World Cup Group D preview: Germany v Serbia
World Cup footballers, were you watching closely? That was how you control the Jabulani.
Germany’s all-action display last Sunday night may have come against a weak, and ultimately Tim Cahill-less Australian side, but it was undoubtedly the stand-out performance of the tournament so far. The likes of Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski and Thomas Müller showed the older, more experienced players just how to deal with the controversial ball in this tournament.
The Germans’ 4-0 win in Durban immediately saw their odds to win this World Cup slashed, and suddenly saw everyone start talking about Joachim Löw’s side – yes, it had appeared that the dreaded “writing off of the Germans” was a common error.
Not so now though, and they enter their second match against Serbia in Port Elizabeth as heavy favourites. For the Serbs, it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Tipped by many to be the dreaded “dark horses” of the tournament, they never got out of the stalls in their opening match against Ghana, falling to a 1-0 defeat at their first fence as many of their star players came up lame.
Chief amongst the disappointments was winger Miloš Krasić, who is tipped for a big-money move to Italy but didn’t play like it, while Milan Jovanović, still believed to be headed for Liverpool, Birmingham’s new signing Nikola Žigić and veteran striker Marko Pantelić were little better. Aleksandar Luković’s red card, Zdravko Kuzmanović’s handball and Asamoah Gyan’s subsequent penalty all contributed to the defeat, but Serbia didn’t exactly help themselves, and that seems to have affected morale.
“The setback has affected our confidence because we expected to win the game against Ghana and most of us found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that we let ourselves down,” said Jovanović.
“We lost to a team which is not in our bracket in terms of quality and we now have to make amends against one that is superior, which is going to be very difficult.”
It certainly is, but at least Jovanović and his team-mates appear to know more about the Germans than they do back in his homeland, where a furore has erupted over Serbian TV commentator Vladimir Mijaljevic’s revelation that German goalkeeper Robert Enke – who committed suicide last November – was absent from the Australia game because “he is injured.”
The Serbian side appear to be respectful of the Germans though, and the feeling is mutual.
“We have to be highly concentrated going into the game,” says 23-year-old Sami Khedira, another of Germany’s new generation of stars who played well last Sunday.
“We need to take the momentum from the game against Australia into this match, but it will not be easy because the Serbs have to win. For them, it is already a final, and they have a lot of good individual players.”
Those individual players will have to perform better as a team if Serbia are to take anything from the Germans, with defeat no longer an option for Raddy Antić’s men. Against Löw’s talented side though, they may not have a choice.
"We are focused on the tournament,” said Khedira.
“We had a good start and we also know that we must continue working hard. We want the second victory and to continue to play winning football. We can always improve things.”
That is a prospect that should be a warning to the rest of the world, and not just Serbia.
Tags: