Coach Joachim Löw has named Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Marco Reus as the only rookie in the German national squad for three upcoming international matches.

Germany face Uruguay in a friendly match in Hoffenheim at the end of the month before travelling to Vienna to face Austria and to Baku to play Azerbaijan in Euro 2012 qualifiers in the first week of June.

Reus is one of 23 players in Löw’s squad and the list also includes Simon Rolfes, returning after a long injury absence. However, there is still no sign of former team captain Michael Ballack.…

Germany will be without captain Philipp Lahm, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira for their friendly against Australia on Tuesday.

Coach Joachim Löw has released the trio as he prepares to use an experimental side for the match in Monchengladbach to take a closer look at several new players and try out different tactics.…

Joachim Löw, coach of Germany’s national football team, confirmed Wednesday that veteran midfielder Michael Ballack will remain his first-choice captain despite being left out of their opening Euro 2012 qualifying games.

Ballack, 33, has been dropped for the first two games against Belgium in Brussels on Friday and Azerbaijan at home four days later as he continues his recovery from the ankle injury that kept him out of the World Cup.…

Only 7 of the 17 players called-upon by Joachim Löw belonged to the German World Cup team. The rest of the World Cup team have rejoined their clubs and are preparing for the new football season. Germany faces Denmark in a friendly at Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Löw nominated the goalkeepers Manuel Neuer (Schalke 04) and Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), defenders Jerome Boateng (Manchester City) and Serdar Tasci (VfB Stuttgart), midfielders Toni Kroos (Bayern München), Marko Marin (Werder Bremen) as well as forward Mario Gomez (Bayern München).…

Germany will need to replace suspended four-time goal scorer Thomas Mueller when they take on Spain in their World Cup semi-final on Wednesday but that will be no problem for coach Joachim Loew.

The 20-year-old winger has wreaked havoc in his first major tournament, scoring his fourth goal in Germany’s 4-0 demolition of Argentina on Saturday to advance to the last four but coach Joachim Loew knows no one in his young squad is irreplaceable.…

Of the 23 players representing Germany at the World Cup, 11 have foreign backgrounds. More than half of the outfield players selected by Joachim Loew were either born outside Germany themselves, or have a non-German parent. The squad has roots in eight different countries – nine when Germany’s included.

Germany’s favorite sport is a working-class game, but not exclusively so. Soccer is cheap to take up but promises great riches at the top, and so offers the chance to advance and climb the social ladder. These opportunities are keenly seized by youngsters from lower-earning, ethnically-diverse backgrounds.…

Coach Joachim Loew unveiled his final World Cup squad of 23 players on Tuesday, with Andreas Beck of Hoffenheim the man to miss out on the trip to South Africa.

Already without injured captain Michael Ballack, Loew admitted on Saturday he faced making some brutal decisions ahead of submitting his final team.

As well as missing Ballack, who was injured during Chelsea’s FA Cup final win over Portsmouth, Germany will also be without Heiko Westermann, who broke his foot late in the Hungary game at the weekend.…

Bayern Munich defender Philipp Lahm will captain Germany in the absence of the injured Michael Ballack, while Manuel Neuer will be the starting goalkeeper at next month’s World Cup, the coach, Joachim Löw, said today.

“Lahm has played in his position with great class and will take over the role of captain,” Löw told reporters at their Italian training camp. He appointed the 24-year-old Neuer as the team’s first-choice keeper, with Tim Wiese as second choice and Bayern Munich’s Hans-Jörg Butt third.

“Bastian Schweinsteiger, on the pitch, will play the role of Ballack and interpret it in his way while Philipp Lahm will become captain. Schweinsteiger will be the vice-captain,” Löw said.

What do you think about Löw’s choices? Does Lahm have what it takes to captain the German team?

…