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    Ballack to stay Germany captain

    September 1, 2010

    BERLIN (AFP) - Germany coach Joachim Loew has decided that veteran Michael Ballack will remain his first-choice captain despite being left out of their first two Euro 2012 qualifying games, Bild reported Wednesday.

    "At the moment we have Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira in defensive midfield," the newspaper quoted Loew as telling the team at a Frankfurt hotel on Tuesday evening.

    "But when Michael comes back and makes it back into the team then he will also be captain. If Michael doesn't play then Philipp (Lahm) is captain," Loew is cited as telling the players.

    Ballack, 33, has been dropped for the first two games against Belgium away 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.

    Bayern Munich defender Lahm, 26, captained Germany in their highly successful World Cup campaign in South Africa, sweeping aside England 4-1 and Argentina 4-0 before losing to eventual winners Spain in the semi-finals.

    Ballack, who is now back in Germany playing for Bayer Leverkusen ever since his contract at Chelsea expired at the end of last season, has something of a history clashing with other players, as well as with Loew.

    Things have not got off to a flying start for Ballack's return to the Bundesliga, meanwhile. Bayer Leverkusen were beaten 6-3 by Moenchengladbach on Sunday -- and Ballack was booed off when he was replaced in the second-half.

    Germany also face Turkey, Austria, and Kazakhstan in Group A for a guaranteed place at Euro 2012, which will be hosted by Ukraine and Poland.

    Loew was due to make an official announcement at a news conference on Wednesday at 1030 GMT.
    sigpic

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footbal...he_Asian_Games

    #2
    I wish Loew had half the balls Klinsmann had, and dropped Ballack as captain.

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      #3
      lahm is not a real leader, even if ballack is not captain, schweinsteiger has more leadership skills than lahm, no matter how good a player lahm is.
      Originally posted by siavasharian
      ESTEGHLAL:

      بهترین خط دفاع.بهترین خط حمله.ثبت رکورد بیشترین گل زده.پر امتیاز ترین تیم ادوار لیگ برتر با ۴۰۹ امتیاز.پر افتخار ترین مربی لیگ برتر با دو قهرمانی
      بهترین گلزن لیگ: آرش برهانی [استقلال] با ۲۱ گل زدهبهترین خط حمله: استقلال تهران با ۷۰ گل زده

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        #4
        Ballack to Germany now is like Daie to Iran in 2002. He could still be helping their national team until 2012 as captain, but later got to hang his boots. That way he won't end up like Daie (who should have retired after AC '04 but didn't) losing much of his respect from the fans and countrymen. 35 is the cutoff age for retirement, wasn't the Dutch captain in South Africa that old?
        sigpic

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footbal...he_Asian_Games

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          #5
          Originally posted by Paradigm View Post
          Ballack to Germany now is like Daie to Iran in 2002. He could still be helping their national team until 2012 as captain, but later got to hang his boots. That way he won't end up like Daie (who should have retired after AC '04 but didn't) losing much of his respect from the fans and countrymen. 35 is the cutoff age for retirement, wasn't the Dutch captain in South Africa that old?
          Please don't create a golden rule for age of retirement. There are plenty of players in modern football that can handle the demands of the game at an older age- i.e. Giggs, Scholes, Van Nistelrooy, Seedorf, and the list goes on. Like it or not, Daei was one of the top scorers in WC Qualifications...we simply never had and might never have a prolific scorer like Daei. It amazes me how people continue to feed into this theory of a supposed scoring vacuum created by Daei. The man also didn't play in the Portugal match. And what happened? We all saw how Ali Karimi, Khatibi, and co. managed that golden match. Daei on a wheelchair is still better than half of our current forwards. So, please give daei bashing a rest. There are currently better players than Ballack in the German lineup. Ballack isn't even good enough to be effective in Leverkeusen.. It isn't fair for someone who sat through the World Cup, and continues to be ineffective to retain captaincy...

          Comment


            #6
            Latest results for Euro 2012 quals:

            Germany 1 - Belgium 0 (away)

            Germany 6 - Azerbaijan 1 (home)

            Ballack to take charge after these.
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            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footbal...he_Asian_Games

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