Germany - Australia Report 14-6-2010

Germany - Australia Report 14-6-2010

Any worries the Germans had about the loss of influential captain Michael Ballack were quickly put to rest in their 4-0 opening win against outgunned Australia in Durban. Richard Garcia provided an early scare for the three-time world champions in the nervy awkwardness of the opening exchanges, but it proved a false dawn as Germany were a goal to the good inside seven minutes of the Group D curtain raiser.

The Australians were stunned by the early set-back and the heavy underdogs, labelled such by captain Lucas Neill in the build-up, had no luck grinding their way back into the contest. After 20 minutes, Garcia was again vaguely threatening, but his tame strike from the edge of the box failed to do justice to some clever approach work.

It didn’t take long for Klose to go from goat to hero, rising high to head home from an inch-perfect cross – this time from the right – from captain Philipp Lahm, who recently made the apparently justifiable claim that this German team is the “best he’s ever played in,” after 26 minutes. Oezil had another golden chance on the half-hour mark, but his delicate chip over Schwarzer was booted clear by Neill, who was leading a rearguard in serious danger of total collapse as the halftime whistle, mercifully, blew an end to the opening stanza.

The second half began with Neill unceremoniously planting a knee into the back of danger-man Klose. That bit of impetuousness combined with a red card for Tim Cahill in the 56th minute for a tackle from behind on Bastian Schweinsteiger, was the full measure of Aussie resistance.

The Germans, on top of the group alongside Ghana, who beat Serbia earlier in the day, next face the Serbs on 18 June in Nelson Mandela Bay while Australia will look to rebound against a powerful Black Stars one day later in Rustenburg.