Amsterdam, Nov 15 (IANS) The Netherlands held Germany to a goalless draw in an uninspiring friendly football match here.
The highest quality of both teams was not available in Amsterdam Wednesday with Germany missing Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng, Mario Gomez, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Marcel Schmelzer and Bastian Schweinsteiger and the home team playing without Jeremain Lens, Luciano Narsingh, Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, Maarten Stekelenburg and Kevin Strootman, reports Xinhua.
Despite the numerous absentees Dutch coach Louis van Gaal marked the match as an important "benchmark" for the development of his team. He lined up one debutant with Ajax goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer, while Dirk Kuyt was the centre forward and Klaas-jan Huntelaar started on the bench.
The German team included four players from Borussia Dortmund (Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus) and three of Bayern Munich (Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller and Philip Lahm).
Looking at the clubs represented Germany had the most impressive B-team and this was the case on the field. The Germans had most of the ball possession. The best chances also fell to the German team with Gotze, Reus and Gundogan coming close on the stroke of half-time.
In the second half, the pace of the game slowed down. Both coaches substituted five times with the Dutch losing Ibrahim Afellay through injury.
|
|
Comments:
