Pim Verbeek took a gamble on his conservative side and doubled it up. Forget the lone striker Pim technically went with a 442 with Tim Cahill and Richard Garcia up front. But really it was a team with seven players in defence and three players in attack.
With three defensive midfielders in the side, Harry Kewell Mark Breciano and Josh Kennedy were left on the bench and stayed there.
Pim Verbeek will no doubt cop it from the fans and media for the personal and tactical decisions he made. And so he should, No team in this World Cup will play with such conservative tactics. Three defensive midfielders there to screen the defence were opened up with ease. At times the Germans had the choice of going in behind, wide or through the middle of our ageing defence and did it with ease and with regularity.
Everything that can go wrong did go wrong for the Aussies.. Early in the second half Tim Cahill got sent off for a challenge that did not deserve a red card but the well kempt Mexican referee thought otherwise.
This was a nightmare for any Socceroo fan. After a bright start that led to a Tim Cahill header almost being hooked in from the rebound by Richard Garcia it all turned pear shaped. Germany scores the opener after 10 minutes. Lucas Neill was playing the offside trap by himself. The Fanatics had a chant pre-game that was “Where’s’ your Ballack ?, Where’s your Ballack?” sung to the Basement Jaxx tune “Where’s your head at?” And the answer was the German midfielder Mezet Ozil. He destroyed Australia. The German fans where also heard to sing “Where’s your defence at?”
So 2-0 after 25 minutes the Germans pre-match talk of destroying Australia was not arrogance it was a warning. Brett Emerton was Australia’s best player and Brett Holman who replaced Vince Grella at half time also played ok.
It’s not a hopeless situation but it is close to it. Two goals in the second half made the final score 4-0 to Germany and Australia now face Ghana without Tim Cahill. Ghana played well against Serbia to win 1-0 in the earlier game and newspaper and football pundits will be saying Australia has an uphill battle to make the second round as this result means that Australia will need to beat both Ghana and Serbia.
Ghana was without Sulley Muntari ansd Stepehn Appia from the start of the game against Serbia yet still played very well. They have a team that looks quick and skilful something that the Socceroos are not. The Germans can be considered favourites for the World Cup after that performance while the Socceroos will struggle to score or get a point based on theirs.
But like the cliché goes tomorrow is the next day of the rest of your life, or is it today is the worst day of the rest of your life?, Anyway we got a few days to sulk and point fingers, let’s hope Verbeek and the Socceroos can get their shit together for the next game, no pressure boys it’s only the World Cup and it can’t get any worse can it?
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