Germany were going in this match with history on their side. They had won all their opening matches in last five of the World Cups and not lost a group game since the 1994 World Cup. The German squad is without their regular captain Michael Ballack in the tournament who was ruled out due to an injury. Injuries and unavailability of a few others established players have actually made way for some of the very exciting players from the Under 21 European Championships winner squad of Germany, with the likes of Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller getting in the squad. Average age of the squad has consequently dropped and the starting eleven for this match averaged at 25 years, 5 years younger than their Australian counterparts.
Both teams started with a 4-2-3-1 formation but the Australians had employed two pure defensive midfielders in the team and the Germans having more of attack minded players. Intentions were clear even before the first kick of the ball that the Aussies would be very glad to get anything from this match. Socceroos had not parked the bus in front of their goal from start but actually had the first clear chance of the match and were unlucky not to have taken the lead in the first five minutes. This was going to be the only highlight for them at least for the first half as from then on it was all about Germans and their fabulous runs off the ball.
Before the tournament, there were question marks on Germany’s goal scoring credentials as their two leading strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski had terrible seasons with their clubs Bayern Munich and Koln respectively and could not manage to score even five league goals collectively (!). Their record at international stage, however, is positively different with Klose scoring five goals in both of the last two World Cups, being the only player to do so in consecutive World Cups, winning the Golden Shoe award the last time and Podolski being named Young Player of the Tournament in the home World Cup in 2006. Both the players were in the starting XI for this match. Podolski’s powerful strike in the eighth minute was too hot to handle for the Aussie keeper Mark Schwarzer, who was able to put a hand to it but could only deflect in his own goal. Klose’s headed goal just before the half hour mark from a pleasing pinpoint cross from the skipper Phillip Lahm, gave a familiar looking sight from the previous two editions.
The German midfield would be credited for this rather easy win in the end. Technically gifted young players Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller surpassed all expectations and were superb in link up play between the midfield and the strikers with utmost composure. They were always looking to run past the Australian defensive line and then crossing the ball for the strikers or having a go on the goal. The latter one capped his brilliant performance with a goal in the second half and the former set up an easy goal for the substitute Cacau. Not to mention, there was hardly a ball over-weighted or ill-directed from the central midfield duo of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira. They looked confident in winning the ball back from the Australians and were comfortable on the ball to orchestrate it forward.
Australians have definitely got more competitive after switching to Asian Football Confederation from the comforts of Oceania Football Confederation. They did all they could but the Germans were on a different level on the night. Tim Cahill’s undeserved sending off was the worst refereeing decision so far in the tournament. He will be a big miss for the Australians especially when they need to get results from both the remaining matches to stand any chance of staying the in tournament.
This performance from the Germans was clearly the best by any team in the tournament so far but with games against Serbia and Ghana still to play they would like to build upon this performance and pose a serious challenge for the title.
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