The first match of the 2013/14 season – and indeed the first tentative steps on the road to next year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil – would be taken on a dry evening in Kaiserslautern’s Fritz-Walter-Stadion. The opposition: Paraguay, a
Usually the first early season friendly fixture sees a German side packed with youngsters, but for what I think is the first time in his tenure as Nationaltrainer Joachim Löw has named a close to full-strength starting eleven – with
It’s difficult to believe how quickly the last few months have gone – maybe it has been the exceptionally decent weather. When I last looked at the match countdown there would be more than ninety days until Germany’s opening friendly
Five days after returning from the Kazakh capital Astana, Joachim Löw’s side would line up against the same opposition in the more familiar environs of Nürnberg’s Frankenstadion, albeit with the weather being more like Siberia as opposed to Franconia at
There’s no coverage here in the UK once again – ESPN are showing Scotland against Serbia – so it’s find the stream time again. I manage to find a pretty stable one from Al Jazeera, with commentary in English. Bonus.
Fritz Walter. Uwe Seeler. Gerd Müller. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Rudi Völler. Jürgen Klinsmann. Oliver Bierhoff. Miroslav Klose: over the years, Germany has always been blessed with a centre-forward that anyone can call world class. For as long as we all can
As had been the case in 2012, Germany would kick off their footballing year against France – the second in two pre-arranged friendly encounters between the two sides. In Bremen the French had gone away with a 2-1 win against
After a winter hiatus lasting the best part of three months, the Nationalmannschaft’s schedule for 2013 would finally get underway in Paris against France, an opponent against which a victory was long overdue. The French had spoiled Germany’s party in
I sometimes wonder why we still bother with these friendly matches. Unless they serve some sort of purpose – the hastily-arranged fixtures packed in before every major tournament springs to mind – there is just no real point. Fans pay
This was billed as a prestige friendly to end the calendar year, and seen by some as the third chapter in a three-part series that had started with the Mannschaft’s 3-0 win in Hamburg a year previously. Given the almost
It’s not often that I shoehorn in another squad news update in between the posting the initial squad selection and the pre-match preview, but following this weekend’s league fixtures and what can only be described as a glut of injuries
Having handed out six of the best to the Republic of Ireland four days earlier, confidence in the German camp would be high ahead of a return home to Berlin and the game against Sweden.