The Socceroos may see it as a revenge mission but Germany coach Joachim Loew is viewing this month’s friendly match as a chance to experiment with his squad.
The sides meet in Moenchengladbach on Tuesday week in a rematch of their opening group clash at last year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Germany thrashed the Socceroos 4-0 in a result that ultimately proved the killer blow in Australia’s campaign as they narrowly missed out on progressing from the group.
Socceroos coach Holger Osieck last week named a near-full strength line-up for the match but Loew has indicated some of his big names could be rested with his focus firmly on a Euro 2012 qualifier against Kazakhstan in Kaiserslautern three days earlier.
“We want to get another win in the European Championship qualifying against Kazakhstan to consolidate our lead at the top of the table and our excellent position,” said Loew.
“The clash with Australia, who played well in the Asian Cup at the start of the year and only lost in the final to Japan, is an attractive match.
“I would like to use this game to test one or two young players and give those players who have been playing a lot recently a rest.”
Loew’s squad for the two matches features big names including Mesut Oezil, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira and Miroslav Klose.
But the coach dropped six players who featured in the World Cup squad – Marko Marin, Cacau, Serdar Tasci, Piotr Trochowski, Marcell Jansen and Stefan Kiessling.
Loew picked one newcomer, Borussia Dortmund midfielder Sven Bender, but former captain Michael Ballack was not recalled despite his return from a long injury layoff.
Osieck said last week a German side made up of fringe players would not necessarily make Australia’s task any easier.
“When you get called into a German squad, you must have some quality – so they wouldn’t have any Mickey Mouse players, I can assure you,” he said.
Germany squad: Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Schalke), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Dennis Aogo (Hamburg), Jerome Boateng (Manchester City), Arne Friedrich (Wolfsburg), Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer (both Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm, Holger Badstuber (both Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Sven Bender, Mario Gotze (both Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira, Mesut Oezil (both Real Madrid), Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger (all Bayern Munich), Andre Schurrle (Mainz), Christian Trasch (Stuttgart), Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose (both Bayern Munich).
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