Re: Ze German Thread

[rwo power]

Well, the whole team needs some time and games to gel. One can't expect a bunch of youngsters who only had three days (!) to learn to play together to be world beaters right away.

But the loss of practically the whole defense (Lahm retired, Hummels and Boateng injured, Höwedes moved around again) and Midfield is of course not easy to cope with. I hope this will suffice against Scotland anyway.

BTW, Jogi Löw called up Schalke's Sidney Sam for SCotland.

[VivaStPauli]

I still doubt Sam will start, if Reus, Müller, and Schürrle are fit. No need.

[rwo power]

Germany's U21 just qualified for the Euro 2015 play-offs.

Germany: Horn - Korb, Can, Knoche, C.Günter - Leitner, Geis - Bittencourt, Younes (74. Kachunga), N.Schulz (46. Hofmann) - P.Hofmann (65. Arnold)

Rep.of Ireland: Lawlor - Long, Hoban, Watkins-Clark, Griffin - Byrne (61. Sweeney), Lenihan - Sadlier (65. Garmston), Grealish, Connors - Wilkinson

Goals:
47.) 1:0 - Philipp Hofmann (assist by Amin Younes)
50.) 2:0 - Jonas Hofmann (assist by Julian Korb)

FT - Germany U21 2:0 Rep.of Ireland U21

[rwo power]

Germany vs Scotland

[Hapless_Hans]

since when are Länderspiele broadcast by *bleep* RTL?!

what do I pay GEZ for, it can't be all for Markus Lanz' salary?!

[urbaNRoots]

Good first half lead against Scotland, Müller is the jammiest footballer I've seen in my lifetime and I love it. He's always there when you need him.

Schürrle has been awful on that left side, as usual against a "park the bus" team he struggles again. His role in the NT should be super sub at best. Would like to see Gomez come on for him, Reus left, G*tze AM, Müller right.

[rwo power]

@Hans
IIRC, RTL paid around 100 mio Euros for the rights to the Euro and WC quali matches. ARD/ZDF still have the tournaments proper and test matches / friendlies.

[Jonathan28]

Corrupt ref! Should have sent off two German players for preventing two possibe goalscoring opportunities, gave them dubious free kicks, then sent off our player for kicking the ball, even though he had only just blown his whistle!

But it wasn't just his fault, I have no idea what our defense was doing for Mullers goals, they were easy balls to clear away, but they messed it up. And our chances, dear Lord, so many clear chances. With better strikers we would have won that game.

Kenny Miller come out of retirement you POS.

[halamadrid2]

What's the verdict on Reus' injury?? He looked in a lot of pain

[rwo power]

There has not been any further info on Marco Reus'  injury so far.

[halamadrid2]

Hope he is alright, he has been very unlucky with injuries

[rwo power]

Marco Reus suffered a partial rupture of an outer ligament ("Außenbandteilabriss") in the left ankle and will be out for at least 4 weeks. That's highly unfortunate for him - just back from one ankle injury to suffer to next

[rwo power]

Germany U21 will have to play against Ukraine U21 in the play-offs to qualify for the Euro 2015. The first leg will be on October 8th.

U21 Euro Play-off Pairings:
Slovakia - Italy
France - Sweden
Netherlands - Portugal
Denmark - Iceland
England - Croatia
Serbia - Spain
Ukraine - Germany

[rwo power]

German NT Call-Up for the Euro qualifiers against Poland and Ireland

GKs: Manuel Neuer (Bayern München), Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96)

Defense: Jerome Boateng (Bayern München), Erik Durm (Borussia Dortmund), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Dortmund), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Shkodran Mustafi (FC Valencia), Antonio Rüdiger (VfB Stuttgart), Sebastian Rudy (1899 Hoffenheim)

Midfield: Karim Bellarabi (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (FC Schalke 04), Christoph Kramer (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Thomas Müller (Bayern München), Mesut Özil (FC Arsenal), Lukas Podolski (FC Arsenal), André Schürrle (FC Chelsea)

Strikers: Mario Götze (Bayern München), Max Kruse (Borussia Mönchengladbach)

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/612761/artikel_bellarabi-bei-schneiders-debuet-erstmals-dabei.html

[rwo power]

German U21 NT Call-Up for the Euro play-offs against Ukraine U21

GKs: Timo Horn (1. FC Köln), Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Marc-André ter Stegen (FC Barcelona)

Defense: Danny da Costa (FC Ingolstadt), Christian Günter (SC Freiburg), Dominique Heintz (1. FC Kaiserslautern), Robin Knoche (VfL Wolfsburg), Julian Korb (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Niklas Stark (1. FC Nürnberg)

Midfield: Leonardo Bittencourt (Hannover 96), Johannes Geis (1. FSV Mainz 05), Jonas Hofmann (1. FSV Mainz 05), Joshua Kimmich (RB Leipzig), Moritz Leitner (VfB Stuttgart), Yunus Malli (1. FSV Mainz 05), Max Meyer (FC Schalke 04), Nico Schulz (Hertha BSC), Amin Younes (1. FC Kaiserslautern)

Strikers: Maximilian Arnold (VfL Wolfsburg), Philipp Hofmann (1. FC Kaiserslautern), Elias Kachunga (SC Paderborn 07), Felix Klaus (SC Freiburg), Kevin Volland (1899 Hoffenheim)

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/u21/startseite/612780/artikel_hrubesch-befoerdert-u-19-europameister-kimmich.html

[VivaStPauli]

Very excited about the Bellarabi callup, though the omissions of Lars Bender and Stefan Kießling remain ridiculous as usual, also I think in light of recent injuries, there should be a look had at the likes of Schmelzer, Gonzalo Castro etc.; but whatever. Löw's got his get out of jail free card by winning the World Cup. That tit.

[rwo power]

Well, Max Kruse was pretty useless today against Zürich. Stefan Kießling at least scored. Maybe we really should hope for the U21 strikers for the future.

[VivaStPauli]

Of course Kießling scored, that's what he does, and all the while having a great work rate etc, etc, etc - I want that guy in our team, FFS. Make it happen, Bundesjogi!

[urbaNRoots]

Kießling will never play for the national team as long as Jogi is in charge, he simply doesn't rate him.

It's surprising that Podolski keeps getting called up despite rarely playing in club level. I guess he's there to entertain other players

[rwo power]

Oh, by the way, the first leg of the U21 Euro qualification play-offs is playing right now.

Ukraine U21 vs Germany U21

Ukraine U21: Koval - Nasonov, Ryzhuk, Neplyakh, Pysko (46., Noyok) - Malyshev, Babenko - Karavaev (60., Memeshev), Malinovsky (66., Buyalsky), Kalitvintsev - Kulach
Bench: Shevchenko (GK), Bratkov, Pryndeta, Yusov

Germany U21: ter Stegen - Korb, Knoche, Heintz, C.Günter - Geis, Leitner - Volland, Malli (46., M.Meyer), J.Hofmann (84., Bittencourt) - P.Hofmann (64., Kimmich)  
Bench: Leno (GK), da Costa, Stark, N.Schulz

Goals:
35.) 0:1 - Philipp Hofmann (assist by Jonas Hofmann)
61.) 0:2 - Kevin Volland (assist by Max Meyer)
79.) 0:3 - Jonas Hofmann (assist by Max Meyer)

FT - Ukraine U21 0:3 Germany U21

Both Max Meyer and Joshua Kimmich played they first match for the German U21 today. Funnily, Max Meyer (who only turned 19 on Sep 18)  had his debut with the senior NT already in May 2014.

[VivaStPauli]

I am so incredibly furious, FFS. I mean, sure, everyone is injured. But still. Losing to bloody Poland?
Well okay, I'm also fine with that, mostly.

But Löws statements after? Not seeing any huge problems? Baaah I hate that guy.
Let's get Hitzfeld or Heynckes. Lure 'em in. Name a state after them or something. Bavaria can easily be Juppistan.

[VivaStPauli]

Okay, now that my rage is wearing off, here's the positives:
Bellarabi was pretty great, not counting the fact that he didn't score.
Podolski looked lively off the bench, and almost scored.
Kramer was very good, and I think can be counted on to be a future starter. I still don't like Kroos being forced to play this deep, though, I think he needs at least one more season of improving his tackling and defensive positioning. We need Schweinsteiger or Gündogan back, bad.

Löw is still a clueless tit, but what he does do well, he still does well, the offense timed their runs really well, and if our finishing hadn't been shit we could've won this as a high-scoring match and would only be talking about our team lacking balance right now.

[Hapless_Hans]

Viva, Löw is as insufferable as always, thing is 'he' won the WC so he'll be walking around like the GOAT mastermind for the rest of his live and get the according treatment.

That's not going to change or get better, so we'll have to live with it.
And, well, since we won the WC with him I think I can live with it lol.
Doesn't make him less insufferable though.

Klose retired, Gomez never really rated or backed by Löw even at his peak, Kiessling doesn't exist for some reason, we are in fact a NT without a striker. Let that sink in.
So we can't score a goal in 1000 attempts against Poland.

Kroos is a pedestrian, always has been, always will be

Luckily with this ridiculously expanded Euros the 2nd place team qualifies straight and even the 3rd can play playoffs, so our qualification will never be in doubt. Still think we'll win the group anyway, which is ridiculously easy again tbh.

[VivaStPauli]

I actually prefer Kroos to Özil, just don't think that either are good playing deep, despite some people pretending that Kroos is.
And while I think that playing Müller as the 9 is not a bad idea, I think Schürrle is closer to a conventional 9 because he's a bite more bulky, but whatever, that's details.

The real problem was the woeful finishing, besides that the loss wasn't down to any horrible failures, one kind of flukey goal after a bit of shit defending, and after that we got a late counter when we were opening up spaces we never would unless we were trailing in the latter stages of a match.
If Neuer doesn't fumble, or more importantly, one of the 22 shots goes in, we comfortably win the tie, even with half the first team injured. I'm not terribly disheartened.

I just think Löw is way too gallant about all of it, and the fact that we have very able players to cover for the injuries in Kießling and Lars Bender makes all the shortcomings of the team laughable.
Bender could've played along Kramer as DM, and we would've never had any attacks leak through the middle.
Put Kroos at #10 or on the bench, I don't care, Götze and Özil are great #10s too. Just don't make him play as a #6. #8 maybe, but I really want two midfielders who can tackle. And Kroos can't.

That was, imho, Löws greatest mistake, though he will argue that it was due to injury. But injuries are only half the problem. The other half is Löw refusing to call up great players because of some inexplicable personal grudge.

[Hapless_Hans]

Why Rüdiger? What qualifies him? Now he's not bad or anything, but seriously how did he get in there. At least continue with Mustafi after you've put us through that ordeal at the WC lol.
Or I'd rather see Grosskreutz there, or Jung given a chance.

Can only explain that selection with Löw's annoying Suabian bias. That's also why that Stuttgart youth coach is now our assistant manager.

[rwo power]

Maybe it is Löws longterm plot to make Stuttgart competitive again. That way good player might opt for a transfer to Stuttgart to heighten their chances to get into the NT

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