Well Serbia have drawn overnight with the mighty Poles. Preperation doesn't seem to be going to well for either Serbia or Ghana in the lead up. Hopefully Serbia is starting to feel some pressure before the cup starts.

Hopefully not TOO much pressure, dont want them being spurned into action by some poor results.

I watched the first half of the game last night (Before dozing off), but I was amazed at what I saw.

1) Why is this team (Serbia) preparing in such crappy conditions? Will it be that cold in South Africa? Will it be that wet in South Africa? I'm not particularly sure about climate preparation, but given Australia will have a few extra weeks in South Africa, I think Australia has the upper hand over Serbia. Heck, the last friendly Serbia is playing is against Cameroon in Belgrade of all places. I understand they're in Austria for altitude training, but surely the hazardous conditions will do the team no good? Particularly when it's relatively hot in South Africa. In fact, Australia is the only one in their whole group that will play all of their warm-up friendlies in South Africa. Ghana, Serbia and Germany have all opted to play all their games in Europe up until the last second.

2) Why has Serbia picked teams to prepare against that have overly attacking formations? Seems to me that Poland was one overly attacking side, whereas Australia's whole gameplan is based around defense. If Serbia prepare too much against attacking formations, I think they'll be caught with their pants down against Australia in match 3.

I'm getting more and more confident about the socceroos chances every day. It just seems to me that we've prepared for the tournament a lot better than the other teams in our group.

Furthermore, everyone talks about Ghana's good chances being African and all, but why is this so much of an advantage? 95% of the team play for European teams and the team itself is preparing in Europe. also, geographically speaking South Africa and Ghana are light years away from each other. Sure they're on the same continent, but continents count for almost nothing. Does Japan have the advantage over other teams when playing in Israel because they're both in 'Asia?' They're a long way from home and if anything, the only advantage they'll have is that 70% of the crowd at the game will be barracking for South Africa (Which will count for nothing anyway due to those stupid trumpets). Ghana is a largely inexperienced side at international level and they're without their star player Essein. I'm almost positive Ghana are overhyped and will have a disastrous tournament.

Thought Poland dominated for the first half, by the way. They had so many corner kicks it just wasn't funny. If Serbia concede corners as frequently as they did with the Poles against Australia, I think Serbia will be in serious trouble.

Edited by socceroossupporter: 3/6/2010 04:12:55 PM

It will be cold, because it is winter(Southern Hemisphere remember;) ). Mind you we play Serbia at 8:30pm local time and once the sun goes down in Africa especially in winter the temperature drops dramatically so preparing in cold conditions isn't the worst idea in the world.

I remember last year for the Confederations Cup the the Italians had trouble with the coldness in South Africa.

Well I think it's definitely an advantage in the same way any world cup in asia would be an advantage for us because your just more used to going their. Ghana should also have more neutral support than us.

That said I believe it's way overstated and I also don't expect Ghana to progress.
All the African countries look in big trouble to me because their two best teams are in the strongest groups. Looking at the key matches the African teams have to win to make it through and conceivably they could lose all of them.

Ivory coast vs portugal
Ghana vs Serbia
Algeria vs USA/Slovenia
cameroon vs denmark
nigeria vs Greece
South Africa vs Mexico

1) its winter in SA you muppet.
2) so New Zealand is an attacking side then? muppet
3) Ghana will have the local support which is a big advantage. muppet

3x muppets and you are out :oops:

1) It's winter in SA, but it seemed much colder in Austria by the looks of it.
2) Yes, I think they are from the very few games I have seen from them.
3) Ghana will have local support, yes. I'm not sure where I didn't say that.

Oh, and as for the condescending tone of your response Mr 8 posts...

I wouldn't read too much into this. Poland are a decent side with some very good players in their ranks.