Shanghai - Striker Mario Gomez hopes his move to Bayern Munich will help end a 14-month goal drought for Germany when the national team takes on China on Friday.

"It certainly can't be a disadvantage that the decision has now been taken," Gomez told reporters Wednesday after the Germany squad arrived in Shanghai.

Gomez, 23, has not scored for Germany for 733 minutes, since netting twice in a 4-0 win in Switzerland on March 26, 2008, and was in poor form at the 2008 European Championships.

However he scored 24 league goals for VfB Stuttgart in the just-ended season, prompting Bayern Munich to pay a Bundesliga record of some 30 million euros (42 million dollars) for him.

Germany are Friday playing China in Shanghai for the first time in China before meeting the United Arab Emirates in Dubai on Tuesday.

Gomez could be accompanied in the Germany team by Brazilian-born Cacau, his erstwhile strike partner at Stuttgart, who has been called up into the squad for the first time.

"The DFB (German football federation) is doing everything for me to score again," Gomez joked of the prospect of playing with Cacau. "He has been my ideal partner for three years."

Coach Joachim Loew said he had every confidence Gomez would soon end his lean spell in front of goal for the national team.

"Mario is fighting for a goal," he said.

"With his class he will soon score. Our belief in him is unbroken."

Germany have taken a 17-man squad on their Asia and Middle East trip and are missing several key players including captain Michael Ballack, but Loew said the two friendlies were important games.

"We are looking forward to the two matches," he said.

"It's not that we are looking ahead to what could happen at the 2010 World Cup, but it is not a meaningless trip," he said. (dpa)