Group D: Germany v Australia

[Crocodiles]

It would be an exaggeration to term this a grudge match, but a degree of festering antipathy has been evident between Germany and Australia during the pre-match exchanges. Germany have already vocally questioned the Australian’s style; a tactic which suggests a certain apprehension about how easy it will be to create chances against disciplined and well organised opponents.

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

latest update from socceroo's camp..

Hiddink reveals his plan for Germany
David Davutovic

From: News Limited newspapers June 13, 2010 12:11AM

Soccer coach Guus Hiddink during Socceroos raining at Stuttgart, Germany, in 2006. Source: AP
I'm ready for 90 minutes - KewellPlay
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I'm ready for 90 minutes - Kewell
Harry Kewell says he's ready to play 90 minutes for the Socceroos in their World Cup opener.
Views today: 7Sorry, this video is no longer available.TWO men with an intimate knowledge of Australia and Germany have urged the Socceroos to attack their fragile opponents in tonight's their World Cup opener.

Kewell, 31, is desperate to deliver on the grandest stage of all and has been doing everything at training to prove to coach Pim Verbeek that he is ready to go.

The fragile front man, however, will only be unleashed against the powerhouse Germans as a second-half substitute, as a worried Verbeek errs on the side of caution.

The great Kewell conundrum has occupied the coach's mind all week, with the striker's famously suspect groin under intense scrutiny.

Although the media was only allowed to observe 15 minutes of training on Friday night, Kewell looked better than he had since arriving in South Africa.

Verbeek is so worried that the slightest setback could end Kewell's participation in the tournament before it has even begun, he has opted to deploy him off the bench - possibly for as little as 20 minutes as Australia looks to spring a massive upset against Joachim Low's confident side.


With only two and a bit club games for his Turkish club Galatasaray this year, the clock is ticking for Kewell to emerge from mothballs and prove he can still beguile where others can only toil. But the reality is that stringbean pointman Josh Kennedy will get the nod in Durban, with Tim Cahill deployed in the hole behind him.

Defender Scott Chipperfield, for one, wants to see Kewell work his magic on the match, even if it is only in a cameo role as a central striker.

"We all remember how Harry performed in our final group game against Croatia four years ago when he scored the equaliser which got us through to the last 16," Chipperfield said. "When you have somebody of that quality, of course you can't wait to see them out there."

Verbeek hopes he doesn't have to send an SOS to Kewell as he plots to frustrate the three-time world champion.

The Socceroos will park bodies behind the ball, squeeze the space in midfield and attempt to use the guile and elusiveness of Tim Cahill and the creative tendencies Mark Bresciano to augment Kennedy, whose aerial threat will be closely monitored by German centre backs Arne Friedrich and Per Mertesacker.

Verbeek knows that the key to qualification from Group D is likely to hinge more on how Australia performs against Ghana and Serbia than against the Germans, and is doing all in his power to have Kewell available for those games.

The Germans, who view the Socceroos as little more than a stepping-stone to greater glories ahead, will play a 4-2-3-1 system, with Miroslav Klose leading the charge.

Providing the ammunition through the middle, and the man charged with exposing Vince Grella and Jason Culina, will be the tricky and elusive new face of German football Mesut Oezil. The creative midfielder's vision, sublime touches and speed of execution could cause trouble for Verbeek's men.

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

Harry will hit Germans off the bench

David Lewis From: News Limited newspapers June 12, 2010 11:52PM


IT'S the news Socceroos fans have been dying to hear - Harry Kewell is fit and ready ahead of the team's opening World Cup match against Germany.

Kewell, 31, is desperate to deliver on the grandest stage of all and has been doing everything at training to prove to coach Pim Verbeek that he is ready to go.

The fragile front man, however, will only be unleashed against the powerhouse Germans as a second-half substitute, as a worried Verbeek errs on the side of caution.

The great Kewell conundrum has occupied the coach's mind all week, with the striker's famously suspect groin under intense scrutiny.

Although the media was only allowed to observe 15 minutes of training on Friday night, Kewell looked better than he had since arriving in South Africa.

Verbeek is so worried that the slightest setback could end Kewell's participation in the tournament before it has even begun, he has opted to deploy him off the bench - possibly for as little as 20 minutes as Australia looks to spring a massive upset against Joachim Low's confident side.


With only two and a bit club games for his Turkish club Galatasaray this year, the clock is ticking for Kewell to emerge from mothballs and prove he can still beguile where others can only toil.

But the reality is that stringbean pointman Josh Kennedy will get the nod in Durban, with Tim Cahill deployed in the hole behind him.

Defender Scott Chipperfield, for one, wants to see Kewell work his magic on the match, even if it is only in a cameo role as a central striker.

"We all remember how Harry performed in our final group game against Croatia four years ago when he scored the equaliser which got us through to the last 16," Chipperfield said. "When you have somebody of that quality, of course you can't wait to see them out there."

Verbeek hopes he doesn't have to send an SOS to Kewell as he plots to frustrate the three-time world champion.

The Socceroos will park bodies behind the ball, squeeze the space in midfield and attempt to use the guile and elusiveness of Tim Cahill and the creative tendencies Mark Bresciano to augment Kennedy, whose aerial threat will be closely monitored by German centre backs Arne Friedrich and Per Mertesacker. Verbeek knows that the key to qualification from Group D is likely to hinge more on how Australia performs against Ghana and Serbia than against the Germans, and is doing all in his power to have Kewell available for those games.

The Germans, who view the Socceroos as little more than a stepping-stone to greater glories ahead, will play a 4-2-3-1 system, with Miroslav Klose leading the charge.

Providing the ammunition through the middle, and the man charged with exposing Vince Grella and Jason Culina, will be the tricky and elusive new face of German football Mesut Oezil.

The creative midfielder's vision, sublime touches and speed of execution could cause trouble for Verbeek's men.

Meanwhile, Adelaide United keeper Eugene Galekovic was yesterday officially added to the Socceroos squad to replace Brad Jones.

[Heaven Up Here]

Do you think Australia might upset Germany?

Another Green moment and anything's possible.

[gibbo]

i think we can win, our side has enough quality

[Hawkesy]

i think we can win, our side has enough quality

what part of germany are you from?

[pingers]

This is painful to watch.

[messidona]

This is painful to watch.

+ 1...Germany looks like scoring everytime they venture forward.

[pingers]

Wheres the penalty Ref you Donkey!!!!?

[Mr Magoo]

Bye, Bye Timmy.

[Heaven Up Here]

4-0... look on the bright side, four years ago Ukraine were hammered 4-0 in their opening match but still came through the group.

[pingers]

The ref has killed our campaign. No Cahill fot the next game hurts

[HandyMan]

Well Atleast Leyton Hewitt won and beat Federer in GERMANY )

[Heaven Up Here]

The ref has killed our campaign. No Cahill fot the next game hurts

Awesome.

[swannsong]

Pim Verbeek = Neil Craig = dull !
Australian football needs a Malcolm Blight figure at the helm !
Some of Germany's off season signings have performed well !

[# 9]

pim verbeek cost us this one. the style he has us playing is astonishingly poor, they may aswell have us playing for the fuckn wallabies, back pass after back pass after back pass, SOOOOOOO MONOTONE. some poor desicions by the ref too, by no means was it a red for cahill, you saw that he pulled out his feet from the challenge that he knew he wasent gonna win, slide into another player and somehow copped a red.. :? maybe a yellow for now being accurate. valeri shouldnt have got a yellow either.you can respect the germans style of football but not their attitude, bastien, ozil and cacau were disgracful with their diving, disrespectful to the game on this stage.
wasent schwarzers night, poor decision for the second goal, that is what happens when you hesitate. Its sad to see this is the last world cup alot of our stars will play and pim has them playing this poorly, this walking pace, back passing, backwards mentality, i will be glad when pim leaves. another bad point is the over commiting of challenges, its one thing that pisses me off, and made valeri, and wilkshere look like novices, germany were playing really simple balls, good balls but very simple and the defenders would 'think' they can get it, and the germans would just sucker them in almost everytime with a pass or just a change in direction, ozil is a good example.

some signs of life were emerton, good to see him dodge and weave, look great especially as he is just back from injury. he was mixing it with the best of the germans, but unfortunatly he had nothing to work with. holman was very lively, got into space, ran forward very well. Culina was quite good too.

not sure of this, but is there an appeal panel for situations like cahill's? surely there should be people in place to override poor red card decisions...?

next game is goin to be very interesting to watch, pim will HAVE TO change the tactic to beat ghana, or we will not advance. attac, attack, will need to be the mind set, while obviously keeping stability at the back. neill and moore did very well one on one, but this high line defence killed us, those 2 need to play a bit deeper to compensate for their lack of pace.

next game

GK-Schwarzer
RB-Wilkshere
CB-Niell
CB-Moore
LB-Chippers or carney
RM-Emerton
DM-Culina
DM-Grella
LM-Bresciano
AM-Kewell
CF-Kennedy

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

a disgrace for red, but we tried.....we played the federer an golf star tiger of tthis world, yah carnt ask for much more....


bring on ghana an serbia......

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

Adam Brewer Pearce said.....


two moments in the game that doomed us to getting thrashed. I mean we have shit luck when two strikers that havent done shit for their clubs score if either of them score again this WC ill be surprised joachim lowe will pay for not getting over himself and putting kevin kuranyi who has being banging in the goals for schalke in the squad.

[MG&Son]

Ok, wow, where do i even start...

Anyone have any theory's on Pims drastic change of lineup!? Wasnt TOO bad, Garcia was looking very dangerous until he was moved to wide left, WTF!? he must start next match.
Emerton, drop him! lazy, no heart, no effort. Didnt see him chase back after losing the ball once, just jump up n down in a hissy fit. Runs down the line, cut, cut, cut, pass back. runs down the line, step over, loses the ball, hissy fit.

Bloody Moore and Neil to worried about being thugs and appealing for offside every time a ball was slipped past them. Let the linesman do his job boys. This shit cost us a goal.

lol @ Marks blunder, 2nd goal his fault.

we wont score a goal this campaign.

[coachingsoccer]

Pretty poor performance. All went German's way though, quick first goal, poor goalkeeping from Mark on second goal, red card for Cahill (not 100% if it was a red card to be honest).

But hey, Germany was always favourites of this group, and Ghana vs Serbia showed they are nowhere near to the quality Germany shows.

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

Pretty poor performance. All went German's way though, quick first goal, poor goalkeeping from Mark on second goal, red card for Cahill (not 100% if it was a red card to be honest).

But hey, Germany was always favourites of this group, and Ghana vs Serbia showed they are nowhere near to the quality Germany shows.

we should beat ghana an serbia to feel better in ourselves....

[Mr Magoo]

The ref has killed our campaign. No Cahill fot the next game hurts

Eh? The players had nothing to do with it? I've never heard so much whinging.

[Nice One Cyril]

Face facts fellas, Australia were well beaten by a far superior team but it's not over yet. Ghana and Serbia are nowhere near that standard but I think we'll probably have to beat them both now with the goal difference.

[Mr Magoo]

"There will be more difficult opponents to play. So this was a good warm-up. We will be happy about this win." - Joachim Loew on the 4-0 defeat of Australia today.

He thought it was a warm-up game. Did no-one tell Pim that?

[admin]

Moore had an absolute shocker.

Too often the lazy sod is walking back when he has been caught out of position.

Goal 1 - ball cut back across the box - what was Moore doing?...out of position and walking back
Goal 2 - Schwarzer
Goal 3 - Podolski fools Moore before laying the ball of to Muller. What does Moore do? He is out of position and he walks back
Goal 4 - Not directly Moores fault but where is he? He is 20metres away from the play and he is walking

The two central defenders need to work as a team and provide cover for each other. Too often during the game Craig Moore was caught behind the ball and walking back towards his own goal.

We were lucky to escape with 4-0 - it could have been worse!!

In that first goal there were 7 Australian players in the defensive zone and only 3/4 German players. The 3 German players strung 2 passes together and slapped the ball into the back of the net without any real pressure from the 7 Australian players. Very poor defending.

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

Moore had an absolute shocker.

Too often the lazy sod is walking back when he has been caught out of position.

Goal 1 - ball cut back across the box - what was Moore doing?...out of position and walking back
Goal 2 - Schwarzer
Goal 3 - Podolski fools Moore before laying the ball of to Muller. What does Moore do? He is out of position and he walks back
Goal 4 - Not directly Moores fault but where is he? He is 20metres away from the play and he is walking

The two central defenders need to work as a team and provide cover for each other. Too often during the game Craig Moore was caught behind the ball and walking back towards his own goal.

We were lucky to escape with 4-0 - it could have been worse!!

In that first goal there were 7 Australian players in the defensive zone and only 3/4 German players. The 3 German players strung 2 passes together and slapped the ball into the back of the net without any real pressure from the 7 Australian players. Very poor defending.

we played a 4-3-0................thats how shhhitt it was!

[Hawkesy]

we played a 4-3-0................thats how shhhitt it was!

fancy playing the germans with only 8 players. Silly really.

Bottom line is germany were quality and could have scored more. Completely outclassed. More reason why I hope England win their group and I don't want to face them in the next round.

Looking at this germany team and their age, put you money on it now 2014 they will win the world cup.

[Squizzy]

Face facts fellas, Australia were well beaten by a far superior team but it's not over yet.

No doubt about that and we had some poor individual performances too but some decisions made by the Ref, made life more difficult than it needed to be. And that's football, I guess.

[Squizzy]

we played a 4-3-0................thats how shhhitt it was!

fancy playing the germans with only 8 players. Silly really.

Bottom line is germany were quality and could have scored more. Completely outclassed. More reason why I hope England win their group and I don't want to face them in the next round.

Looking at this germany team and their age, put you money on it now 2014 they will win the world cup.

If they're allowed to play like that, I'd have to agree.

[honepsi yourself]

Pim Verbeek = Neil Craig = dull !
Australian football needs a Malcolm Blight figure at the helm !
Some of Germany's off season signings have performed well !