New Faces for Germany

With Germany off to a comfortable start in Group D of the Euro 2008 qualifying round, Löw can afford to experiment with personnel. He's included four debutants against the Czech Republic: goalkeeper Robert Enke, defender Gonzalo Castro, midfielder Roberto Hilbert and striker Stefan Kießling.

I'm convince the young players will be good for us," said Löw during the team's preparations for that match. "I'm convinced they'll want to prove themselves and that they will bring fresh blood into the squad."

The new call-ups are a sign that Löw intends to continue the trend toward youth begun under his predecessor Jürgen Klinsmann.

Reinforcements at the back

Least surprisingly, Löw has included Hanover's Robert Enke. Long regarded one of the Bundesliga's best goalkeepers, the 29-year-old Enke proved his worth against Hamburg at the weekend, making two acrobatic saves in the space of ten seconds to preserve a nil-nil draw for his team.

Enke is widely tipped to become Germany's number-three keeper, behind Arsenal's Jens Lehmann and Stuttgarts Timo Hildebrand, in Germany's Euro 2008 run.

He'll be joined on Saturday by Gonzalo Castro. The 19-year-old defender, who usually lines up on the right side, has been instrumental in Leverkusen's recent rise to fifth in the table, and with three goals and an assist in the Bundesliga this year, he can push the ball forward as well.

Two relative unknowns for the attack

In the middle, Löw has decided to give Stuttgart's Roberto Hilbert a crack. Slowly but surely, the 22-year-old has become one of the Bundesliga's most solid midfielders.

Hilbert has three league goals and three assists this season, and he certainly showed what can do in Stuttgart's 4-1 thrashing of Bremen this February. In that match, which solidified Stuttgart's spot in top three, Hilbert scored the opener and set up the final goal.

Up front, Löw has opted to go with Stefan Kießling. The 23-year-old striker may have blown a number of good scoring chances after moving from Nuremberg to Leverkusen this summer, but he has still popped in five goals.

And as forward with size and speed, Löw obviously feels Kießling has too much potential to be ignored.

Whether any of the quartet will see action on Saturday remains to be seen, but their nomination in a qualifier shows that spots on the squad are still up for grabs as Germany prepares for next year's event in Switzerland and Austria.