Re: Ze German Thread

[urbaNRoots]

There's a press conference in 15 minutes with Per Mertesacker, Mario Götze and "Hansi" Flick.

We might get some recent team news

Live stream: http://tv.dfb.de/live/index.php?live=363

[aleumdance]

MY 2000TH COMMENT

I hope Wenger watches hard how Germany would use Per, sometimes you wonder i he is given jesus juice by low

[rwo power]

@urban

Could you please post a short summary? I'm in the office and I have no soundcard here (and of course if wouldn't exactly be clever to watch it anyway XD)

[urbaNRoots]

Hansi said that there are no new injuries other than Poldi and Basti who have some slight ankle problems - but are expected to join training tomorrow or even tonight. He was again asked about the striker-less formation. The usual stuff really.

Mertesacker gave a 3 minute rant about a supposed transfer

While Götze was asked if he liked playing as a 'false 9' and if he's used to it. He likes it and will play wherever the coach wants him to.

[rwo power]

Ah, so indeed nothing new. But thank you! *bows*

BTW, I just read the article on the PK on kicker.de - so the German NT will only go to Kazakhstan with 20 players as Jogi Löw doesn't feel the need for any additional call-ups.

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/startseite/583422/artikel_dfb-verzichtet-auf-nachnominierungen.html

[VivaStPauli]

Hahahaha Löw will do anything not to have to call up Kießling. On the other hand I get why he's not nominating anybody new, the injuries are all pretty short term.

Though I would've used the chance to lock in some youth players with a migration background. Quickly cap Yesil and Can, just for the trollery of it. And Merkel, I think he's still eligible for some eastern European country I can't be bothered to google.

[rwo power]

Isn't Samed Yesil injured? I think I read that he sustained some serious injury that has him sidelined for a while.

Ah, found it. Got a rupture of the cruciate ligament that keeps him out for a couple of months: http://www.rp-online.de/sport/fussball/international/england/samed-yesil-erleidet-kreuzbandriss-1.3192190

As for Alexander Merkel - that really would have been the utmost trollery to call him up for these matches - he's born in Kazhakhstan XD

[VivaStPauli]

Ah, so it was Kasakhstan then. I wasn't sure if I wasn't confusing him with Beck. Beck is born in Belarus, right?
I really should google more.

Whatever, cap Merkel, cap Can, and I'm pretty sure there's more promising youngsters being wooed by other FAs. CAP THOSE KIDS!

[rwo power]

Well, in the Kazakhstan NT there is one former player of RWO: Heinrich Schmidtgal. Pity he left RWO, or we would prolly not have gotten relegated (again) Ah well, Schmiddi is of course better than Regionalliga, so I can't really begrudge him jumping ship ^^

(BTW fun note - RWO is playing against Schmiddi's youth team SC Verl this evening. The ref should rather not give too much injury time tonight as Verl doesn't have any flood-lighting, so it might get a bit darker there XD)

[rwo power]

W00t! ATM the friendly Germany U19 vs Spain U19 is being played in Düsseldorf, and so far Germany is leading 1:0 against the Spanish youngsters. Sebastian Kerk scored the goal in the 21st minute.

The German U19 is looking really good. Pity that Samed Yesil is out injured, but Emre Can and Leon Goretzka among the others are playing really well.

FT Germany U19 1:0 Spain U19

It was a lively match and both teams looked pretty good.

[VivaStPauli]

Sooooo. Tomorrow, Götze is set to play as a false 9.
While I like that system, I still don't fully understand why we wouldn't a more direct player there, like Reus or Müller, but whatever. Götze is brilliant, so I'm quite looking forward to this.

[urbaNRoots]

Bild claiming Löw will go with a striker-less formation. With Reus out, Götze is expected to play the false 9 role.

I'm still expecting the same team:

Neuer
Lahm Mertesacker Höwedes Schmelzer
Schweinsteiger Khedira
Müller Özil Podolski
Götze

Maybe Draxler/Schürrle for Poldi, if he's no 100% fit.

[VivaStPauli]

This is exciting, I hope it works, because I really want this to be our system going forward. Also, having Götze and Özil on the pitch at the same time is hilarious overkill.

[ioilersrock448]

I still don't understand why Podolski doesn't play up front for Germany or Arsenal. Go for something in the midfield such as:

Schweinsteiger-Khedira
Müller-Özil-Reus
Podolski

[urbaNRoots]

Because neither Arsenal or Germany play with 2 strikers and from what I've seen Podolski centrally only works when he's partnered with another striker.

Podolski is personally having a good season with Arsenal and his best games came when he played as a LW, he played twice centrally but had two very poor games against Swansea and Sunderland... I don't think he's used to play alone upfront. Even with Germany he had a short spell centrally when he came on in a friendly (was it Holland?) but again didn't impress there. Therefore I think it's best that he either plays as a LW or doesn't play at all.... OR he's partnered with Gomez upfront which won't happen 100% because we know Löw loves his midfielders

[VivaStPauli]

I could see Podolski working out centrally if he gets to bounce off of Müller and Reus on the flanks, but TBH we have Müller who has a better aerial game, or can just play with a false 9 like we're going to do today.

He did play centrally every now and then for Köln and carried them from that position.

BTW Gomez is out for sure today, he pulled a muscle and will sit the match out, so we're guaranteed to see some form of experiment. This is only Kasakhstan, but if the false 9 setup ever works against a strong opponent, Gomez' days at the DFB are numbered - I really appreciate him as one of the world's best at what he does, he just doesn't fit the system, IMHO.

[urbaNRoots]

Last time Germany went to Kazakhstan:

[urbaNRoots]

Official: Neuer - Schmelzer, Höwedes, Mertesacker, Lahm - Schweinsteiger, Khedira - Draxler, Özil, Müller, Götze

[rwo power]

Draxler out injured after he crashed his head against an opponent player's head

0:1 (21., Schweinsteiger)
0:2 (22., Götze)

HT Kazakhstan 0:2 Germany

0:3 (75., Müller)

FT Kazakhstan 0:3 Germany

[urbaNRoots]

Fantastic performance by everyone, seriously I like to moan about players but everyone had a class game.

3 players stood out for me: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Mertesacker 3. Özil. 3 generals of defence, midfield and attack.

Overall man of the match for me was Schweini though.

He's the man, the most complete midfielder in the world, the guy played as a defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder at the bloody same time, it's ridiculous.

Schweini

[VivaStPauli]

Really? I thought we were shit, lol. All our goals involved luck, the first one was a massive deflection, if Piggy didn't hit Müller, that ball doesn't go in. The 2nd featured an assist by the Kasakhstan GK for Götze. The third came from a ridiculous loss of possession by a Kasakhstan CB.

Neuer was forced to save decent shots twice.

Schweinsteiger really was great, but TBH for the most part the team seemed lazy to me, too little movement in the final third, thus lacking passing options, and that's why the parked bus really got in the way. If we had played quicker, we would have scored more, and we would have scored goals that weren't the result of luck.

[rwo power]

Well, due to his booking and suspension in the next match, Bastian Schweinsteiger was sent home. As things look, Sven Bender is fit again after his flu and Jogi Löw decided to call him up as replacement for Schweinsteiger.

Julian Draxler seems to have suffered a concussion and thus might not be able to play the second match against Kazakhstan, and Mario Gomez plus Benedikt Höwedes are doubtful for Tuesday, too. It is possible that Jogi Löw will call up even more players in view of the injury doubts.

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/wm/wm-quali/583661/artikel_schweinsteiger-abgereist---bender-nachnominiert.html

[VivaStPauli]

So I assume this will be the rise of the Gündogan?
Still sad that Draxler got injured btw. He looked great in that 20 minutes he had.

[VivaStPauli]

Sooo, due to injuries Löw made two more nominations for the national team:
Marcell Jansen (dafuq?) who used to be a pretty decent wing back, and winger, but hasn't been in form due to the magnificent shittyness of the HSV for two years...
...Aaaand Patrick Hermann, which is actually a good idea. He's a good forward (prefers the right wing as an inside forward, though he played at the center and on the left, I actually remember him impressing me while at LF/LM) who had a good partnership with Reus at BMG last season.

Fun fact: Herrmann will play against Israel with the U21 on monday, and then hurry the f*ck back to Nuremberg to sit on the bench on bloody tuesday for the senior national team.
He is one of the more obvious backups for Podolski/Reus with Draxler out, though. Then again, who cares, Reus will start at LM, Müller at RM.

[rwo power]

I really wish someone would tell our boys that a match lasts 90 minutes and not until they are 4:0 or 3:0 up

[VivaStPauli]

I thought they played well for 80 of those 90 minutes though, I'm a bit mad at the commentators ATM, they acted like this was a huge trainwreck.

We hit aluminum friggin 9 times, on another day that can well be 4 or 5 goals, and we only really hit a slump for the 10 minutes right after we conceded a goal. Then the team bounced right back and f*cking assaulted that goal. The fact that we only got 4 goals was mostly woodwork and bad luck, we played extremely well, besides aiming like 1 inch better, how can you improve that attacking display? We were awesome.

The defense. Meh. No Stubsi, no Hummels, no party. And I really don't see the big issue with Neuer. It was a huge howler, but we all know this isn't happening to him again, ever.

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