Lahm to captain Germany with Ballack out

Bayern Munich defender Philipp Lahm will captain Germany in Wednesday’s friendly against the Ivory Coast as the national side look to build for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

With captain Michael Ballack out of the game with a knee injury, Bayern’s vice-captain Lahm will lead the side as the 26-year-old picks up his 63rd cap.

Having sealed their qualification for next year’s World Cup with an impressive 1-0 win over Russia in Moscow last month, Germany were lacklustre when they drew 1-1 with Finland in their final qualifier.

And while Lahm says although the year has gone well, the Germans are keen to see off the Ivory Coast in style and end the year on a high.

“It’s been a positive year, we achieved qualification for the 2010 World Cup which we set out to do,” said Lahm in Tuesday’s press conference.

“We know we have to improve, but we achieved out targets for this year and we need a win to finish off the year.”

Last week’s tragic suicide of squad member Robert Enke has cast a dark cloud over the game, but Lahm said both the cancellation of Saturday’s friendly with Chile and Sunday’s memorial service for Enke in Hanover have helped the squad.

“It was important to go to Hanover and say goodbye properly, it wouldn’t have been possible for us to play last Saturday,” admitted Lahm.

“In a way it was good for us to have some time to grieve last week, but this is a chance to go out and play some football.

“It is important for us, as footballers, to get back to what we know how to do.”

“But I hope this tragedy has broken one of the taboo themes in our society,” added Lahm after it had emerged Enke had suffered from depression.

Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese will start the game in goal, but will be replaced by Schalke 04’s Manuel Neuer at half-time.

Bayern Munich star Bastian Schweinsteiger is likely to lead the midfield attack along with Bremen playmaker Mesut Oezil and Cologne’s Lukas Podolski.

Striker Stefan Kiessling, who plays for Bundesliga leaders Leverkusen, will partner Bayern’s Mario Gomez up front.

“I know this is a chance I have to take, the season has gone well with Leverkusen and I want to transfer that form to the national team,” said Kiessling.

The Ivory Coast were unbeaten in their World Cup qualifier campaign and team manager Oliver Bierhoff said it was a leap into the unknown for the Germans.

“Ivory Coast are strong as they showed by qualifying for the World Cup,” said Bierhoff.

“We haven’t played many African sides and nobody really knows what to expect against them.

“We want to finish the year in a positive fashion, we started badly with a defeat against Norway and we want to make sure we end the year well.”