World champions Germany will play their first World Cup qualifiers of the new season with five FC Bayern players in the squad. Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller and the three Confed Cup winners Joshua Kimmich, Niklas Süle and Sebastian Rudy are in Joachim Löw’s 24-man squad for the games against Czech Republic on 1 September and Norway three days later. Not in the squad are Jérôme Boateng, who is recovering from an injury, and captain Manuel Neuer who is on the verge of making his comeback in goal for Bayern. “We said to Manuel Neuer we would let him build up his match fitness with Bayern München first,” explained Löw.
Ancelotti welcomes further use of video assistant
Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti has welcomed the news that the video assistant referee will be used again on matchday two despite technical problems at the start of the season. “The video assistant is important,” said Ancelotti on Friday before training at Säbener Straße. He hopes the problems that occurred will be remedied as he regards the new feature as a “good development” that will reduce the amount of “complaints and arguments” on the pitch. However the DFB (Deutsche Fußball Liga) announced on Friday that the part which deals with offside decisions will be abandoned for now.
VDV honours FCB players - Lewandowski player of the season
Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Niklas Süle, David Alaba, Thiago and Robert Lewandowski have all been named in the German footballers‘ association’s team of the 2016/17 season. The 'Vereinigung der Vertragsfußballer' (VDV) collects votes from players across the top four leagues in Germany. The six men were recognised this week at Säbener Straße by VDV chairman Ulf Baranowsky and team supervisor Markus Lützler. Lewandowski also received a second award: the striker was chosen as the VDV player of the season with 37.6% of the votes. Thiago came third with 10.2%.
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