Injuries are forcing national team coaches to make last-minute moves before Wednesday’s Euro 2008 qualifiers and international friendlies. But as Germany coach Joachim Loew discovered, it’s important to have to have the right telephone number when making these callups.
Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Paul Freier almost missed his call-up as a replacement in Germany’s squad for its Euro 2008 qualifier in Cyprus (TV: Setanta Sports USA, live, 1:55 pm ET) because Loew dialed an old cell number — Freier’s number from when he last played for Germany 20 months earlier — and left a message Freier never got.
When there was no word from Freier and only hours to go before the team’s departure to Nicosia, a German federation official contacted Rudi Voeller, Bayer Leverkusen’s soccer director, and got Freier’s new number.
Teenage defender Micah Richards will move right into the England lineup at right back for its friendly against the Netherlands in Amsterdam (TV: Setanta PPV, live, 2 pm ET) because starter Gary Neville was ruled out with an injury. England coach Steve McClaren is high on the 18-year-old Manchester City player, who will become the youngest defender ever to play for England.
“He’s a new breed of player — strong, quick, athletic, mobile and with a great leap,” says McClaren of Richards, who learned his soccer at a Brazilian soccer school. “In both boxes, he’ll be effective. He’s got a chance and I hope he takes it.”
With midfielders Gennaro Gattuso and Simone Perrotta out, Italy coach Roberto Donadoni made the surprise move to call up 30-year-old journeyman Cristian Brocchi, who has never been capped, for the friendly against Turkey in Bergamo (TV: RAI International, live, 2:55 pm ET).
“He is the right replacement for someone we have to be without,” Donadoni said of replacing Gattuso with his AC Milan teammate, Brocchi. “It is not a reward for his career, he simply deserved this callup.”