Germany travels to Iceland for a key European Championship qualifier with one major worry on coach Rudi Voeller's mind: who will score the goals Germans need to qualify?
Germany's final test before the trip to Reykjavik was a 1-0 loss to Italy in Stuttgart two weeks ago. An injury-depleted German team produced a creditable performance, especially in the second half, when it created a dozen chances. But there was no one to finish them.
Four strikers tried their luck in that game and none could score.
Voeller has now recalled young Stuttgart forward Kevin Kuranyi, who was last season's top Bundesliga scorer apart from foreigners with 15 goals.
Kuranyi wasn't selected for Italy match and instead did Under-21 duty. This time it's 1860 Munich's Benjamin Lauth who has been sent to the juniors.
But neither Kuranyi nor Fredi Bobic have scored a goal in four games so far this season for their clubs. Miroslav Klose has one for Kaiserslautern and only Oliver Neuville appears to be hot, with three goals for Bayer Leverkusen.
Bobic has been starting recently but he still appears unsettled in his new club, Hertha Berlin, and Voeller may decide to reshuffle his forward line.
The return of the talented pair of Bayern Munich midfielders Michael Ballack and Sebastian Deisler could provide more punch to Voeller's team. Ballack is one of the team's more consistent scorers and Deisler can score too, especially from free kicks.
But Deisler is still not fully fit after missing 17 months overcoming a severe knee injury.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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