Group D - GERMANY, Australia, Serbia, Ghana

[mattfb]

C'mon Aussie, we need to win this one. Otherwise i'm afraid Soccer might fall down in popularity here.

No, it just wont grow. The tournament between Rangers, Blackburn, AEK Athens and Sydney will either a) get less bandwagoners if Australia goes out or b) help grow the sport in Sydney at least anyway.

mattfb added 0 Minutes and 29 Seconds later...

NZ beat Serbia, Serbia beat Germany, Germany smashed Australia

Therefore NZ>Australia

And Australia beat NZ...

mattfb added 1 Minutes and 34 Seconds later...

Since when is the Bundesliga of such a great quality. Bayern Munich is the only team out of Germany that can has the ability to do well in the Champions League.

It's exciting but not real good quality. Some good attacking teams though. Also Lyon made the semis of the CL.

 

[shravi]

If you bet against Serbia, who topped their qualification group, and have Nemanja Vidic, one of the better central defenders in world football, then you really didn't take a lot of time thinking about that bet...

Had A2 exams, so didn't see the match, but at least Germany weren't rampaged, and played well with 10 men from match reports. Disappointed with Podolski. Cacau and Marin should really start the next game. Should be a good challenge for the young German side - let's see if they can handle the pressure against Ghana.

No offense to Dare or anything, but Serbia played such a cheap and dirty game today. They went even more defensive after Germany lost Klose. They almost always had all 11 players in their own half and most of the time they only attacked with 2 or 3 players maximum. Germany outplayed them even with 10 men which makes you wonder what they could have done with 11 men.

 

[Cricketdude]

Not really. At 35 minutes Germany still hadn't had a clear cut chance on goal.

 

[Covvy]

I hope Pim plays Kewell and Kennedy from the start!

 

[Funknath]

Not really. At 35 minutes Germany still hadn't had a clear cut chance on goal.

I think the Germans had more possession with a 10 man team and had more shots on target than Serbia had. Podolski was ████ last night missing so many chances which included a penalty...how could he miss a penalty :doh Why didn't they give some one else umm such as Schweinstiger the chance to take the penalty shot?

 

[mattfb]

How were they supposed to know Podolski would miss? People miss penaltys. It happens.

 

[Funknath]

How were they supposed to know Podolski would miss? People miss penaltys. It happens.

He had already missed several chances before so they should have thought twice before giving Podolski the chance to take the penalty tbh.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

No offense to Dare or anything, but Serbia played such a cheap and dirty game today. They went even more defensive after Germany lost Klose. They almost always had all 11 players in their own half and most of the time they only attacked with 2 or 3 players maximum. Germany outplayed them even with 10 men which makes you wonder what they could have done with 11 men.

And that is football my friend. Everything that matters in the end is winning and for Serbia even the draw was like a win. They deserved a point there. Germany had their chances. You expect the players like Podolski to rise up on big occasions. He easily could have scored couple of goals. A team has all rights to ask their 11 players to stay on defense. They are all football strategies.

Shots on target: 3 - 2 (Ger- Ser)
Shots off target: 9 - 8 (Ger- Ser)
Possession (%): 51 - 49 (Ger- Ser)

Serbia got enough possession and nearly equal amount of shots off and on target. If you look at the numbers of fouls that both team have conceded then Germany actually played rough football with 19 fouls where Serbia only concede 10.
I understand your sentiment Shrav, but Germany only got themselves to blame.

 

[blake]

He had already missed several chances before so they should have thought twice before giving Podolski the chance to take the penalty tbh.

You have some of the worst logic I've ever read. Just because he may have mis-hit a shot earlier in the match has barely nothing to do with this. It's a penalty, if he is traditionally a better penalty taker than Schweinsteiger then why wouldn't he take it? If Schweinsteiger had taken it and missed you would probably be saying "Why didn't they give it to Podolski, he's a better taker than Schweinsteiger and could have justified some of his earlier misses."

I don't like the Serbians so I'm not particularly happy about them winning, though. Plus it means Australia are in even further trouble, now that every team has a win except them.

 

[JBlues08]

Hoping for Australia to beat Ghana to blow the group wide open. That should make things even more interesting in the last phase of group matches. :laugh

 

[ARay]

Hoping for Australia to beat Ghana to blow the group wide open. That should make things even more interesting in the last phase of group matches. :laugh

Ghana will be tough to crack! I doubt an Aussie win over them. However its football, anything can happen

 

[LongLegs?]

No offense to Dare or anything, but Serbia played such a cheap and dirty game today. They went even more defensive after Germany lost Klose. They almost always had all 11 players in their own half and most of the time they only attacked with 2 or 3 players maximum. Germany outplayed them even with 10 men which makes you wonder what they could have done with 11 men.

What people told me was that Germany looked much better with 10 men then they did with 11 men. Apparently Ozil was good again, but they seemed to rely way too much on Podolski, and he just couldn't finish yesterday. Podolski missed the penalty, when he would've generally put it away usually, but again, he generally converts, so I can see why they made him take it, and no problems with that. Happens. Muller wasn't great too, but yeah, I didn't watch, just what my friends told me.

Klose's red card suprised me - one of the more calmer guys on the pitch usually. Schweini wasn't very happy with the amount of red cards being shown this tournament - thought the referees were being way too harsh sometimes.

In all honesty, Germany should've been 4-0 before Cahill got sent off - Klose missed 2 easy opportunities. The red card did make the scoreline look better, of course, but that's what's expected once a player gets sent off, the opposition is meant to capitalise on the opportunity. Serbia did it, Germany did it in their first match, and that's the norm.

Good challenge next for the young Germans. Pressure match against Ghana, must-win situation - luckily the goal difference is +3, so a win should be enough. Even if something wierd happens, a draw might also be enough. Hoping Australia change their formation, and win against Ghana.

 

[Cricketdude]

If you go by that logic then it should have been 4-1 before the send off.

 

[shravi]

What people told me was that Germany looked much better with 10 men then they did with 11 men. Apparently Ozil was good again, but they seemed to rely way too much on Podolski, and he just couldn't finish yesterday. Podolski missed the penalty, when he would've generally put it away usually, but again, he generally converts, so I can see why they made him take it, and no problems with that. Happens. Muller wasn't great too, but yeah, I didn't watch, just what my friends told me.

Klose's red card suprised me - one of the more calmer guys on the pitch usually. Schweini wasn't very happy with the amount of red cards being shown this tournament - thought the referees were being way too harsh sometimes.

Podolski had a bit of a horror show yesterday. Kept going for shots which had no angle whatsoever (both before and after the penalty miss). I suppose he was kept on for that spark of brilliance but he was just off his game yesterday and wasn't really looking to pass the ball as he approached the box. As for Ozil, yeah, he was a great playmaker and made some good passes (I think it was him who hit the crossbar as well) but he wasn't clinical enough in front of goal. Muller was pretty much unnoticed for most of the game. Khedira too. But the Germans still put on a fine display, considering that they had ten men. It's just that they didn't have enough firepower up front with Klose gone until Low brought had Gomez, Cacau and Podolski all playing at the same time.

 

[Covvy]

Man I have a bad feeling about this. So far everything's gone wrong today for me. I tipped both the AFL matches wrong and got knocked out of this special tipping comp. And I also lost my APL match. Not to mention my sporting commitments went ████ today.

I hope I'm wrong.