World Cup 2010: A preview on the German side of the story for the World Cup
The German fans are still outraged by the tackle of Kevin Prince Boateng and the situation has gone so far that the fans have started to send threats to the player’s family.
The appointment of new captain Bayern Munich’s defender Philipp Lahm by Coach Joachim might give them some relief. But there is better news as Manuel Neuer has been chosen to start as the German goalkeeper.
Lahm happens to be one of the most experienced and talented person in the squad. The 26-year-old right back participated in the FIFA World Cup 2006 and has got 64 international caps while tallying up three goals. He is a fine choice and now it will be up to him to make his trustees proud.
Loew is quite confident about his decision and in a media session at the training camp he is running in Italy he told, “Lahm has played in his position with great class and will take over the role of captain”.
The other new Loew’s appointment is the 24 year old Neuer who will run in the starting line-up. The line up then goes as Werder Bremen’s Tim Wiese coming at number two and Hans-Joerg Butt of Bayern Munich at number three. Neuer is taking place of Rene Adler who had to pull out of the Cup due to fractured ribs.
Loew knows that this time the German squad compromises of a lot of younger people and considering the fact understands that there has to be solid understanding to develop the chemistry they always put on the field. He said, “With our young team we want to have the responsibilities shared by several players”.
He told that he had a strategy in place to overcome the gaps by the unfortunate mishaps they were facing this Cup. He explained, “Bastian Schweinsteiger, on the pitch, will play the role of Ballack and interpret it in his way while Philipp Lahm will become captain. Schweinsteiger will be the vice captain”.
At the end the goal keeping issue will prove the turns of events for Germany, after all with a legend like Oliver Kahn passing on there is great expected from the new successor. The goal keeping Coach Andreas Koepke told that it was one of his toughest decisions in life to choose who gets to ride in the front seat from the three. In the end he mentioned that he followed his guts and chose the 1.90m-tall Neuer. This will be a great test for Neuer too; not having much experience at international level before, playing just three matches he will definitely think if his competitors were good enough.
Koepke told, “We had to act after Alder’s injury. We decided to go with Neuer into this World Cup and he will be in goal”.
He told that the overall quality of the squad this year was pretty good and everybody back home is expecting great from the youngsters. In reference to his decision he said, “It was a tough decision. Wiese had a very good season and Butt played in the Champions League final. Now it is important to help them put away their frustration”.
The 27 man squad of the German team has now been reduced to 25 due to the setbacks by midfielders Ballack and Christian Traesch. Loew said that he was in no hurry to give the finishing touch to his squad and will release the final 23 just before the deadline of 1st June.
He explained his reasons saying, “I will take that decision only when I really have to because I want to keep my options open and have seen that players can always get injured”. Indeed a man in his position will definitely do that. In the mean time he is at advantage while he trains and observes all of them.
Germany will face Bosnia in their final friendly on the 3rd of June. They have been drawn in Group D along with Australia, Ghana and Serbia while their first match takes place with Australia on 13th June in the FIFA World Cup 2010.
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