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With a bout of international friendlies scheduled for next Wednesday smack dab in-amongst Bayern Munich's regular season, it's important to remember that the games next week are next-to-meaningless and are an exercise in exhausting most of the players with five days of whirlwind travel sandwiched between two matches. These are the kinds of choices and actions that get players severely injured. This is not a tune-up friendly in late May or early June with specific purpose and goal that would actually factor in as an important reason to do them. We'll probably all still watch anyways. All matches are on Wednesday, March 5th 2014.
Austria:
David Alaba
The Austrians play for pride, having lost out on a their summer trip to Brazil, as they take on Uruguay at home.
Belgium:
Daniel Van Buyten
The Belgians get their tune-up ahead of World Cup 2014 as they take on the Ivory Coast at the King Baudouin Stadium, Belgium.
Brazil:
Dante, Rafinha
The 2014 World Cup host nation takes on South Africa away from home.
Croatia:
Mario Mandzukic
The Croatians have an extremely important test match as they take on fellow World Cup attendees Switzerland.
France:
Franck Ribery
The French national team plays host to the Netherlands. Franck Ribery will most likely not play due to his ongoing recovery following compartment syndrome surgery.
Germany:
Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm, Mario Götze, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller
The German national team faces Chile in a prelude to what could be a World Cup heavyweight bout. The Chilean national team, led by Arturo Vidal, is a potent force and should be a fantastic test for Jogi Löw's men. Of any of these friendlies, this is probably the only one of any importance. With the return of Thomas Müller to training only today after his injury over the weekend, he'll most likely sit out this round.
Netherlands:
Arjen Robben
The Netherlands head to France because they're playing France in a friendly. Shocking, I know.
Spain:
Javier Martines, Thiago Alcantara
Spain plays Italy because just in case the last 18,000 times they matched up were flukes, they want to see if they can produce something that might be considered an exciting game.
Switzerland:
Xherdan Shaqiri
Switzerland play Croatia but given Xherdan Shaqiri just returned to training, I doubt he plays(or even goes), so hit the snooze button and catch the highlights. Unless you like Granit Xhaka.
USA:
Julian Green
The Bayern II youngster has been called in by Jurgen Klinnsmann to train with the US Men's National Team but will not feature for them due to ineligibility under FIFA regulations.