Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann, right, celebrates with forward Miroslav Klose. AP Photo/Murad Sezer
D is for death, or at least that’s what all football loving Australian’s are thinking, whilst praying it’s not the case. This group is tougher than your blind Aunties’ meatloaf that she overcooked for five hours.
Group D includes:
GERMANY – Qualified through good old fashioned German discipline, ruthless efficiency, and a light mint sauce on their sauerkraut.
AUSTRALIA – Qualified by removing themselves from the powerball lottery of Oceania, and going into the chook raffle that is the Asian confederation.
SERBIA – Qualified because they were in a group with the Faroe Islands. Come on, they have to move one of the goals every time a mini has to make a U-turn in the main street.
GHANA – Qualified by playing while everyone else was shooting at Emmanuel Adebayor.
Despite the injury to Michael Ballack in the FA Cup Final, Germany will once again march their way through this tournament with minimal fuss and a familiar air of superiority over their lesser rivals.
The neccessity for this confident approach came after the embarrassing loss suffered at the hands of a group of prisoners of war that can be seen in the documentary, Escape to Victory. Of course, they were embarrassed.
The Germans will forever be trying to erase that defeat from people’s memories. So far, it has been unsuccessful.
Serbia as a country have survived two splits, from Yugoslavia and then Montenegro. For a country with such a chequered past (wait, that’s Croatia again) they are surprisingly successful as a footballing nation. They will strike fear into the hearts and minds of their opposition.
Ghana have performed so well in the African Nations Cup and yet have managed to suck worse than a broken vacuum cleaner in World Cup competition.
However, ‘The Black Stars’ seem to be turning the corner from the boulevard of broken dreams and onto the freeway of fairly decent results (wow, Ghana has some really weird street names).
Their second straight World Cup appearance will more than likely be tougher than 2006 in which they were defeated by Brazil in the Round of 16.
And so we come to Australia.
We would all love to believe that a repeat performance from 2006 is on the cards. This is not out of the question. With Tim Cahill scoring more headed goals than I’ve had hot dinners, coupled with his penchant for performing on the big stage, a return to the second round is possible.
The Socceroos have one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Mark Schwarzer, but the defence in front of him has the look of swiss cheese that someone has put through a blender. In other words, the holes might not always be visible but the consistency of the mixture can break apart very easily.
The man that can hold this team together ironically has trouble holding himself together. Harry Kewell, Australia’s most injured sports star (I believe that’s his official title). Harry will make or break this campaign. If he is fit and firing then we have a good shot at progressing.
However, if he snaps some vital organ, then we the fans will be snapped back to reality.
Prediction:
1. Germany
2. Australia (more heart than head in play here)
3. Serbia
4. Ghana
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