A Delicate Dissection of Group D

It always seems pretty easy to refer to Group D in any particular tournament as the Group of Death. At World Cup South Africa 2010 it felt pretty appropriate to start thinking that way.

At first glance there's the mighty Germans. Triple World Champions and Often Semi Finalists they have a habit of winning that pisses all non-Germans off. The other Europeans, Serbia, were certainly talked up as something of a dark horse. With strong defenders like Vidic, powerful attackers such as Pantelic and a solid qualification record they were a team with a fierce shot. Step forward Nenad Milijas. The Australians tend to have a jolly good go at most sports and tend to be pretty good at most of them. After a good showing in 2006 boded well, players like Cahill, Schwarzer and Emerton had all demonstrated a special style in the Premiership, although the continued presence of Harry Kewell in the squad was somewhat mysterious to this Liverpool fan. Finally Ghana had been finalists in January's Africa Cup of Nations by building a team around youth and a solid midfield. Even without the awesome Essien that made them a threat.

So it began, as these things often do, with a pretty poor game. Ghana and Serbia stumbled to a 1-0, the Europeans literally handing the Africans a penalty in the last five minutes, obviously pretty embarrassed by what they'd be upto for the rest of the game. Then the Germans got the party started. Despite a team largely consisting of little known young 'uns and being coached by the dad off of the OC they knocked four past the Aussies without reply. No doubt the sending off of Cahill didn't help but this was, for my money, the best game of the tournament thus far. An ominous attacking display was led by Mezsut Ozil, a skillful young playmaker conspicuous by his absence from the pre tournament Nike campaign.

The next round evened things up a bit. This time the harsh red card went against the Germans and although they still created chances with ten men the solidity of Serbia was enough. Another red card in the other game should have given Ghana an opening but at that point it felt like they could only score penalties. At least the aforementioned Kewell wiggled his way into a match report, albeit by ending his World Cup career with the handball that led to the penalty that led to the equaliser.

So the group did get rather tense in the final round of games as any of the four still had a chance of qualifying and thus a chance of going out. Fortunately Ghana and Germany put on a display that didn't warrant a 1-0 scoreline. As chances came and went at both ends it was the peskily efficient Germans who snatched it, that man Ozil popped up with a pretty awesome strike. The other two were a bit more feisty than creative, as befitted their reputations, the tension was more palpable and it was a match of two halves. Serbia were better in the first but failed to score and then Australia came up trumps in the second with a couple of goals that put them in touching distance of the last 16. A late Pantelic goal swung the pendulum back but despite a tense end the Serbians couldn't get an equaliser that would have put them through.

So in the end Germany and Ghana went through but given that everyone had won at least one game the standings were as tight as I said they would be. Justice was probably just about done, all four teams had managed to demonstrate some very distinct positives and negative qualities. Serbia had shown a lack of imagination but generally been very hard to break down while the Aussies showed their age defensively but then they did come out fighting when the chips were down. Ghana had failed to press home advantages when offered them but had played some good football and constantly created chances. Meanwhile the Germans had managed to look massively talented and then quite vulnerable when not looking massively talented. No doubt England would subdue their game and then blow them away with their superior experience in the next round.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!