Germany’s Travel Roster for the October Friendlies with the USWNT

Update (18-Oct-2012): On Wednesday, Celia Okoyino da Mbabi injured her thigh and will be out for two weeks, thus she will miss both of the friendlies with the USWNT. Also, Lena Lotzen and Verena Faißt are also nursing minor injuries, but should be available to play. (DFB.de, in German)

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On Monday, the DFB published the the travel roster for Germany’s upcoming friendlies with the United States Women’s National Team, on October 20th (Bridgeview, Illinois) and October 23rd (Connecticut). Head coach Silvia Neid has called up 23 players, including offensive threats Celia Okoyino da Mbabi, Alexandra Popp, and Anja Mittag. Five players from Germany’s Under-20 WNT, which recently lost the U-20 Women’s World Cup final to the United States, were also called up: playmaking midfielder Dzenifer Marozsán, target forward Lena Lotzen, centerback Luisa Wensing, outside back Leonie Maier, and goalkeeper Laura Benkarth.

According to the DFB.de write-up, the October 20th match will be televised live in Germany on ZDF, which means that it is highly likely that the match will at least be live-streamed on USSoccer.com.

EDIT: The first match (October 20th) will be televised on Fox Soccer, per its schedule (screenshot, here). This is a late change, as the listings on TitanTV.com are showing other programming as of 8-Oct-2012.

EDIT #2: The second match (October 23rd) will be televised on NBC Sports Network, according to the online listings at TitanTV.com (screenshot, here). (For those in Germany, DFB.de, as of October 10th, is not showing any TV information for this match.)

The specific times and locations for the two friendlies against Germany are as follows:

October 20th, 6:30 p.m. EDT (Toyota Park; Bridgview, Illinois)
October 23rd, 7:30 p.m. EDT (Rentschler Field; East Hartford, Connecticut)

Per the USWNT’s official blog, at least 14,000 tickets have been sold for each match.

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ROSTER NOTES

Players back from recent injuries include Linda Bresonik (Achilles), Alexandra Popp (meniscus) and Verena Faisst (hamstring). All three were on Germany’s Algarve Cup roster earlier in the year.

Two players who did not participate in the 2012 Algarve Cup due to injuries, #1 goalkeeper Nadine Angerer (bursitis) and midfielder Kim Kulig (ACL), are back to full fitness, having played in recent Frauen-Bundesliga matches this season.

One noticeable absence from the roster is Fatmire Bajramaj, who has again been hit with injury woes.  She tore her ACL in late September and is out until at least next Spring, making it less than likely that she’ll be match fit for the 2013 Women’s Euros (UEFA.com write-up). Bajmaramaj’s injury came just three days after her fiance, Enis Alushi, also a professional soccer player, tore his ACL  (Bild.de).

Regarding the U-20 players, only defender Leonie Maier and goalkeeper Laura Benkarth have yet to be capped at the senior level.  Marozsán’s first senior appearance came in 2011, while Lotzen and Wensing appeared as substitutes in matches at this year’s Algarve Cup. Three of the U-20 players won individual awards at this year’s U-20 Women’s World Cup: Benkarth was awarded the Golden Glove as best goalkeeper, Marozsán won the Golden Ball for being the most valuable player, and Lotzen won the Bronze Boot for having the third-most goals scored in the tournament.

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TABLE: Germany’s Travel Roster

S#   PLAYER                    P.   D.O.B.        AGE   CAPS    G
 1   Angerer, Nadine           GK   11/10/1978   33.9    109    0
12   Schult, Almuth            GK   02/09/1991   21.7      8    0
21   Benkarth, Laura           GK   10/14/1992   20.0      0    0
 2   Schmidt, Bianca           DF   01/23/1990   22.7     28    1
 3   Bartusiak, Saskia         DF   09/09/1982   30.1     58    0
 4   Peter, Babett             DF   05/12/1988   24.4     69    4
 5   Krahn, Annike             DF   07/01/1985   27.3     82    4
23   Maier, Leonie             DF   09/29/1992   20.1      0    0
15   Faißt, Verena             DF   05/22/1989   23.4     10    0
22   Wensing, Luisa            DF   02/08/1993   19.7      2    0
 6   Laudehr, Simone           MF   07/12/1986   26.3     53   13
 7   Behringer, Melanie        MF   11/18/1985   26.9     83   24
 8   Kulig, Kim                MF   04/09/1990   22.5     29    6
10   Bresonik, Linda           MF   12/07/1983   28.9     78    8
17   Odebrecht, Viola          MF   02/11/1983   29.7     42    2
20   Goeßling, Lena            MF   03/08/1986   26.6     40    3
18   Huth, Svenja              MF   01/25/1991   21.7      7    0
 9   Popp, Alexandra           FW   04/06/1991   21.5     29   19
11   Mittag, Anja              FW   05/16/1985   27.4     79   14
14   Marozsán, Dzsenifer       FW   04/18/1992   20.5      7    3
16   Müller, Martina           FW   04/18/1980   32.5    100   37
13   Okoyino da Mbabi, Celia   FW   06/27/1988   24.3     70   35
24   Lotzen, Lena              FW   09/11/1993   19.1      3    0