World Cup 2010 News: Germany

Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Sunday, 30 May 2010

Ghana announce 23-man squad

Bernard Kumordzie, goalkeeper Stephen Adams and midfielder Agyemang Badu were the other casualties from the 29-man squad released by the Serbian late on Saturday as the team prepared to hit Rotterdam for an international friendly against Holland on Tuesday.

Ghana’s Serbian coach settled on his final squad after five days of training in Paris and decided some of his big names were past it ahead for the campaign in South Africa.

The official squad made nonsense of the many rumoured lists that made the rounds in the media in the past weeks and is bound to shock many in the Ghana game too.

Laryea Kingston missed the 2006 World Cup through suspension and was desperate to put in a show in South Africa so much so that he run into trouble into his club side Hearts over his national team commitments.

Hamini Dramani and Eric Addo who both played in Ghana’s first World Cup seemed to have fallen on their poor showing for Ghana at the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola while Emmanuel Agyemang Badu lost out because of an injury he picked up towards the end of the Serie A season.

Rajevac kept faith with John Mensah despite the fact that he had done very little contact training with the squad all week after a season at Sunderland which was blighted by one injury after another. Also in is Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who last played for the Black Stars in Rajevac’s first game in charge back in September 2008.

The squad are now due to arrive in Rotterdam on Sunday ahead of their friendly meeting against Holland on Tuesday before travelling to England to play Latvia in Milton Keynes next Saturday.

Ghana kick off their World Cup campaign against Serbia in Pretoria on June 13 in Group D which also includes Germany and Australia.

Ghana Squad:

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson, Daniel Agyei, Stephen Aholu

Defenders: John Paintsil, John Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Hans Adu Sarpei, Rahim Ayew, Lee Addy, Isaac Vorsah, Jonathan Mensah

Midfielders: Kwadwo Asamoah, Anthony Annan, Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Stephen Appiah, Andre Ayew, Derek Boateng

Attackers: Asamoah Gyan, Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah, Mathew Amoah

Germany beat Hungary 3-0 in impressive win

The German steam roller presses on as they notch up another comprehensive win, this time against Hungary.

Despite resting the four players that started Bayern Munich's UEFA Champions League defeat to Inter Milan, Germany dominated throughout in Budapest.

Lukas Podolski opened the scoring from the penalty spot after just four minutes and only a string of saves from Gabor Kiraly prevented Germany from leading by a greater margin at the break.

Mario Gomez and Cacau then struck in the second half to seal a comfortable victory for Joachim Low's side.

Podolski, who scored just twice for Cologne in the Bundesliga this season, showed how he transforms when he pulls on a Germany shirt as he tested Kiraly with a powerful drive in the third minute.

The Hungary goalkeeper was in for a busy night and he passed his first test by tipping the ball over, but he was let down by his team-mates from the resultant corner when Sandor Torghelle pulled down Per Mertesacker inside the penalty area.

Podolski stepped up to place his penalty into the top corner to give Low's side the lead.

A good combination between Mesut Ozil and Piotr Trochowski led to a shot from the former being saved by Kiraly, who denied the Werder Bremen winger again moments later.

Kiraly made further saves to thwart Miroslav Klose and Ozil again as Hungary held on desperately until half-time.

Low made several changes to his side at the break and one of his substitutes

Gomez scored with practically his first touch of the match.

He was sent through by another substitute, Marko Marin, and managed to just poke the ball into the bottom corner as Kiraly raced from his line in the 69th minute.

Gomez was on target five times in a midweek 24-0 victory over a local amateur team in Germany's training camp in Sudtirol and showed he is desperate not to be one of the two names dropped by Low to form his final 23-man squad next Tuesday as he set up the third.

His pass sent Cacau through and the Stuttgart striker rounded Kiraly before placing the ball into the empty net to boost his chances of boarding the flight to South Africa.

And Low's task in trimming his squad will be made all the harder after Marcell Jansen, Marin, Trochowski and debutant Holger Badstuber all made good impressions.

Thursday, 27 May 2010

Germany beat local side by a whopping 24-0

Say what you like about the Germans but one think you can't say is that they are not ruthlessly efficient as a young Italian side found out.

Germany smashed a whopping 24 goals without reply against amateur side Eppan at their pre-World Cup training camp in Sudtirol, Northern Italy.

Bayern Munich strikers Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez scored five goals each on their playing return from Champions League final duty, while fellow forwards Cacau and Stefan Kiessling scored two apiece and Cologne’s Lukas Podolski was also on target.

In midfield, Hamburg’s Piotr Trochowski grabbed a hat-trick, Andreas Beck and Toni Kroos each hit a brace, while Arne Friedrich and Sami Khedira also scored.

Australia's Socceroos are the first team to land in South Africa

Australia national team the Socceroos are the first of the World Cup teams to arrive in South Africa. the 30 man squad touched down on Wednesday at Johannesburg's international airport.

The 'Socceroos', in Group D with Germany, Ghana and Serbia, boarded a luxury coach for the trip to a hotel in the elite northern Sandton suburb and will start training Thursday at a college in another upmarket area of the South African economic capital.

Australia have lined up friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and the United States on June 5 in Roodepoort on the western outskirts of Johannesburg.

Thursday, 6 May 2010

Joachim surprises with call ups for Aogo and Badstubber

Dennis Aogo and Holger Badstuber were surprise call ups as Joachim Low announced his 27 man provisional squad for the World Cup in June.

Löw also named Bayern Munich veteran Hans-Jorg Butt among the three goalkeepers who are all vying to become the new number one after Rene Adler had to pull out due to injury.

Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, who have both had difficult seasons for their clubs, have also been included, but there was no place for Lazio midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who was a key member of the squad which earned qualification for World Cup 2010 over the last two years.

Aogo, 23, makes the step-up from the Germany Under-21 squad and will rival his Hamburg team-mate Marcell Jansen for a place in Löw's final 23-man selection.

"Aogo has played for our Under -21s and has been playing with Hamburg in Europe," explained Löw.

"For us, the criteria are not that players have played lots of games for us, but that they have the potential and we could see his technical ability and that was the reason why we have decided to take him along with the 27 players."

Badstuber also earns his first international call only nine months after making the first of eight appearances for the Under-21s, and his debut in the Bayern first team.

Löw will have to disappoint four players before he hands his final list of 23 players to Fifa early next month, but before that, he will get the chance to consider all of his options in the next few weeks, with friendly matches against Malta, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the schedule.

Provisional Germany squad for World Cup:

Goalkeepers: Hans-Jorg Butt, Manuel Neuer, Tim Wiese

Defenders: Per Mertesacker, Heiko Westermann, Philipp Lahm, Jerome Boateng, Andrea Beck, Arne Friedrich, Serdar Tasci, Marcell Jansen, Holger Badstuber, Dennis Aogo.

Midfielders: Michael Ballack, Sami Khedira, Piotr Trochowski, Marko Marin, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Christian Trasch, Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos.

Forwards: Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Stefan Kiessling, Cacau, Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez.

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Fabio Cannavaro to quit International football after World Cup.

Fabio Cannavaro captain of the Italian side is hoping for a glorious end to his international career at the World Cup in June.

Cannavaro has announced he will retire from international football after captaining Italy at the World Cup. The 36-year-old, who lifted the trophy in 2006, has been capped a record 132 times for Italy.

"They already say I'm too old, so I can only imagine what they would say in August," Cannavaro said.

The Juventus veteran defender took over the captaincy after Paolo Maldini left the national team in 2002. Cannavaro missed Euro 2008 because of injury but is returning to the side for this summer's tournament in South Africa. He has played for the national team for 13 years, with his greatest moment coming four years ago in Germany when leading Italy to the title.

Even better for Cannavaro was that he was voted the Fifa World Player of the Year.

"We're hoping to bring home the cup again, this time to keep it," said Cannavaro, who has been involved alongside 28 Serie A players in a three-day training camp held by the Italy coach, Marcello Lippi, in Rome.

Italy will face Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia in Group F in South Africa this summer.

Monday, 22 March 2010

Lukas Podolski believes Germany can go all the way.

Cologne (Köln) striker Lucasl Podolski talks to FIFA.COM about his return to the club he's always loved and Germany's chances at the 2010 World Cup.

Any player whose presence at the first training session of a new season prompts a turn-out in excess of 20,000 fans is obviously a bit special. On 25 June 2009, Lukas Podolski ended a three-year absence from the RheinEnergie Stadium and reappeared in the colours of his beloved Cologne. An extraordinary wave of euphoria gripped the city: 'Prince Poldi' was back in his palace after a luckless three-year exile in Munich.

The left-footed forward could have had his pick of big-name clubs in Germany and elsewhere, but the call of home was the strongest of the lot. Podolski followed the call of his heart and returned to his footballing roots. He simply wanted to go home and open a new chapter in his life with partner Monika and their son Louis.

It has not been an easy transition for the man capped 70 times by Germany, but one thing is clear: the roguish grin is back on the player’s face, and there is a lightness and ease to his performances which was often lacking in Bayern colours. FIFA.com caught up with the 24-year-old to discuss the Bundesliga, Joachim Low and his country’s chances at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Three months to go and Ghana vs Germany sold out.

It looks like World Cup fever has hit the good people of Ghana and Germany hard as tickets for their World Cup match in June are already sold out.

Tickets for Ghana's final group D match against Germany at the 2010 FIFA World Cup have sold out.

An advice from FIFA to the Ghana Football Association says there were no more tickets for the Black Stars' match on June 23 in Johannesburg's Soccer City.

The Soccer City has a capacity of 88,460 and will host the opening game between hosts, South Africa and Mexico on June 11 and the final match.

With key matches sold out, Ghana is now left with a limited number of tickets for the other two games between Serbia and Australia.

Only category one tickets are available for the Black Stars' first two games - against Serbia and Australia.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Football Association has set a deadline, Friday, 19th March, 2010 for payment by all ticket applicants who were successful during the first phase of the 2010 World Cup Tickets sales.

According to the FA, failure to pay within the deadline would result in the applicant’s allocation expunged from the records.

Fans have until April 7 to bid for the second sales phase for tickets at the tournament, which runs from June 11-July 11.

World Cup 2010 News