Hamburg: Germany kicked-off their World Cup finals preparations with their youngest-ever side holding Poland to a goalless draw on Tuesday with the Hamburg crowd jeering the result after the final whistle.
With 13 of his squad involved in Saturday’s German Cup final when Bayern Munich play Borussia Dortmund, Germany coach Joachim Loew named eight debutants in his starting eleven, which had a combined total of just 13 caps.
“That was fun, we had a crazy amount of debutants in the team, but they did their jobs very well,” enthused Loew as a toal of 12 players ultimately made their debuts after substitutions. It was the youngest side ever named — with an average aged of 21.45 — in the 106-year history of German Football Association (DFB) internationals, beating the previous record of 21.5 for a 1908 international against Switzerland.
Several youngsters did enough to impress the coach in the first of three pre-World Cup friendlies with matches against Cameroon and Armenia to come. However, it remains to be seen who stays in when the squad will be cut to 25 or 26 players on Wednesday before later being reduced to the definitive 23 who Loew will take to the World Cup.
Of the starting side against Poland, only captain Julian Draxler has a realistic chance of lining up to face Portugal in Germany’s Group G opener in Salvador on June 16.
