Germany start season in sorrow

It wasn't going to be a normal football match as Germany was in a "state of mourning" after the devastating plane crash in the French Alps claiming 150 victims, 72 Germans among them.

As Germany's 2014 World Cup winners were playing their first match in 2015 after a four-month break against Australia on Wednesday evening in Kaiserslautern (2-2), the action on the field was not uppermost in people's minds.

The German and Australian teams, two of the victims were Australian citizens, honored the victims with a minute of silence and all the players wore black ribbon on their shirts. Both teams gathered in the center of the pitch. "You can't have a clear thought in your mind after what happened, the dreadful plane crash lies over everything. We as a football family pay our deepest respect to the victims and their families," said the German Football Association's President Wolfgang Niersbach.

Five days ahead of Germany's next Euro 2016 qualifier against Georgia in Tiflis on Sunday, it must have been a special game for Benedikt Hoewedes, the defender from Schalke 04 who was born in Haltern am See, the little town with 37,000 inhabitants where 16 school students and two teachers that died in the disaster came from.

"Everybody knows I come from Haltern am See and I still have many friends and relatives there. I can't express how sad I am about the dreadful disaster. I wish the families of the victims a lot of strength to get over this," wrote Hoewedes on twitter, like many other teammates and association officials.

Germany's coach Joachim Loew started the warm-up against 2015 Asian Cup winners Australia with many of his key players on the bench in order to try new players and new tactics like a three-man defense.

Jerome Boateng, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Mueller (all Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Christoph Kramer (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) and Andre Schuerrle (VfL Wolfsburg) were all on the bench in order to give Jonas Hector (1. FC Cologne), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich) and Ilkay Guendogan (Borussia Dortmund) the opportunity of getting some match practice.

Keeper Manuel Neuer from Bayern Munich was sidelined due to a minor knee injury. Following a long injury break, Badstuber, like Guendogan, was back in the team for the first time since his last match in 2012.

While Sami Khedira announced this Wednesday that he will definitely leave Real Madrid next summer and Kroos was honored as Germany's "international player of the year", Loew's team played an unusual 3-5-2 (or 3-1-4-2) system after the coach had announced he would be trying out new systems in order to become more effective against defensively-minded teams. Rumors have it that Schalke 04, Chelsea and Arsenal are all in the hunt for Khedira's signature.

In the fifth game between Germany and Australia, the Germans had problems to control the game and Australia bothered them with their pacy forwards and their counterattacks. The draw, which pleased Australia more than it did the home team, was the best Germany's "new team" could manage on the day. Loew used 16 players against Australia such as players on the fringe like Sebastian Rudy (TSG Hoffenheim) and Max Kruse (Borussia Moenchengladbach).

Next Sunday against Georgia, Germany will have to improve in order to gain points to qualify for the 2016 European Championship in France. So far the German campaign has not been convincing and they are currently only lying third in the qualifying group. After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Germany's form is far from satisfying.

The German game against Australia was more or less the same story as their play lacked organization which was no surprise after Loew had changed his team around. But the Germans again, like in their matches against Argentina 2-4, Scotland 2-1, Poland 0-2 and Ireland 1-1, had problems in their defense and after losing the ball.

Before the friendly, Loew pointed out that he is looking for a new left and right back and wants to strengthen the flanks. However there was nobody in his line-up that looked good enough to fill the vacant places.

"We today tried a lot of new things and we had many players that didn't play much last month. The aim for the next one and a half years is to get into a rhythm again after the World Cup as we have to find a new team," said Loew.

Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio Rome) and Per Mertesacker (FC Arsenal) all retired after the World Cup.

"The team is aware that we have to improve next Sunday against Georgia. But I have no doubts that we will get into a better shape," said Loew, knowing that his eleven next Sunday will look more like the one that won the World Cup in Brazil. Endi