By Eike Zwicker:
The German selection suffers under a huge injury disaster including now five players.
After the previous injuries of Rene Adler and Simon Rolfes, the German Defender Heiko Westermann is the latest victim for the former World Cup winner. He was injured in stoppage time during the last game against the Hungarian selection. Christian Traesch was also injured one week ago during a match against a minor Austrian soccer club.
But all in all the loss of the captain Michael Ballack who suffer under an ankle injury is the major problem concerning their aim of reaching the semi-finals. Sami Khedira could be the player who takes Ballacks position and he showed good attempts against Hungary that he is not overtaxed with his new situation. The other part is Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has to fill the gap of the Chelsea player. Schweinsteiger played one of his best seasons in his career on his new position as a defensive midfielder. Especially Louis van Gaal was responsible for the rise in performance of the Bayern Munich player, who trusts him to be the perfect player beside Mark van Bommel, with the outcome that the Ukrainian player Anatoliy Tymoshchuk was most of the season on the bench.
Germany play their last friendly against Bosnia in Frankfurt on June 3 and then with the expected line-up as against Australia including the Munich starters Müller, Schweinsteiger and Lahm. The assumption is that eight players are set in the formation of Germany. Löw announced recently that Manuel Neuer is his Goalkeeper number one and Mertesacker and Friedrich as central defenders. The new captain Philipp Lahm is the wing back, but on which side is at present not decided. If Lahm plays on the left side could Jerome Boateng takes the right defensive wing. As mentioned in the beginning of this article are Khedira and Schweinsteiger set as central midfielder. Podolskis performances as left midfielder for the German squad are convincing that he plays an important role for Löws team. Mesut Özil could be the key player as the central offensive midfielder during the tournament for the three-time World Cup winner. Löws consideration concerning the right midfielder are at present not finished. Possibel candidates are Kroos, Müller, Marin or Trochowski. In connection with the strikers plays Klose still a serious role in the plannings of the German coach. The best chances to be in the starting line-up has Cacau after his goal against Hungary.
Expected line-up against Bosnia:
Neuer – Lahm, Mertesacker, A. Friedrich, Aogo – Khedira, Schweinsteiger – T. Müller, Özil, Podolski – Klose
Coach: Löw
Bench:
Butt (goalkeeper), Wiese (goalkeeper), Badstuber, Beck, Boateng, Jansen, Tasci, Kroos, Marin, Trochowski, Cacau, Gomez, Kießling
