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A good performance from an under-strength Socceroo side has seen them secure a 2-2 draw against the world champions, Germany.
It could have been a win as well with Australia taking a 2-1 lead early in the second half off the boot or skipper Mile Jedinak, before Lukas Podolski levelled the scores for the hosts in the 81st minute.
FINAL SCORE:
Socceroos 2
Germany 2
The best team in the world tackles the best team in Asia. Join The Roar from 6:30am (AEDT) for all the action as Germany and Australia meet in Kaiserslautern for an international friendly.
Ange Postecoglou and his Australian team deservedly got the accolades for their maiden Asian Cup win two months ago. Now new challenges and the road to the 2018 World Cupa await, and the first big test is Germany.
The Socceroos and Germany have a fair shared history and have played each other twice in the past five years. The last encounter was in 2011, when the green and gold secured an impressive come-from-behind 2-1 win, in what was Australia’s first game since the defeat to Japan in the 2011 Asian Cup final.
A year before that and it was all Germany, the Europeans routing the Aussies 4-0 in South Africa.
The Socceroos have had their share of German coaches in the past, like Holger Osieck and Rudi Gutendorf, while Bernd Stange had a great stint in charge of Perth Glory in the NSL. There’s also two prominent Germans currently getting around in the A-League in Brisbane Roar pair Thomas Broich and Jerome Polenz.
Perhaps the most famous clashes between the Socceroos and Germany came back at the 1974 World Cup, when Australia went down to both East Germany and West Germany. Pillau-born Socceroo defender Manfred Schaefer, who migrated down under at the age of 11, came up against the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and co at that tournament.
Today Germany has become a popular place for Australian footballers to ply their trade with the Bundesliga emerging as one of, if not the best, league in the world.
Mitch Langerak is on at the books at Borussia Dortmund while Robbie Kruse, who is unavailable for this game through injury, is with Bayer Leverkusen. In Germany’s second division Matthew Leckie and Ben Halloran feature, while in the 3 Bundesliga you can find Musti Amini and Milos Degenek, with Kwame Yeboah contracted to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Shorn of Kruse, Tim Cahill and Matthew Spirnanovic, and with doubts on the fitness of Tomi Juric and Massimo Luongo, there’s no doubt that Postecoglou’s men are up against it for this game. Mitch Langerak is also out with injury.
Germany has selected a strong squad and won’t want to be embarrassed at home. However they have a key Euro 2016 qualifier with Georgia next week, so Joachim Low may look to rotate his squad.
Postecoglou has selected a number of new faces, such as uncapped trio Tarek Elrich, Luke DeVere and Chris Ikonomidis. It’s unlikely he will thrown them in against Die Mannschaft, with the fixture against Macedonia more likely.
I’m tipping a Socceroo XI to be something like this: Ryan, Davidson, Sainsbury, Wilkinson, Franjic, McKay, Jedinak, Milligan, Leckie, Troisi, Burns.
Join The Roar from Kaiserslautern where we’ll be live blogging play from 6:30am (AEDT).
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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