Absent stars devalues Germany´s summer tour: Loew

Germany coach Joachim Loew admitted Wednesday around a dozen stars – including captain Michael Ballack – are set to miss the national team’s summer tour with a virtual B team likely to travel.

Germany fly to China on May 26 and face the national side in Shanghai on May 29 before travelling to face the United Arab Emirates in Dubai on June 2.

But Chelsea star Ballack is involved in the FA Cup final on May 30 and several other Germany stars are involved in either the German Cup final the same day or the European Under-21 Championships in Sweden from June 15-29.

“The European Under-21 Championships now takes a higher priority for us than the Asian tour with the national team,” admitted Loew, who expects to be without 15 first-choice players.

The likes of young stars like Schalke’s Manuel Neuer, Moenchengladbach pair Marko Marin and Alexander Baumjohann, Hoffenheim’s Andreas Beck and Stuttgart’s Serdar Tasci and Sami Khedira – will all be preparing with Germany’s juniors.

And with Leverkusen set to face Bremen or Hamburg in the German Cup final at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on May 30, Loew will be missing at least five players who will be involved in that game alone.

“From a sporting point of view, the timing of the tour of Asia is not ideal,” said German Football Federation (DFB) president Theo Zwanziger.

But with Bayern Munich out of the German Cup, Loew can at least rely on stars such as Philipp Lahm, Miroslav Klose, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski or players from current Bundesliga leaders Wolfsburg.

And Loew says he will now use the tour to give players on the fringe of the national side an opportunity to impress.

“I will use the opportunity to see how several candidates, who we do not know so well, get on in the national team environment,” said Loew.