So there is a god :)


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Germany Lose A Fifth Player?
GERMANY have been hit with another injury blow with defender Heiko Westermann becoming the fifth player to be ruled out from one of Australia’s World Cup group opponents.

Have your say.

These are all players that the Germans are perfectly capable of replacing (Ballack included). They have great depth and will be strong contenders in South Africa.

Edited by big dukes: 31.5.2010 09:44:07

Ha! Perfectly able to replace? Perhaps Traesch and maybe Rolfes. Even Rolfes is stretching it, any of those guys would walk into the Aussie team

Germany have the whole 1.Bundesliga fillied with good players, no one is irriplaceable. However these injuries my unsettle the team enought for them not to gel by the Australia match.

Losing you Captain especially can change the whole teams overall play.

We might just have a chance of causing an upset, its a long way and we need Kewell to get fit.

The English league is considered superior to the German league, yet a team full of English Premier League players struggled to beat a team full of J-League players.

Two points Socceroossupporter - firstly the EPL is by and large only considered superior to the Bundesliga if you base your comparison on media coverage and the earning potential of players. The Champions League has demonstrated that there is very little difference between the quality of the top teams across Europe(the finalists of the Champions League over the past 4-5 seasons have come from the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A, thereby suggesting that it really comes down to the team that took the field that day). If you compare the Bundeliga to the EPL based on goals scored, number of different champions over the last 10 years or crowd numbers the Bundesliga actually wins. Secondly, your avatar is beyond annoying and is starting to give me epilepsy!!! Please change it hehe.

Aside from Ballack and Adler, the other losses Germany have suffered have been periferal players. Rolfes would have been a definitely player in SA, but I dont think they will miss Traesch. Westermann is certainly not a regular for the national team, but has had a very good season for Shalke and would probably have made the 23. Whether Lowe would have called on him in SA however, would probably have depended on suspensions/injuries suffered during the tournament.

There a few outcomes from Westermann's departure: Lowe's decision on who to cut became easier, and his reputation won't be impacted as severely if Germany underperform. Secondly, the remaining team member are likely to feel a stronger bond, with the entire team committing to "winning it for those who couldnt make it"

Tomorrows headline.

GERMANY PULL OUT OF WORLD CUP DUE TO PLAYERS PULLING OUT THANKS TO INTIMIDATING AUSSIES - GRELLA AND HOLMAN PRIME SUSPECTS

To me Germany is a strange team like England. All their players play at home but the home league is considered to be one of the best. But their players aren't good enough that foreign coaches want to import them. To me that makes them beatable unlike a really star team like Brazil or Argentina where most of the first 11 play anywhere they damn well like.
We are almost unique in that all our players play overseas and most are also unknown and underrated. But I wouldn't swap Schwarzer, Cahill, Kewell, Emerton, Wilkshire for any 2 german players. And the rest of the squad are pretty damn good in my books too. Remember those Carney and Bresciano wonder strikes? Bring em on, I don't care how deep their squad is.

five down, six to go

if we get pummeled by them we will be a laughing stock. i will be expecting at worst a 1-0 loss.

hopefully the socceroos won't suffer any late withdrawals through injuries when playing the danes and the USA.

It's always good to hear about the socceroos playing group nearing full fitness and recovering well from injuries. Im sure the news of piling injuries is sending some uncertainty to Germanys camp and supporters. i'm sure they are thinking that this gives the opposition some chance - so they should be, we're thinking it :P

Edited by Bryan: 1/6/2010 02:30:08 AM

For anyone interested in seeing how Germany are coping, their warm-up game against Bosnia-Herzegovina is being shown live on ESPN at 4.30 am this Friday (4 June) with a replay at 4.30 that afternoon.

This is Germany's final warm-up match before they play us in the opening round.

Don't read too much into this - Ballack & Adler aside, the rest are fringe or squad players who are injured. They still have PLENTY of firepower.

They could really use Frings right now in the middle with Ballack and Rolfes (plus Westermann at cb) gone. I guess Low could bring him in but it would be tough to save face on that one, given he's been frozen out for a year or so now.
Khedira in front of Mertersacker? Some softness there imo...



Edited by blacka: 1/6/2010 01:18:43 PM