 3 weeks. So I guess his next stop will be U21 rather than U19 or U20. ^^

[VivaStPauli]

BTW, Schweinsteiger is out for the France clash.
So I guess we'll be treated to another malfunctioning midfield -.-

[VivaStPauli]

BTW anyone read that Löw interview?
He basically said that while he's satisfied with the talent coming through in midfield, he feels that we aren't up to snuff in defence and attack internationally.

While he might have a point, the statement seems utterly laughable when he blatantly refuses to give players like Kießling and Höwedes a fair chance, who are a brilliant 9 and CB respectively.

[rwo power]

Well, rotating the defense in virtually each game isn't exactly giving it stability either (he sort of had a different back 4 every match).

Pity he didn't call up Sven Bender. Schweinsteiger out could have called for the frightening double Bender

[VivaStPauli]

It's still not too late to go double-Bender ( ) - but I'm pretty sure he'll have Kroos replace Piggy.

[urbaNRoots]

Dortmund just did a "Bayern". Götze, Reus and Schmelzer all "injured" and are staying in Germany. Gündogan is joining the team.

Dirk Krampe ‏@DirkKrampe
#Götze (Infekt), #Schmelzer (Racheninfekt, Stauchung im Sprunggelenk) und Reus (Adduktorenzerrung) haben für das Länderspiel abgesagt. #bvb

[rwo power]

Fortunately, we currently don't have a lack of good players ^^

[VivaStPauli]

"Infekt" = a case of the want-to-stay-at-homes. -.-
Klose injured as well.

Well, still enough players going. But still, this won't be our first XI

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