Plattenhardt and Germany ready for Confed Cup start

Berlin/Sochi- Germany’s National team squad has only played two warm up games as preparation ahead of this summer’s Confed Cup. Joachim Löw selected a host of new faces for the tournament, which started on Saturday and will begin for Die Mannschaft on Monday evening against Australia. “The team are looking forward to it,” said an excited coach Joachim Löw. “The training sessions have shown how up for this the boys are,” explained Löw. Marvin Plattenhardt is one of those raring to go in Russia. He is one of the nine new faces in the squad competing in their first international tournament for the Senior team. “I’d just like to play in front of a lot of fans, with a good atmosphere in the stadium, and obviously get as many minutes on the pitch as I can,” said the Hertha left back. 

Plattenhardt is likely to find himself with playing time as Joachim Löw looks to rotate and test out his squad. “We will be able to make these players better and I can experiment with competition scenarios,” said Löw, who arrived in Russia last Thursday with his squad. “Everything here is perfect, the training base, the weather, the hotel and the atmosphere, everything works,” said a satisfied and settled Plattenhardt.  

Meeting with a new teammate

The team’s hotel overlooks the beach - and from there it is only a few hundreds metres to the Olympic Satdium - where Monday’s game will take place. The match could see Plattenhardt square up against new Hertha teammate Mathew Leckie, who is in line to start for the ‘Socceroos’. “It’s funny it’s worked out like that, to play against him so soon, I’m looking forward to getting to know him,” laughed Plattenhardt. The DFB team will go into the clash full of confidence. “They lost their friendly with Brayil 4-0 the other day but that won’t mean they won’t be strong opponents in this tournament. We’ll go in as favourites though and we want to win,” explained the man from Berlin. From the Aussie’s point of view, they will treat the game with respect. “It will be tough, but if we put on our best display and cut out the errors then we’ll have a chance,” said Leckie, who already has 39 international caps for his country. 

It’s a chance however that Löw does not what to afford to his Oceania counterparts. “We must stay tight at the back, because they are good going forward. We will want to have a lot of possession and we can look at our strategy from there.

Two more group games this week

After Monday’s game there will still be at least two more group matches to be played - with Chile the opponents on Thursday before an encounter with Cameroon on Sunday. Should Germayn finish first or second in their group then a semi-final will await them on either June 28 or 29, before a third place play-off or potential final on Sunday July 2.