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Germany defense has to be reshuffled for injuries
The Associated Press Jun 13 2014, 01:44PM
PORTO SEGURO, Brazil (AP) Injuries have depleted Germany's defense in such a way that its opening match against Portugal may see four central defenders in the starting line-up, with two of them out of position and two who have rarely played together.
Coach Joachim Loew didn't seem unduly worried on Friday about the prospect, confirming that his back four may feature four central defenders.
Captain and right back Philipp Lahm could move into the midfield, with Jerome Boateng taking his place in Monday's Group G match. The left back position could go to Benedikt Hoewedes, while Mats Hummels and Per Mertesacker would be the central defenders.
Loew explained that fullbacks would not play as big a role at the World Cup as in qualifying, when teams usually play very defensively against Germany. Runs on the flanks are a good way to break down defenses.
Lahm often played as a defensive midfielder for Bayern Munich last season and Loew indicated that it would happen again on Monday.
''He played in the midfield in the last warm-up match (a 6-1 victory over Armenia) and I am pretty sure he will do the same on Monday as well,'' Loew said this week.
But Loew could be hiding his cards. With Lahm as right back, his two central defenders could be Mertesacker and Boateng, who have played together more often than Mertesacker and Hummels. The latter two have looked uncomfortable on occasions.
''We do have a little problem there,'' Loew acknowledged.
Boateng sees himself as a central defender and feels more comfortable in that position than on the flank.
Hoewedes is not a natural left back either. That position has been a source of worry for Loew for a long time. Marcel Schmelzer was ruled out of the World Cup with a knee injury and his place went to Borussia Dortmund teammate Erik Durm. But Durm is a newcomer, who started out as a forward and was retrained as a defender by Dortmund's coach Juergen Klopp to replace the injured Schmelzer.
Durm came up against Portugal's star striker Cristiano Ronaldo when Real Madrid eliminated Dortmund in the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season.
Lahm could be needed in a defensive midfield position as there are doubts about Bastian Schweinsteiger's fitness following a knee injury, while Sami Khedira also sat out six months with a knee injury.
Mertesacker spent the 2012 European Championship on the bench after returning from injury. Hummels and Holger Badstuber were Germany's central defenders then, but Badstuber has been out for months with a knee injury and Mertesacker is healthy again.
''This has been my best season since I joined Arsenal,'' said Mertesacker, who helped his side lift the FA Cup last month at Wembley Stadium.
Feature photo courtesy of Reuters
rfari wrote:Gotze!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man. WO cyar done
OffshoreMarketing wrote:Italy my side but ever since 2006 semi final i say Germany deserve one congrats to them,
messi and co had their chances but i feel it would have been more cruel for Germany to lose again
World Cup 2014: Germany's purpose-built training camp has given them extra edge
Coach Joachim Low and general manager Oliver Bierhoff are full of praise for the Campo Bahia resort, where Germany have built team spirit for the World Cup final
Dream resort: Camp Bahia, where Germany have been based for the World Cup
It can be safely assumed that the 900 residents of the remote Brazilian fishing village of Santo Andre will never forget this World Cup. The nearest venue might be 386 miles up the coast in Salvador and they are fully 682 miles from Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium but, for the past five weeks, they have felt a greater stake in this tournament than just about any other community in Brazil.
Why? Because while teams such as England simply checked themselves into a hotel in Rio – and then faced a daily battle through traffic for training – Santo Andre was hand-picked by the German Football Federation (DFB) for what is a unique team base.
Indeed, with its picturesque beach and nature reserve, Santo Andre was hand-picked for the construction of an entire holiday resort. It was largely the brainchild of Christian Hirmer, a businessman who works in the Munich fashion industry, and is also a friend of Germany’s general manager, Oliver Bierhoff. Hirmer conceived a project that would combine building a sporting environment to maximise every conceivable ‘marginal gain’ with a facility that will flourish long after the World Cup is a costly memory.
With the final looming, it is hard to argue against either element of Hirmer’s bold pre-tournament claim that “the top team will have the best training camp”. The German players have also been echoing that sentiment almost daily as they have gathered momentum through the competition.
“This village has been a major factor in building up the special team spirit in the group today,” said left-back Benedikt Höwedes. Joachim Löw, who has coached Germany to the semi-finals or better in five straight tournaments, agrees. “It’s a brilliant concept – it has been a very good idea to base ourselves in a resort rather than a hotel,” he said.
What is now called Campo Bahia had never been inhabited before the German team arrived in Brazil, and the future plan is for it to open to the public as a luxury holiday village. The construction cost has been met by private investors rather than the DFB, although Bierhoff is understood to have had input into aspects of the design.
The beachside grounds span 15,000 square metres and, within that area, there are 14 two-storey villas comprising 64 residential units. Each villa is housing up to six players of the 23-man squad as well as members of a 39-strong backroom staff. Within Campo Bahia, there is also an outdoor swimming pool, a spa, a lounge and dining area, a fitness centre, communal lounges and an auditorium for team meetings. Carefully selected German-Brazilian art hangs from the walls.
The DFB also shipped 23 tons of luggage and equipment for Germany’s stay in Brazil, including mountain bikes, billiards and table-tennis tables and even dartboards. A media centre and a floodlit Fifa-regulation football pitch, complete with an accompanying facility for goalkeeper training, were also constructed within walking distance.
“The base was a very important point in the planning of the tournament for Germany,” says Lars Wallrodt, chief football writer of Die Welt. “All the players have been talking about it. The idea of living together in this way has been very good for team spirit. You have your own space but the players are always bumping into each around the resort. It’s different to a hotel where you just have a room. They all say it has been the perfect place to rest and calm down. Getting the right base was always a huge thing for Oliver Bierhoff.”
Campo Bahia might be just a few miles from where Portuguese seafarer Pedro Alvares Cabral landed when he discovered Brazil in 1500 but, after visiting 25 hotels across the country, Germany had other rather more pragmatic reasons for eventually settling on this location. With their group games in the hotter northern cities of Salvador, Fortaleza and Recife, the two priorities were a warm climate and manageable travelling distances. For the latter stages, when Germany have played in the cooler conditions of Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, the theory was that it would always be preferable to move from a warmer base to colder conditions rather than vice versa.
“Given the size of the country and the sometimes very large distances between individual venues, it was important to us to minimise travel stress as much as possible,” Bierhoff explained.
“Acclimatisation and recovery will play a major role at the World Cup and the resort offers ideal conditions to prepare for the early kick-off times and the expected heat and high humidity. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa showed that having short distances between the team headquarters, training area and media centre are very important.
“The squad can have their own space but at the same time it is all in a relatively small space and there is a central complex which will help promote team spirit.”
One issue, however, has been the level of security. Germany had hoped that their players would be able to cycle to training but were instead advised to travel in small buses. The perimeter of the training camp is surrounded by armed police although the players, as well as Löw, have been seen going for runs or strolls on the public beach. Whenever the team depart or return from a game via the nearby Porto Seguro airport, there is the extraordinary sight of armed security riding next to their boats on aqua scooters.
Early in the tournament, there was friction with the local community over the sheer scale of the security option and the knock-on logistical impact. Santo Andre, after all, had been used to having just one policeman for the entire village and surrounding area. It prompted residents to hold a public meeting in a bar, with Bierhoff attending and Germany’s head of security tasked with allaying their concerns.
As a gesture of goodwill, the DFB is paying to renovate local football facilities, with work going on during this tournament on a new pitch for the people of Santo Andre. One potential plan for the training complex is to use it as part of a golf course.
There has also been talk of a football youth academy and extending the local Ampare orphanage.
The website of Campo Bahia says that it will create skilled local jobs and insists that the project has been built on the principles of “responsible tourism, eco-friendliness and sustainability”.
There is certainly now a tangible pride within Santo Andre at Germany’s achievements, even allowing for their semi-final drubbing of Brazil. The players said their final farewells to the local staff and residents on Friday night before making one final boat trip from what has been called their “castle” base. Four years of meticulous planning and preparation are nearly over. All roads lead to the Maracana, where a shot at greatness beckons.
The StraighTENr wrote:There dont seem to be many Germ fans in Trinidad. The criteria seems to be:
1. Strong white man
Or
2. Weakheart black man
rfari wrote:The StraighTENr wrote:There dont seem to be many Germ fans in Trinidad. The criteria seems to be:
1. Strong white man
Or
2. Weakheart black man
Correct
#fourstars
Germany World Cup Victory Parade 2014: Latest Buzz Surrounding Celebration
Germany's heroes returned to Berlin on Tuesday, greeted by an audience in the tens of thousands following their 1-0 triumph over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final.
Since winning a fourth World Cup—their first since becoming a unified nation—the partying isn't likely to have halted for Die Mannschaft, but the best is yet to come.
Goal.com reports that a crowd of up to 500,000 is expected to celebrate in the nation's capital with their proud representatives, where Joachim Low's side will tour the Berlin Mile.
And what better opportunity to show the Germans dominance in engineering, as well as football? Bleacher Report UK shows the imposing monolith that Germany will board before taking to "Fan Mile":
Why party on a bus, when you could use a massive all-black truck? #GER celebrating in style: http://bit.ly/W6c1X4
After a slight delay in Rio de Janeiro, the German team touched ground at Tegel Airport, fans already lining up in front of the Brandenburg Gate in their throngs.
The Guardian depicts captain Philipp Lahm emerging with the trophy in tow, his leadership in particular being a decisive factor in the team's victory:
Speaking to German television station ARD (h/t Daily Mail's James Rush), midfield stalwart Bastian Schweinsteiger said:
"We're all excited to see what it will be like. This time, thank God, we have the cup with us. It will only sink in for us in the next few days."
BBC Sport illustrates the hysteria that has hit Berlin on Tuesday morning:
The entertainment didn't escape Germany's players, either, with Mesut Ozil still fresh enough from his South American flight to take a selfie upon touchdown, per Eurosport:
It was far from an easy test of their global credentials, but ultimately, Die Mannschaft were undoubtedly the most deserving recipients of this year's World Cup, playing attractive and deadly football throughout.
The Germans know how to party, too, and as Paddy Power hints, the national team will now seek to best those celebrations seen by Bayern Munich earlier in the year with more all-encompassing festivities:
Berlin is happy to play host to such a prestigious and rare event once again, with the drama coming to a head at the Brandenburg Gate, one encapsulating moment of jubilation before players once again depart for their clubs' pres-season campaigns.
For now, though, it's about all matters patriotic, and Germany will rejoice as one following on from very arguably the proudest moment in their football history.
The StraighTENr wrote:82 million Germans but we get the posers and 3 month no interest customers.
The StraighTENr wrote:Wah you quoting ppl that not interested in purchasing from a street peddler for?
You like a pack of infected devon biscuits who cud only afford to down pay on Cadburys.
mero wrote:A next Rooki3 fal account?
Philipp Lahm Announces Retirement from International Football
Lahm confirmed the decision to Bild, saying, "I told Jogi Low on Monday already that I am retiring from international football. The decision developed during last season," via the Guardian.
The versatile Bayern Munich star bows out in the most spectacular way possible and goes down in history as the first German captain to capture the trophy since the nation's reunification in 1990.
Although many are sure to believe 30 is a little too young for Lahm to hang up his international boots, the decision is understandable now that he has achieved the ultimate goal.
Instead of undertaking a packed schedule of Euro 2016 qualifiers and World Cup defence in Russia 2018, Lahm can now focus on maintaining his form at club level. The right-back, who is often deployed in central midfield by Pep Guardiola at the Allianz Arena, retires one day after Germany were confirmed to be atop FIFA's World Rankings, reported on the governing body's website.
He ends an international career that saw him rack up 113 caps, 37 short of Lothar Mattaus' record of 150, per ITV. Former German international Dietmar Hamman sums up the feeling of many when assessing the incredible player's service:
Philip Lahm retires from international football. Great servant for the national team and a well deserved World Cup winning captain.
Lahm made his international debut on Feb. 18, 2004, during a 2-1 win over Croatia. He went on to play in all three of Germany's group games at Euro 2004, before missing many of the 2005-06 matches through injury. Upon his return, Lahm scored a stunning opener during the 2006 World Cup, hosted in his home nation.
He once again appeared in every match during Euro 2008, before scoring against Turkey in the semi-final. Germany would go on to lose the final against Spain, who signalled the onset of their era of dominance through Fernando Torres' goal.
Two years later, Lahm became the youngest ever World Cup captain, per the Bundesliga. He remained influential throughout the South African tournament and in Euro 2012, where he scored a quarter-final strike against Greece.
His brilliance came to a head at this year's World Cup, where he posted top quality displays during the 7-1 semi-final win over Brazil and final triumph against Argentina.
WhoScored.com indicated Lahm's output was influential across the entire pitch at the most recent tournament, while Paddy Power underlined his career-wide individual success:
Philipp Lahm: Only Toni Kroos (373) completed more passes in the attacking half of the pitch at the 2014 World Cup than Lahm (286)
Lahm has made the All-Star team of each World Cup he's played in & if these reports are true, lifted trophy in last game for Germany. Nice.
It will be interesting to see if any other squad members follow Lahm's decision to retire. Miroslav Klose and Roman Weidenfeller are 36 and 33 respectively, meaning further announcements wouldn't come as a surprise. Bastian Schweinsteiger turns 30 in August, but should be considered a leading candidate for the armband.
Lahm retires from international football in a manner all professionals should dream of; at the top of his game, with the World Cup under his arm, and before anyone can say he's no longer good enough to play for Germany.
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