By RYAN TOLMICH
The reigning world champions are bringing some of their heavy hitters to face the U.S. Men’s National Team in an upcoming friendly.
Mario Götze, Mesut Özil, and Bastian Schweinsteiger headline a 20-man roster to face the USMNT on June 10 in Cologne, Germany. In total, 13 players called in also featured in Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad.
The matchup reunites USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann with former colleague Joachim Low, now head coach of Germany.
“We are not playing for the first time against each other, but of course these duels have Jürgen as US coach always a nice touch,” Low said. “I am looking forward to the reunion with him.
“Everyone knows how ambitious Jürgen is, he will set his team well on us and wants to make a good showing in his home. For us, it is a welcome opportunity to prepare ourselves for the qualifier against Gibraltar. And of course we want to end the season and give our fans in Cologne an enjoyable evening. “
Germany, who the U.S. in the group stage en route to last year’s World Cup crown, is currently ranked as the best team in the world. Currently in the midst of European Championship qualifying, the Germans will face Gibraltar on June 13 in group play.
The USMNT squad will be announced at a later date.
Take a full look at Germany’s squad below:
GOALKEEPERS: Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96).
DEFENDERS: Jérôme Boateng (Bayern Munich), Erik Durm (Borussia Dortmund), Jonas Hector (1. FC Köln), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Shkodran Mustafi (FC Valencia), Antonio Rüdiger (VfB Stuttgart), Sebastian Rudy (1899 Hoffenheim).
MIDFIELDERS: Karim Bellarabi (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Ilkay Gündogan (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Christoph Kramer (Borussia Mönchengladbach) Mesut Özil (Arsenal), Lukas Podolski (Inter Milan), André Schürrle (Wolfsburg), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich).
FORWARDS: Mario Götze (Bayern Munich), Max Kruse (Borussia Monchengladbach)
What do you think of the Germany roster? Which players are you excited to see? How will the U.S. fare in the friendly?
Share your thoughts below.
I’d look more to the Nederlands game as a benchmark seeing how Germany isn’t fielding 3 of it’s top starters and Low will probably hook up his boy JK so he looks good. Germany won’t go full steam and try to embarrass JK. Probably no more than a 1 goal difference game.
If you think the word or concept of mercy is in the German vocabulary when it comes to an occupying force (yes we are, japan same thing, italy same thing) in soccer? If you believe that then you are delusional. They would love nothing more than to humiliate us on their home soil. Those feelings are REAL.
Another Germany win
This German team is the future Bayern Munich, with some best players from other countries.
No Marco Reus 🙁
Unfortunately not 🙁 However new manager Thomas Tuchel is probably happy that Reus can rest this summer after all of his injury woes.
At this point, with 1988-1996 now having been 20+ years ago, it should come as no surprise that the four Germanic speaking countries (even Liechtenstein, see the Salanovic kid and the battle with Bosnia for his services) are seeing an influx of talent with Eastern European-sounding names, given all the refugees that made their way into those countries around the aforementioned years.
It might be time to start to trim the players that will be representing the USMNT over the next 3 years. To me it is time to start to mold a team from what are your best players. I do agree with JK looking far and wide for quality players but with 3 major tournaments coming up and hopefully a 4th with the Confederations Cup I think there needs to be some cohesion formed. The Netherlands and Germany should be considered bench mark games and the best squads should be formed. No more auditions.
No, at this point, the goal should be to select the players who will give the USA the best chance of winning the Gold Cup. That is the ticket to the Confed Cup. Furthermore, it is always the job of the national team coach to attempt to win each competition, perhaps with an eye to the future, but that vision should not come at the cost of the team’s quality.
Some present 30 to 32 year-olds will be on the USA’s 2018 World Cup team as 33 to 36 year-olds, but it is impossible to say which, recovery from injury being what it is with age. Some we have barely heard of will be on the team, it is impossible to predict which newcomers will flourish.
For example, while, there are some young attackers whom people say are the next great thing, none of them in MLS seems to be able to score goals at the rate of either Dempsey or Wondolowski. I will wait until they do before I think they would deserve a spot ahead of either of them or ahead of AJ who seems to be recovered from injury (Altidore is likely out due to injury, but hope spring eternal).
sheriffbart,
Cohesion ?
The 2007 Gold Cup Final lineup:
Lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard;16-Jonathan Spector (15-Frank Simek, 72’), 22-Oguchi Onyewu, 3-Carlos Bocanegra (capt.), 13-Jonathan Bornstein; 8-Clint Dempsey (20-Taylor Twellman, 69’), 5-Benny Feilhaber, 4-Pablo Mastroeni (19-Ricardo Clark, 46), 7-DaMarcus Beasley; 11-Brian Ching, 10-Landon Donovan
Subs not used: 9-Eddie Johnson, 12-Jay DeMerit, 14-Steve Ralston, 18-Kasey Keller
How many of those guys were important players in the 2010 World Cup and do you think the same sort of percentage ratio will hold true for Russia ?
So I guess we should look for the announcement of the U.S. squad on June 9 at around 10 p.m. Eastern Time?
^this smh…..its a joke that JK continues to wait till the last possible minute to release our roster like it’s some top government secret! I’ll never understand it but then again a lot of his decisions vex me!!
Like Germany gives a damn who we dress
Don’t the Germans always go into a bunker when the Americans come to visit?
I’m not German. I’m American, and a fan of the National Team. Henceforth, I do give a damn.
Who knows, maybe Germany will rest a lot of their starters since they have that tough game coming up against mighty Gibralter.
ronniet23,
“its a joke that JK continues to wait till the last possible minute to release our roster like it’s some top government secret!”
He could have announced it last week. I’ve seen other teams do that.
But then by game time they will have drop outs for injuries or whatever else comes up especially at this time of year when the Euros have just concluded their season and MLS is just getting into the meat of theirs.
I’m sure JK has his desired roster already all lined up and is just waiting for things to finalize, a circumstance peculiar to national teams who borrow all their players( unless you are the USWNT) .
I see zero sense in announcing the roster before you are sure if a player is truly available. I’ve seen instances where there were as many as half a dozen changes or even more to an early roster announcement.
So if you have bets riding on the roster and lineup, you’ll just have to be patient.
Also, a number of players are certain to be from MLS, which is still in season. It has happened before that the weekend before a national team game one or more players will get injured in a club game. I’m sure he’s waiting to see who all will be available.
Germany will be fielding a strong squad so it will be a stiff test for the USMNT. On a lighter note, for those who critique the USMNT for recruiting dual or triple nationals such as Zezalem, they should take a look at Germany’s roster. The team is full of players with strong truly German sounding names: Shkordan Mustafi, Karim Bellarabi, Ilkay Gundogan, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Lucas Podolski, Jerome Boateng. 😉
Yes and they left the “real Germans”, like Müller, off the squad. When was the last time the US called up Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Grant or Monroe?
Nice obfuscation – try sticking to refuting arguments people are actually making. Thanks.
Actually Washington, Jefferson, Adams etc were Englishmen at birth.They did not “acquire” US citizenship until the birth of the nation. So if soccer had been invented by that time, they would have had to play for England (they would have been too old to play by 1776).
Also the method they used to acquire US citizenship was very difficult!
When Yugoslavia broke up, players just played for the new countries. Same thing with the Soviet Union. New countries are born or reemerge from time to time, this isn’t the same thing.
Not to get into too many semantics here, but the citizens of Yugoslavia (and USSR) were of those countries that broke off. Someone in Yugoslavia identified as being Croatian (or Bosnian, or Serbian or a Slovene)… same thing applies with the USSR. You would have NEVER heard someone from Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia identify as being Russian, far from it.
The United States emerged out of the English empire as a brand new country, so there was no one who could identify with this new nationality prior to its creation.
(I hope this makes sense)
Actually, I believe the Baltic countries all have sizable Russian minorities.
The difference is those guys were all born and raised in Germany, with the exception of Poldolski who moved there when he was four. A national team is supposed to be made up of players from that country, there’s no requirement that they have names that sound like whatever someone assumes a German name should sound like.
As I’ve said repeatedly though, GZ was raised here and I think could plausibly play for either the US or Germany. On the other hand, JK recruiting someone like Ashton Gotz, who’s been to US once in his life as a tourist is a joke.
I totally agree but JK will NEVER stop beating the German bushes for the result of a weekend pass that happens to play soccer. He doesnt believe in American players and that is obvious. Of course, if he looked a little harder he would find a lot of them in MLS that can play quite well thank you very much
He doesn’t just beat German bushes. He beats Icelandic bushes, Norwegian bushes, Mexican bushes…and oh, yeah, NASL and college bushes too.
Nor does he seem particularly shy about using MLS talent. Last year’s World Cup squad had the most MLS players on it of any World Cup roster in USMNT history, prior to that our usual M.O. was to just comb the ranks of every Euro squad out there for any American who was usually sitting on their bench.
But don’t let the facts get in the way, you seem like you’re on quite a roll. So carry on….
I’ve been highly critical of Klinsmann on this forum in the past but I think he’s absolutely doing the right thing in trying to find talent anywhere he can. That’s his responsibility as a national coach. If he weren’t doing that, then he’d deserve criticism.
Besides, remember Earnie Stewart? David Regis? Thomas Dooley? Roy Wegerle? Even, of all people, David Wagner? Klinsmann isn’t doing anything new, not by a long shot.
Youi really should become familiar with citizenship laws and stop posting such nonsense. Read the SCOTUS decision in Wong Kim Ark vs. U.S., it’s on line. The Court ruled that even irrespective of the 14th Amendment, it has been English Common Law since the 17th Century that anyone born in a country is a citizen of that country, with only two exceptions. One is the offspring of diplomatic personnel and two is the offspring from a foreign invasion. Additionally, when one or both parents are American citizens, then their off spring would be American citizens. It doesn’t matter what you think; it’s the law. Do you object to Yarbrough being on the US team? His parents are missionaries and he has spent very little time in the US. There are literally millions of Americans overseas at any one time, most of them there because they are working or retired. That doesn’t change their citizenship nor that of their children. I guess you would deny people like McCain, Ted Cruz, and Romney’s father, Governor George Romney, from running for President; all were born outside of the US.
Actually that case was superseded by Perkins v. Elg, which SCOTUS ruled that MINOR children born here or born to American parents or a parent (with some specific restrictions) can’t have their citizenship revoked by their parent.
Cruz is and always will be eligible to be POTUS by virtue of his mother’s American citizenship and that she had, before moving to Calgary with Cruz’s father, she had lived in the US for more than 5 consecutive years. Technically, McCain was not but only because of arcane requirements in the early 1930s not recognizing the Canal Zone as American territory (for the purposes of citizenship only). No one challenged the citizenship of George Romney, but possibly because by the time that 1968 rolled around he had become a non-factor because of a quip he made that he had been “brainwashed” by the US generals in Vietnam.
Even if those guys are not German citizens they are German footballers. They were developed by Germany’s system so the have the right to represent German football.
And as I mentioned, they are all German citizens, and all born and raised there with the exception of Podolski.
As readers of this site well know, your criteria for who should be allowed to play for a given nation are different from FIFA’s. And I think I understand the basis for your opinion. My question is this: what specific criteria would you use to determine, in your words, whether a player was “from that country.” Wouldn’t you have a line-drawing problem?
Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever tried to formulate my ideal rules but in this instance, all of the guys mentioned above are clearly German while someone who’s visited the US once as a tourist is not American even if they can technically qualify for a US passport. To me, being American (or any other nationality) means actually having lived a good portion of your life there, it isn’t some technicality or a matter of filling out some paperwork.
As an aside, when we discuss this issue people on this site love to call me racist or xenophobic because it makes them feel better about themselves but it’s actually pretty offensive for “eurosnob” to state that someone named Shkordan Mustafi isn’t a real German even though he was born and raised in Germany.
No, they call you you racist and xenophobic because your comments about Mexicans.
Hey Slowleftarm, I did not say that Mustafi is not a real German – please read my post again. My view is that if a player holds the citizenship of a country he can represent it regardless of his ethnic and racial background or how long he lived within its borders. Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, the US, all try to recruit dual nationals to play for their countries. There is nothing wrong with it.
I’d love to see examples of racist comments about Mexicans. It’d be pretty strange considering I married one.
Anyway, that’s fine but none of those guys are dual nationals. They’re all born and raised in Germany. How is that recruiting someone? These guys are from Germany, I’m not even sure they could play for anyone else (except Podolski).
Your point is a fair one but the examples you chose to illustrate your point don’t support it. And I know other countries do it. Spain won three tournaments in a row and still “recruited” Diego Costa. Half of the Ireland team were born and raised in England. I understand other countries do it but I think it’s contrary to the spirit of international sport. I get that others disagree. None of that justifies the name calling though.
Again, and I’m quoting here, “All Mexican’s are pigs”.
Hey, Slow, to say that it is contrary to the spirit of international sport is a pretty funny joke. People are representing countries in the Olympics and international football/soccer because of where their grandparents were born. There have been athletes granted close to instant citizenship in order to play or participate for some countries. That’s your problem–you are hopelessly idealistic. You must also think that the Olympics should only be only open to amateur athletes. Even that was a fiction for most of the 20th Century.
Fair enough, Slow, but I think the line-drawing problem is a real one. I can concede that it feels different rooting for someone born and raised in the US as opposed to someone who has never set foot here and has no personal connection to the US except a genetic one, and I think that some people might prefer (and should not be labeled a xenophobe for preferring) the former. But aren’t there a lot of hard cases? How much of a connection is enough? And finally — even if you would prefer the former, what practical difference does it make in your fandom?
Absolutely there are a lot of hard cases. And there are easy ones. Guys who’ve never lived in a country shouldn’t represent that country.
As far as how it affects fandom – for me I think it only affects me when I’m thinking about the team before or after a game or tournament. When I’m thinking about how the game has grown here and how far we still have to go.
I was at RBA for the USMNT game against Turkey last season and I cheered just as loudly when Fabian Johnson scored (a great goal by the way – awesome pass by MB and brilliant finish) as when Clint scored. I thought Jermaine Jones was the best US player at the world cup and admired and appreciated his performances. With ideal rules would these guys be playing for the USMNT? Not in my book. But once they pull the shirt on they have my support.
so what to do with US-born players who get picked up by foreign academies or ply their trade overseas from an early age? Would they not pass your purity test as well?
It’s not a purity test. Of course, players who go play abroad are eligible and I never suggest otherwise. Straw man arguments are so tiresome. If you disagree with me, that’s fine but then argue against what I’m actually saying, not something you made up.
What you think is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the law. By your standard, Yarborough would not be eligible.
Can we just end these ridiculous debates about US citizenship. These players are eligible. Period.