Germans comfortable on synthetic turf

Germany assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick insisted his team will be prepared for the challenge of playing on synthetic turf in Kazakhstan.

The squad have been training on a similar facility in Frankfurt ahead of making the long trip to central Asia for their World Cup qualifier.

Joachim Loew’s side are in pole position in Group C of UEFA qualifying for the 2014 tournament in Brazil, and are strong favourites to beat the hosts in Astana.

And Flick was confident they would vindicate that favouritism at the Astana Arena on Friday.

“I think we’ve shown a couple of times now, however, that we can handle this – we’ve already played a few matches over there,” Flick said.

“Technically, we are a highly educated team. That obviously helps us on synthetic turf because we can play precise and good passes.

“During the training sessions ahead of the game we are going to get used to the ground. We will prepare our players as well as we can. We will practice some different formations and moves especially for the synthetic turf.”

Germany have already played the minnows there once – in 2010 they ran out easy 3-0 victors on their way to recording a perfect 10 wins out of 10 in qualifying for Euro 2012.

And forward Mario Goetze said it was up to coach Loew on whether he played further forward or sat in midfield when they took on the Kazakhs.

“Well, it always depends on the coach,” Goetze said.

“Which system he chooses, which players he wants to see on the pitch. Obviously you are very flexible with a so called nine or false nine in your system.

“There are a lot of options for the player, you can let yourself fall into the midfield for a while or you can choose one of the positions up front. You just have a lot of options.

“But as I said it depends on the coach, on his philosophy and on the system he has in mind. In the end it is all based on that.”