Germany coach Joachim Low has named 27 men in his provisional squad for World Cup 2010.
Dennis Aogo of Hamburg and Holger Badstuber of Bayern Munich are new additions who have surprised many commentators, but the main elements of the squad are strikingly similar to the group of players which Germany called upon for their World Cup Qualifying campaign.
The coach has named just 27 players, which means he will only have to select four to drop before officially handing his final 23 man squad to FIFA by 1 June, as the rules stipulate he must.
Germany are in World Cup Group D, alongside Australia, Ghana and Serbia.
Germany Provisional Squad
Goalkeepers: Hans-Jorg Butt, Manuel Neuer, Tim Wiese
Defenders: Per Mertesacker, Heiko Westermann, Philipp Lahm, Jerome Boateng, Andrea Beck, Arne Friedrich, Serdar Tasci, Marcell Jansen, Holger Badstuber, Dennis Aogo.
Midfielders: Michael Ballack, Sami Khedira, Piotr Trochowski, Marko Marin, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Christian Trasch, Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos.
Forwards: Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Stefan Kiessling, Cacau, Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez.
