The Soceroos may still be recovering from the nightmare at Durban. Germany put up a show that is undoubtedly the most spectacular the tournament has seen thus far. Australia had Asians to deal with in qualification, yet they qualified in the finals with ease. However, all that comfort and confidence counted for naught as they looked helpless and clueless against a properly lubricated German machine. The first chance of the match fell to Richard Garcia, but captain Philip Lahm prevented Australia from taking the lead with a brave block. After that, Australia did not get a single decent chance whereas wave after wave of German attack kept on flourishing. Lukas Podolski opened the scoring with a thunderous shot which failed to deviate from the target even after Schwarzer got a hand to it. Miroslav Klose, who has been sidelined to the bench this season with Bayern Munich, continued his trend of scoring at World Cups when he headed home an inch perfect cross from Lahm to take his tally of World Cup goals to 11. After creating havoc for defenders last year in Germany, he has started right from where he left. However, this match was all about the young midfield of Germany that obviously did not miss Michael Ballack. Thomas Muller scored a goal, had an excellent game and at 20 years of age, I can understand why he is one of the most sought after wingers by clubs all over. Mesut Ozil & Sami Khedira were clinical in picking out passes and making runs to which Australian defenders had no answer. The youngest captain of a World Cup team couldn't have asked for a better start to the campaign. Australia will have to move on from this debacle, and start preparing for Ghana without their star striker Tim Cahill who was dubiously red cared by the referee who otherwise was spot on with every decision including booking two players for playacting.
In a few hours time, the current champions begin their defense. Few experts favour them to repeat their 2006 feat, but football is a funny game. A couple of days back, critics didn't give Germany much of a chance...I daresay some of them think differently now!
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