Desperate attempt to create team-spirit

It might be a challenge for Joachim Loew as two days are left before the 56-year-old German head-coach finalizes his 23-player squad for EURO 2016 in France.

"We will have last discussions within the coaching staff and the team docs. Just as important is the need to create a new team-spirit," Loew said after his team lost a friendly against the European Championship participant Slovakia 3-1 in Augsburg.

Originally Loew wanted to give four youngsters like Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Julian Weigl (Borussia Dortmund/both 21), Leroy Sane (FC Schalke 04) and Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen/both 20) the opportunity to prove themselves and show why they should be a member of the final squad.

Loew`s plans were crushed by a heavy thunderstorm. While Kimmich and Sane had their bright moments it was nearly impossible for Brandt and Weigl to score plus points in the second half as conditions were almost unplayable due to the bad weather.

Despite the youngsters, Mario Goetze (Bayern Munich) and Mario Gomez (Besiktas Istanbul) impressed and must have secured their places in the German squad. Gomez converted a penalty to put the team 1-0 up after Goetze, who played with a broken rib, was fouled.

Loew left out nine senior players as experienced figures like Mesut Oezil (Arsenal), Thomas Mueller, Manuel Neuer (both Bayern Munich) were given a rest. Additionally Toni Kroos, who won the Champions League with Real Madrid on Saturday and Lukas Podolski, who won the Turkish cup final with Galatasaray Istanbul, will join the team soon.

The coach is not happy about his long list of doubtful candidates such as the injured Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund/Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) and Karim Bellarabi (Bayer Leverkusen). As for Schweinsteiger and Hummels, Loew is likely to add them to his squad despite their injury problems.

Oliver Bierhoff, 1996 European Championship winner and current general manager of the German national team, said Schweinsteiger "is doing well. He' s experienced and basically very positive. We are also positive about the progress he has made in the last days" .

Neither Loew nor Bierhoff want to do away with Schweinsteiger' s experience and value for the German team. The captain' s determination was one of the key reasons why Germany won the 2014 World Cup. Even a cut to his head could not stop him in the final against Argentina (1-0). Schweinsteiger (and Hummels) are two key figures in Loew' s team-building puzzle. Loew is considering including Schweinsteiger in his final squad even when the midfielder might have to miss the EURO group phase as he says: "We will need two teams, one that goes through the group phase and one that will finish the tournament in the knock-out phase."

Choosing the best 23 players will be the most important task for Loew as the German head-coach has to develop new team-spirit. In many friendlies and qualifying games, Loew' s team showed an unusual inconsistency. His attempt to create a new team spirit has been made difficult by injury problems in recent weeks.

"We had problems in the past, but we always managed to solve them," Oliver Bierhoff said. "No matter who will be part of the final squad, they all know that a challenging task lies ahead of us. We want to win the tournament and all of us, the team, the coaches, the staff millions of German fans are behind this idea," Bierhoff said.

Creating team spirit is a tricky business that goes beyond the nomination of the "right" 23. "Team-spirit does not fall off a tree like ripe fruit," said Georg Behlau who is responsible for organization at the German Football Association. "A short while ago many players were rivals in league or cup matches. We have to get things together again."

In their pre-tournament training camp, Behlau and his team are trying to set up as many "places where players come together and meet," said Behlau. To get to their training ground for instance the team uses bikes instead of using the team coach.

Before Germany face their last pre-tournament test games against Hungary next Saturday, Loew will have to decide about his final squad. "It is my job to take hard decisions. We all know all the players have to quality to be part. And we know the youngsters are the ones for the future," Loew said.