World Cup Review Group D

In the run up to the World Cup Graeme Clark looks forward to the tournament with a review of each of the eight groups of four.

Germany will almost certainly get through the group stage and progress to the knock out matches – they certainly always seem to – and in Chelsea´s Michael Ballack they have a captain who has played at the top level for virtually all his life. In Miroslav Klose and Lucas Podolski they have experienced strikers capable of scoring against anyone, Klose in particular will be looking for goals as his tally of 10 World Cup goals puts him just 5 behind all time record scorer Ronaldo.

In head coach Joachim Low they have someone who believes that meticulous planning is the key to success. And Low has put together one of the youngest squads in the tournament for in addition to those well known names mentioned, they have a fine crop of up and coming talent, goalkeeper Rene Adler; Mesut Ozil, Bremen´s stylish midfielder of Turkish descent; Jerome Boateng and Andreas Beck.

Although relatively young they have the experience of coming through a very tough qualifying group which included Russia, winning eight games and drawing just two with no defeats

But do the Germans currently have a squad capable of going even further and adding to the three tournament wins they have achieved in the past? Whilst Germany will be favourites to progress out of the group stage, the other three teams will all harbour dreams of accompanying them as all are so evenly matched with the pedigree and the players to do it.

Australia did wonders in their last World Cup appearance when they amazed everyone by finishing second in a group that included Brazil, Croatia and Japan, and this time around they have qualified from their Asian group in some style winning nine games.

Their squad abounds with household names as the majority have plied their trade in England at some stage, including former Liverpool winger Harry Kewell, now in Turkey at Galatasary, Everton´s midfield powerhouse Tim Cahill, plus former team-mate Lucas Neill, (also now at Galatasaray) and Fulham´s goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. They face Germany first and if they can get a draw the confidence from that performance will put them in good stead to go further. Regrettably I somehow doubt it.

Serbia may be a relatively new nation (until 2006 they were part of Yugoslavia) but they already have a fine footballing pedigree; the way in which they qualified by outpointing and outplaying France simply proves that. Winning seven and losing just two games during the campaign with a goal tally of 22 for and just 8 against is further proof of their ability.

At the heart of defence they have Manchester United´s Nemanja Vidic, capable of handling virtually anything the opposition throws at him. Then they have players like Chelsea´s full back Branislav Ivanovic, Wolves´midfielder Nenad Milijas and centre forward Milan Jovanovic (due to join Liverpool from Standard Liege in the summer) who can provide the class necessary to pose problems to their opponents. Indeed it seems as if the majority of their starting line-up plays either in the English Premiership or Serie A in Italy.

One exception to this rule is Milos Krasic who was named Serbian Player of the Year for 2009, despite playing for CSKA Moscow. He has 28 international caps but in the qualifying campaign he scored twice and was credited with seven assists. He was also the only Serbian to play in all 10 qualifiers. One player to watch out for is 18 year old Adem Ljajic, yet to make his full international debut but following a high profile move to Fiorentina, he is poised to become a star of this and many future World Cups.

And so to the final team in the group – Ghana. They are currently the best team in the tournament that hails from Africa, having a midfield trio – Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah and Sulley Muntari  - that any head coach could only dream of. Each one of them is a strong and powerful tackler, is good on the ball and highly dangerous going forward, and they have some very capable back up players, notably Matthew Amoah up front, a superb goal-scoring machine.

They won their qualifying group quite easily, have experience from their last appearance at these finals and have a head coach – Serbian Milovan Rajevac – who has a reputation for turning poor teams into winners. They were close runners up to Egypt in this year´s African Cup of Nations and that despite the fact that they had key players such as Essien and Appiah missing along with defenders John Mensah and John Pantsil – all injured. If they remain fit they can be a test for any team.

So, who will qualify for the knock out stages alongside Germany? Ghana have the easier opening games as they will face Serbia and Australia before they come up against Germany, plus all their games are inland, on the high veldt, where they will have acclimatized, so very little travelling, whereas both Serbia and Australia need to travel vast distances for their games.

For these reasons above all others I put Ghana as favourites to take second place and claim a potential knock out fixture against England in the next round. I take Serbian experience to beat Australia to third spot

My Prediction – 1st Germany, 2nd Ghana, 3rd Serbia, 4th Australia.

Graeme Clark

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