2012 UEFA European Championship

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Pre-Selection of the German team

Goalkeeper
Manuel Neuer (FC Bayern München), Marc-André ter Stegen (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96)

Defenders
Holger Badstuber (FC Bayern München), Jerome Boateng (FC Bayern München), Benedikt Höwedes (FC Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal FC), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund)

Midfielders
Lars Bender (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Draxler (FC Schalke 04), Mario Götze (Borussia Dortmund), Ilkay Gündeogan (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid CF), Toni Kroos (FC Bayern München), Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München), Mesut Özil (Real Madrid CF), Lukas Podolski (1.FC Köln), Marco Reus (Borussia Mönchengladbach), André Schürrle (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (FC Bayern München)

Attackers
Claudemir Jeronimo Barreto "Cacau" (VfB Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (FC Bayern München), Miroslav Klose (SS Lazio Rom)

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Only three strikers?

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

currently hard to tell who is striker who is a true midfielder. Maybe the confusion caused by 4-2-3-1. Podolski, Müller, Göze, Reus or Khedira can all play as attackers but are listed as midfielders for the last couple of years.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

For me Germany is the team to beat during the upcoming championship. No 1 favorites before Spain I think.

Super strong midfield, very decent defense and good old Klose always scores at such championships. Only weak point seems to be the goalkeepers as i am not really impressed by the selection of players.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

I'm English, so I don't really care.
Get to watch 3 group games and then get on with my summer

 

[Georg Peklo]

Only weak point seems to be the goalkeepers as i am not really impressed by the selection of players.

WHAT?!
No way, that´s probably the best about german football, always world class gk..

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

The midfield is ueberwordclass but certainly not Manuel Neuer in his cage On the other hand, I didn't rank Ollie Kahn world class either

 

[Sebastian Tasak]

Welcome to Poland

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Less than a month to go

 

[Ryan Sylvester]

Just seen the England team, I didn't think we'd get out of the group.. now il be happy if we don't finish bottom of the group!!!

England squad for Euro 2012:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Man City), Rob Green (West Ham), John Ruddy (Norwich)
Defenders: Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Man United), John Terry (Chelsea), Joleon Lescott (Man City), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Leighton Baines (Everton)
Midfielders: Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Stewart Downing (Liverpool), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Man City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Scott Parker (Tottenham), Ashley Young (Man United), James Milner (Man City)
Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Man United), Danny Welbeck (Man United), Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham)
Standby players: Jack Butland (Birmingham City), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Johnson (Manchester City), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea).

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

A must like for Dutch fans! https://www.facebook.com/FansVanOranje

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

WHAT?!
No way, that´s probably the best about german football, always world class gk..

Well Neuer is pretty inconsistent. That's the problem. He has his good days like with Schalke back then against Man United. But every now and then he does something stupid like in the video. That's also pretty much how his season went. ter Stegen and Zieler are two great goal keepers but have very limited International experience.

With Lehmann and Kahn, the last two German giants in their cage retired and since then noone was found filling the void. Maybe the best active German goal keeper is Weidenfeller, but he never got a chance in the national jersey.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

What a terrible disgrace yesterday during FC Bayern vs Netherlands. I can't believe I've actually rooted for Bayern against Chelsea.

See 01:04! Complete lack of respect

Robben was jeered by his own crowd, incredible. I am with Mark van Bommel who said after the match that if he were Robben he would never play for Bayern again...

Great motivation for the Germany vs Holland clash though, thanks for that.

 

[Ivo Simons]

Germans heh, they never change.

 

[Robert Wiesenmüller]

That's not typical for Germans, that's the FC Bayern

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

What do the German newspaper say about it? They find this behavior of some "fans" acceptable?

Almost looked like they blamed Robben for not winning the CL finals. You win with 22 but you loose with 1?

 

[Chris Preston]

I'm a hockey fan, I don't know too much about football (soccer w/e) but what is it with you people and holding grudges on players >_< I mean, watch this failure which is way worse than Robben's miss.

Guess what, I was cheering for Minnesota that game and I laughed at him for missing that and went about the rest of my day. The next day he laughed about it and it was over with. Robben's miss wasn't a failure in the least, he picked a corner, hit it, but Cech guessed correctly and made a great save. Cech is a beast on penalty kicks, throughout the game he guessed the direction of every shot correctly and saved 3/6 including tipping a fourth that he could have easily of saved. From the one game I saw Van Bommel play (NL vs Germany this year) I can say he's pretty terrible to be honest and has no right to tell Robben, who is a much better player than him, what he should do.

</rant>

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I saw Van Bommel play (NL vs Germany this year) I can say he's pretty terrible to be honest

I don't know too much about football

 

[Chris Preston]

I've got two friends that moved to Canada from Holland and watch football religiously and they both agree with me. Including my English teacher who watches football and a friend that moved here from Germany. So I'm not alone.

Either way, I don't care if he's God, he has no right to tell Robben what to do.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Where did he tell Robben what to do? He just took the microphone and tell the press the story as he is the squad captain. Its his task to defend his fellow players and that is what he did.