Germany to be based in North Carolina for World Cup

Germany's World Cup squad will be based in the North Carolina city of Winston Salem, the DFB national football federation announced on Friday.

They will be based at the historic Norman revival style Graylyn Estate hotel and will train on pitches at Wake Forest University, just two kilometres away, the DFB added.

Winston Salem is a city known for its universities and historic involvement in the tobacco industry.

"The most important thing is the proximity to the pitches. Here, we have three football pitches in a very, very good condition, which meet all of our sporting needs," head coach Julian Nagelsmann said in a DFB statement.

"We can get there on foot and in less than 10 minutes by bicycle. That was a determining factor."

Germany will play three friendly matches in Europe in May before heading to the United States on June 2.

They will play one more friendly in the US, against the hosts on June 6 in Chicago, before hunkering down in Winston Salem, in the southeast of the country.

Their three Group E matches will be against Curacao in Houston on June 14, Ivory Coast in Toronto on June 20 and Ecuador in East Rutherford on June 25.

Four-time World Cup winners, Germany were eliminated in the group stages in the last two editions.

They qualified for these finals in North America thanks to a 6-0 thrashing of Slovakia in their final qualification match.