Loew drops 6 German World Cup players

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany coach Joachim Loew dropped six World Cup players from the 23-man squad to play Kazakhstan in a Euro 2012 qualifier and Australia in a friendly next week.

As expected, Loew also did not select former captain Michael Ballack, who still has not reached top form after a long injury layoff.

Loew picked one newcomer, midfielder Sven Bender of Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund.

Andre Schuerrle of Mainz, with one previous appearance, was also included, along with fellow midfielder Toni Kroos of Bayern Munich. Dortmund midfielder Mario Goetze, with two caps, and teammate and defender Marcel Schmelzer, with one, also return.

Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira and Mesut Oezil are both in the squad.

But the coach dropped six players who were on the team that finished third at the World Cup — Marko Marin, Cacau, Serdar Tasci, Piotr Trochowski, Marcell Jansen and Stefan Kiessling. All are struggling with form in their clubs.

Loew selected only two strikers, Bayern Munich teammates Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose. Gomez leads the Bundesliga with 18 goals, but Klose was getting little playing time. Lukas Podolski of Cologne was also included, but was listed as a midfielder.

Germany plays Kazakhstan on March 26 in Kaiserslautern, and Australia three days later in Moenchengladbach.

Loew's team leads Group A of qualifying for next year's European Championship in Poland and Ukraine with four wins from four games.

Loew has said he will give some of the reserves and newcomers playing time against Australia, the Asian Cup runner-up.



Germany:

Goalkeepers: Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Schalke), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen).

Defenders: Dennis Aogo (Hamburger SV), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Manchester City), Arne Friedrich (Wolfsburg), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund).

Midfielders: Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Mario Goetze (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Real Madrid), Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Andre Schuerrle (Mianz), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Christian Traesch (Stuttgart).

Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich).

Euro 2008 - Lehmann under fire after blunders

Jens Lehmann admitted he put in sub-standard performance despite keeping a clean sheet in Germany's 3-0 win against Austria.

The out-of-favour Arsenal man made three major errors in Wednesday's friendly, and nearly conceded embarrassingly when he let a speculative long shot escape his grasp.

The 38-year-old's position as German number one is under pressure from Valencia's Timo Hildebrand, but his old sparring partner Oliver Kahn has retired from international football.

"We didn't start the match as focused as we would have liked to. Plus, we were really surprised at how hard the Austrians played," Lehmann said.

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Bayern sign Germany starlet Marcell Jansen

Rumour which has been growing in intensity over the last few days became reality on Thursday evening when Bayern announced the signing of Germany starlet Marcell Jansen. The versatile 21-year-old arrives at the Säbener Strasse from relegated Borussia Mönchengladbach for an undisclosed fee, and is set to ink a four-year deal keeping him in Munich until 30 June 2011.

Jansen has played for Gladbach since joining his home-town club as an 11-year-old, but was unwilling to drop a division with the side which finished bottom of the Bundesliga in 2006-7. The youngster, who is equally at home on the left side of midfield or at left-back, has scored five goals in a total of 73 German top flight appearances to date.

He made his full international debut for Germany on 3 September 2005 against Slovakia, and currently boasts a total of 14 caps. Standing 1.91 metres / 6 ft 3 in tall and weighing in at 84 kilograms / 185 pounds, he was the youngest player in the Germany squad at last summer’s World Cup.

The Monchengladbach-born talent joins Hamit Alintop, Jan Schlaudraff and Ernesto Sosa as Bayern’s fourth confirmed new arrival for the coming campaign. More signings will be announced shortly.

A pleasant bonus for the player will be his new-found proximity to his girlfriend, voted “Miss Munich” two years ago and a resident of the Bavarian capital. Welcome to Bayern, Marcell!