Jogi Löw Picks His German Squad

If you’re a bookie or somebody who’s making future plans to get involved with Gamblers Anonymous, you probably already know that Germany is the favorite to take the Euros title back with them up north. After a great run at home in the World Cup, they went along and pancaked the competition during qualifying and have a generation of young stars with a few season vets mixed in ready to shepherd them to the promised land.

And in tune with this young squad, Jogi Löw has made some surprise kiddie call ups in the 26 man edition, with two uncapped players going along for the ride. On of whom is Marko Marin, a 19 year old Bosnian-born winger who is playing in the second division. Uncapped and in the second division? Probably not a group of players who expect a phone call when the major tournament squad lists are announced.

Also continuing the theme of players on the payroll at Valencia being dropped, Timo Hildebrand has been left out of the squad in favor of the uncapped Rene Adler from Bayer Leverkusen. Quite the blow and shock for the guy assumed to be taking the throne from Jens Lehmann after the jaunt to Swissaustria.

The best part is how Löw went about announcing the squad:

Loew chose to make the squad announcement at the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain which is located on the border to Austria, in a symbolic gesture demonstrating his aim of reaching Europe’s soccer summit.

Jogi also had children come out in their little jerseys with the player names on it. It’s all theater, folks.

The 26 man squad, which will be cut down to 23 on May 28th:

Goalkeepers: Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG), Robert Enke (Hanover 96), Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen)

Defenders: Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid/ESP), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Marcell Jansen (Bayern Munich), Clemens Fritz (Werder Bremen), Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04)

Midfield: Michael Ballack (Chelsea/ENG), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), David Odonkor (Real Betis/ESP), Marko Marin (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

Forwards: Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich), Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart), Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke 04), Patrick Helmes (Cologne), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

Is it good enough to take home the crown? Were I a betting man, I’d have to put some money down on Germany. While Italy, France, Spain and whomever else are beating the shit out of each other for one finals spot, Germany will have a depleted Czech Republic, homers Switzerland, upstart Croatia, plucky Portugal and maybe Turkey to think about. For the best team in qualifying (not statistically, but they appeared to earn that title until qualification was in the bag), their path is mighty favorable.