Why Socceroos can hope to float

MICHAEL LYNCH
12 Jun, 2010 10:07 AM

When the draw for the 2010 World Cup was made it was almost possible to hear the groans of despair between Cape Town and Canberra.

Fate had not been kind to Australia, and as the names came out that December morning and the Socceroos were grouped with Germany, Serbia and Ghana there were plenty of fans ready to write off Australia's chances there and then.

But as the months have ticked down to Australia's first date with its 2010 destiny, are those fears as justified as they seemed back then?

Germany, as triple World Cup winner, has always been a force to be reckoned with.

But this time round they have a young side and have lost several players through injury, including captain Michael Ballack, just before the tournament. Will this make them less formidable?

Serbia was one of the in-form teams in Europe during the qualification period and topped a difficult group containing former World Cup winner (and beaten finalist in 2006) France, as well as an always dangerous Romania.

But its run up to 2010 has been poor, especially in an embarrassing loss to New Zealand, rated by some observers as the most lightweight team to have qualified for the past few World Cups. Will this have an impact on the Serbs' psychological approach, making them less confident as the action begins for real?

Ghana has long been an African powerhouse and in the past few years the Black Stars have begun to strut their stuff on a wider stage, making the last 16 in the 2006 World Cup.

But they suffered a grievous blow in the run-up with the loss of their inspirational midfielder Michael Essien to a knee injury. Will his absence affect the much vaunted midfield strength of the Ghanaians and make them a less threatening opponent than they might have seemed when the draw was first made?

The next two weeks will provide the answers, but the Socceroos go into this weekend's opening game with Germany having enjoyed a long, steady and thorough preparation.

Although there were fitness doubts about two key players in Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton, both seem to have come through their treatment and recovered in the nick of time, ensuring that Pim Verbeek has a full squad to choose from for the opener in Durban.

About the only thing that has gone wrong in the lead-up was the loss of defensive utility Rhys Williams, the Perth-born youngster was cut from the squad at the last moment because Verbeek did not believe he would recover in time.

The Germans have simply shrugged and got on with things after the loss of so many players, especially Ballack, the talismanic midfielder released by Chelsea earlier this week.

He succumbed to an ankle injury picked up in the FA Cup final victory over Portsmouth an injury sustained, ironically, in a challenge with the German-born midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng, who will be playing for Ghana against Germany later in the tournament. Even more curiously, Boateng's brother Jerome is in the German squad.

The Germans then lost two more midfielders in Simon Rolfes and Christian Traesch as well as first-choice goalkeeper Rene Adler and defender Heiko Westermann, who fractured his foot in the 3-0 World Cup warm-up game victory over Hungary late last month.

Starting-eleven midfielder-cum-striker Lukas Podolski said the loss of a player of Ballack's character and leadership ability was ''very unfortunate'', but added that now ''every other player must step up to the mark'' to try to counterbalance his loss.

''When I am called upon to assume leadership roles you can count on me. I don't need to be in any committee or wear an armband [to know what I must do],'' he said.

This is a German side in transition, which might not have been as readily apparent when Australian fans first considered the task the Socceroos were facing.

As Scott Chipperfield, the Swiss-based Australian left back, points out this is a team that is not so much based on the old German virtues of power and indefatigability, but one that has a lot of more skilful, younger players.

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