Group D - GERMANY, Australia, Serbia, Ghana

[LongLegs?]

Spain and Netherlands are also going to very good imo. My top 3 teams, for the Cup, and if I had to pick another one, I'd go Brazil, although they aren't as good as previous Brazilian squads.

Supporting Germany through and through though. Would love to see Lahm lift that trophy.

 

[Dutch]

Spain and Netherlands are also going to very good imo. My top 3 teams, for the Cup, and if I had to pick another one, I'd go Brazil, although they aren't as good as previous Brazilian squads.

Supporting Germany through and through though. Would love to see Lahm lift that trophy.

Not sure Holland has the experience and depth and fitness this time round. They will be good to watch though. They will need Robben fit to add pace. Spain are going to be very tough to beat. They are so quick. Lahm is one of those unsung players in my opinon. Does such a good job running up and down that wing and hardly puts a foot wrong.

 

[War]

Ha, Germany's team this decade has always been an enigma. They never have any star players (the current crop being the worst German team i've seen), especially with Ballack not playing. But yet they always play efficient football.

England should take a leaf out of the gerries book. England should have put away the USA, like what Germany did to AUS today.

 

[Hooper]

We are nothing without Viduka.

We won't make it past the group stage this year playing like that.

 

[Cricketdude]

It's because we played with the same formation and players in the qualifying and then the coach completely changed it with 3 defensive midfielders and Cahill as striker. Cahill never goes as striker he is a midfielder.

 

[Covvy]

Well, we got out-classed and I believe we probably would have lost even if we played our best. Here's the problems that stand out for me.

1) Defense is way too slow now. The Germans just ran right past us, we shouldn't be trying the offside tactic as the side ref was a ******.

2) No Strikers! Was Kennedy injured or something? You can't have no attackers in a team, that's bound for trouble.

3) Crap passing, we couldn't hit a target to save our lives. On the other hand Germany was hitting their targets 90% of the time.

 

[blake]

Everyone is being pretty harsh here. Yes we weren't great, but Germany is a world-class team and they played like one. I think a few people are forgetting that Australia aren't world beaters themselves, and we aren't automatic selections to go straight through to the second round. Some people have come in to this Germany match with very high expectations... and you are kidding yourselves.

Germany were just too good, they really taught us a lesson. They played with amazing efficiency.

Many of the Australian supporters seem to be thinking that this will be a repeat of 2006, but everyone seems to be forgetting that our players are 4 years older (i.e. Moore) and aren't as good as they were previously (with the exception of Cahill). Our expectations seem to be too high, but if we can manage to beat either Serbia or Ghana I will be fairly pleased myself.

 

[TumTum]

Viduka :laugh Oh plz Hooper get out..

All the blame should go to Tim Verberke (or whatever his name is), he set us a defense based strategy, yet our defense was sooo crap (especially the off side trap hardly ever trapped ), we should have attacked more, but at the same time we were missing a couple of our best players.

If all the chances had been taken, the scoreline would have read Germany 10 - Australia 1.

 

[Covvy]

Bring back Guus. I liked it when we were attacking. i'd much rather go down fighting than been defensive.

 

[AkshayS]

Easy win for Germans there, aussies were nowhere in the game.
I didn't like their golie, he sucks.

 

[mattfb]

I didnt expect us to win, but honeslty that was embarassing. It was a mix of two things here:

- Pim Verbeek playing a completely untested formation with players in positions that dont suit his style and idea of how that role has been played in the past (Culina... Cahill)
- Our defenders were too slow to play the offside trap
- Moore looked lost the whole game. I put this down to;
a) Too slow for the offside trap
b) Wasn't sure how far up to play

He was beaten so many times times and I also saw him quite a bit up right next to Grella/Valeri/Emerton pushing on the attacker, only to get a ball played right past him into the huge gap he left, leaving Neil to come and cover him. When they exploited our defence in the first 5 minutes, Moore was in a right back type of position. Once more Neil was forced to come over and cover for him. We had to carry Moore the entire game because Pim was sure about playing that fecking high defensive line

 

[TumTum]

It was Neil's fault that most off side traps didn't work.

 

[mattfb]

Because he had to worry about covering and sweeping for Moore all game because he was too slow to chase down the balls that constantly went past him

mattfb added 3 Minutes and 10 Seconds later...

Bring back Guus. I liked it when we were attacking. i'd much rather go down fighting than been defensive.

The thing is, this squad still has attacking quality;

Cahill - Everton
Bresciano - Palmero
Kennedy - Destroying it in Japan
McDonald - Was scoring goals left right and center for Scottish giants Celtic
Kewell - ex Liverpool CL winner, now at Galatasary
Culina - Would make a good super sub imo
Grella and Emerton - two quality enforcers

If only we had kisnorbo to play in central defence.

Theres no reason why these guys can't come together in a 4-4-2 formation and dominate. But with no Kisnorbo or McDonald in the squad, I'd go something like this:

Wilkshire - Emerton - Neil - Chipperfield
---------------Grella----------------
----------Culina----------------------
Bresciano-----------------------Kewell
----------Kennedy---Cahill

That way we can play our long balls to Kennedy and have Cahill to pick up the scraps. Culina gets forward whenever possible and Bresicano and Kewell stay wide with Wilkshire and Chipperfield overlapping to cross into the two powerful heading targets

 

[ARay]

Ha, Germany's team this decade has always been an enigma. They never have any star players (the current crop being the worst German team i've seen), especially with Ballack not playing. But yet they always play efficient football.

Are you seriously kidding me? These guys are extremely talented, the only thing against them maybe is their lack of experience. These players will be superstars in their own right soon enough.

 

[jordox]

I think many of the Australians on here, and many of the ones I know in day to day life have fallen victim to the Australian media. The Australian media have been over rating the socceroos since the 2006 world cup.

I honestly can't fathom how you can be surprised by this result. Germany are world class, Australia aren't. Yes Australia are a good team when they fire - they have great spirit and play good physical football but they looked like an under 15s team out there compared to Germany. The Aussie midfield was passing the ball to no one, the Australian back line was awful and too slow and Germany are simply too good.

Sure you can carry on and act like Australia only lost because of the tactics, the team choices or because of bad referring but really, Australia lost because they aren't up to Germany's level.

Australia's only chance in even drawing this match was to take every chance, and for Germany to play like rubbish. Unfortunately, Germany played pretty well and therefore eliminated any chances of Australia doing anything.