After winning the ERGO Masters in Düsseldorf ahead of
the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, the German men's head coach Markus
Weise announced his team for London yesterday.
The list contains many big names, as well as ten Olympic Champions
from Beijing 2008, who will be challenging the dominating Australian men
to retain their titles: both Zeller brothers, both Wess brothers, Max
Müller, Matthias Witthaus, Moritz Fürste, Tobias Hauke, Oliver Korn and
goalkeeper Max Weinhold.
Weise said: "The fact that we can fill several
positions doubly, with almost equivalent players, says a lot about the
high quality, which we have in this squad. It is bitter to have to tell
athletes who have done everything right that their big dream of the
Olympic Games will not be fulfilled. We as the staff have not taken it
lightly, and have gone back and forth a lot. At the end, when a decision
between two players who are equally strong has to be taken, it is a
decision by gut feeling. I am certain that we will have a very strong
team in London that can challenge any of the world's top teams."
The team has a one week camp scheduled for early July, including two test matches with neighbours the Netherlands, before travelling to London after ten days of regeneration. Germany open their Olympic campaign on 30 July with their match against Belgium.
Olympic Squad: Max Weinhold (GK), Oskar Deecke, Florian
Fuchs, Moritz Fürste, Martin Häner, Tobias Hauke, Oliver Korn,
Maximilian Müller, Jan-Philipp Rabente, Thilo Stralkowski, Christopher
Wesley, Benjamin Wess, Timo Wess, Matthias Witthaus, Christopher Zeller,
Philipp Zeller
P Accreditations: Nicolas Jacobi (GK), Linus Butt
Source: German Hockey Association
