With Serbia achieving a shock 1-0 win over group favourites Germany, our group is left wide open with every team a good chance to qualify.
A rejuvenated Serbian side played a 4-5-1 and took it to the Germans. They played a tight defensive game and gave little room to the likes of Ozil and Schweinsteiger.
After losing their opening match 1-0 to Ghana thanks to a penalty, it looked as though Serbia’s lead against Germany was to be dashed by none other than another penalty. Alas, it was not to be with Podolski’s poorly struck spot kick saved well by Serbian goal keeper Stojkovic.
Germany looked much less convincing in their second match, a worrying fact for Australia as either they were over confident or Serbia were a lot better than our Socceroos were against the Germans.
I feel the latter is the case. Although the equation is now simple for our Socceroos; win both remaining matches to be assured progression, the task at hand is very, very difficult.
A fit and well drilled Ghana to beat, and a Serbia who defended well and were effective on the break who will now be full of confidence leaves our Aussies as large under dogs yet again.
With a less impressive Germany on display tonight, Ghana may well provide another upset if they can stifle Germany’s precision passing game and lethal attack.
Serbia showed tonight just how to do that and I hope that Ghana do their home work to give us an entertaining final group match.
Even when Germany introduced Cacau, Marin and Gomez in a last ditch attempt to salvage a point, Serbia, even with having a man advantage after Klose’s two yellow cards, were stark in defence as Nemanja Vidic rallied his troops and barely looked threatened as Germany resorted to speculative balls into the box from range.
Serbia’s win leaves the Socceroo’s future in their own hands for now. Two wins will see us go through to the final 16 stage regardless of results. A win and a draw will leave our future hanging on a knife’s edge as we cross our fingers for other results to go our way.
In this situation, if we do draw and win one, we will need to draw with Ghana, beat Serbia by a large margin to get our goal difference back up, and then hope that the German’s destroy Ghana by at least four goals.
This is the reality we now face. In any case, a win tomorrow night against Ghana will put us on the right track and might just spur our boys on to another unexpected (at least by every other nation) appearance in the final 16.
Good luck boys, a nation’s hopes are resting on your shoulders. Time to step up and beat Ghana in their own continent. You want respect? Go out and earn it. Show us the Socceroos of yesteryear and bring the passion that every supporter feels back into your game. Do it for Tim, do it for your embattled coach, and do it for every person who wants to see Germany knocked out at the group stages. If that isn’t motivation enough then you don’t deserve to get through.
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Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
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