Group D Discussion - Australia, Germany, Ghana, Serbia

[roversfan99]

Brilliant

[Tom]

Sublime

[Hughesy]

How poor are the Aussies!? Without the suspended Cahill now too I cant see them making it out of the group stages!

Their defence is awful - almost as bad as Burnley!!

[HemelRover]

Oezil has been pulling all the strings for them tonight. Superb.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Mesut Özil for Blackburn??

Actually, why do we need Mesut Özil when we've got Keith Andrews.

[koi]

Best performance by a mile so far, very impressive and we really really don't want the meet them in the next round.

[philipl]

Bert subbed.

Ah well, Rovers' interest in the World Cup now rests with the Kiwis...

[Plastic Head]

First potentially bad decision of the tournament for me.

Definitely a yellow it was a frustrated bad challenge but a red is harsh. Nowhere near as bad as carraghers last night

I thought they would have someone better to referee a world cup match than Dave Vanian of the Damned.

[Doaksie]

Oezil has been pulling all the strings for them tonight. Superb.

Haven't seen much of him before. He reminds me very much of Yildiray Basturk in his pomp with Bayer Leverkusen. Similar style and also the Turkish/German link. Just a pity the Basturk gamble didn't pay off for us.

[beerwins]

Refs are officiating to the letter of the law and have done very well but it sure does spoil a game when someone is sent off like that a bit of common sense would'nt hurt.

Germany are the best team I have seen by far this world cup unfortunately, lets just hope they have peaked to soon

[RibbleValleyRover]

Germany best team on the evidence so far, Spain, Holland and Brazil yet to come though. Typical efficient German performance tonight with added flair from the likes of Ozil. I bet many an England fan wish our national side had their discipline, control and passing ability.

Ozil looked top quality. Lahm and Muller bombing down that right hand side, Schweinsteiger dictated play in the middle and Khedira getting stuck in and breaking opposition play.

Early days in this tournament but Germany are a threat on this evidence.

[Mr. E]

Australia reminded me a bit of how we sometimes used to play.

[Kelbo]

Liked the look of Chana and especially Asamoah. Very quick feet and good passing. They also had a good winger Tagoe who I would like us to take a look at. A bit raw, but has pace and technique. Is according to the commentators at the Hoffenheim reserve team.

I agree, Tagoe impressed me too, Annan retains the ball well and always finds a man, but never many forward passes, however he would be far superior to our Keef who struggles to pass wind!!

[Doaksie]

Annan retains the ball well and always finds a man, but never many forward passes

I was thinking during the Ghana game how, after looking at Annan, Paul Ince then decided to splurge £4 million on Grella to play a similar role. Not sure how he ever justified such a price tag.

[American]

Refs have been handing cards out like they're going out of fashion.

The only surprise is that American player wasn't sent off for his studs up lunge on Gerrard yesterday.

Same reason Gerrard wasn't sent off for his studs up lunge earlier? (Think it was Gerrard who did it - someone who got a yellow for England.)

Thought it was a very consistently refereed match last night, and the other matches (didn't see Germany/Aussies) have been well refereed also.

[Rovermatt]

The Germans were cruising at 2-0, the 4-0 score sort of flatters them. They were excellent though. Typical really.

[emerton]

Wow that was painful to watch, howeer I really enjoy watching the way the Germans played

However I wasn't expecting much of a result without a recognized striker on the pitch. Cahill just isn't effective as a lone striker.

Kennedy need to be brought in against Ghana and we need someone to step in for Moore (milligan perhaps)

[tcj_jones]

Every major international tournament I seem to miss all the best or high scoring games. So annoying.

Anyway... So far, the two best sides are Germany and Argentina. While the latter only won 1-0, it could have been 5-0, and Messi looked on top form.

Looks as though we'll probably be getting Ghana in the next round. They were pretty good today, though it must be said Serbia played a very cautious game, strange as this was their key group match. As long as we don't get Germany I'll be happy.

[RoyRover]

Germany best team on the evidence so far, Spain, Holland and Brazil yet to come though. Typical efficient German performance tonight with added flair from the likes of Ozil. I bet many an England fan wish our national side had their discipline, control and passing ability.

Ozil looked top quality. Lahm and Muller bombing down that right hand side, Schweinsteiger dictated play in the middle and Khedira getting stuck in and breaking opposition play.

Early days in this tournament but Germany are a threat on this evidence.

Germany did look very good and Mesut Ozil looked as good as I've heard he was. They could have been four or five up before Cahill was harshly sent off. The Australians were poor though, which helped the Germans look as good as they did. I thought that the likes of Khedira, Lahm, Ozil and Muller all played very well.

As for the Serbia v Ghana game, I too was surprised by how cautious the Serbians were. I really thought that they would try and be more positive as this was the key game that they needed to win, to increase their chances of going through. Lukovic made a really stupid decision to pull Gyan back as he wasn't going anywhere and deserved to be sent off. As for Kuzmanovic and his handball, what an idiot! The Serbians will have to get a result against the Germans now, which they are capable of doing.

[joey_big_nose]

Oh dear. I didn't realise Germany were that good. A fantastic mix of experience and talent.

We are really up against it. Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Holland all look in very good shape - in terms of quality players it looks like this could be the best world cup for a long time. England just can't compete with these teams in ability.

[SouthAussieRover]

Same reason Gerrard wasn't sent off for his studs up lunge earlier? (Think it was Gerrard who did it - someone who got a yellow for England.)

It was Carragher but I agree nonetheless.

[tony gale's mic]

Very impressed by Germany. Man for man there's not that much proven talent there - there's obviously talent but apart from the strikers, Lahm, Schweinsteiger not much seen on the world/major European stage before. However this seems to be counting in their favour as very few players are playing under the burden of big name reputations, all of them play in Germany so apart from the Bayern ones not that many play for big clubs and so you could see today they were playing with a hunger and a desire that you just didn't see from the likes of England or France.

Most of all they were playing the game like they just really enjoyed it which is a world away from England's performance - though we weren't exactly terrible yesterday either. Some of the moves today were sublime but most of our midfielders have been central to brilliant moves like that at club level, but we just can't get ours to play like Germany can. I know they've done well in recent tournaments but I've never been that impressed by their sides this decade, in 2002 they have the easiest ride ever to the final and were actually quite a poor side and can't say they impressed me that much in 2008. This year they look much better based on this early showing.

Have to say the classic England - Germany rivalry isn't something that I'm that fussed about anymore, they're a young, hungry side who seem to have far fewer egos than most international sides and are good to watch. So long as we win our group I'd like to see them go far as if we come top we can't meet them till the final. And if we somehow do at least they'll have got rid of Spain.

[dave birch]

Ouch!

Any team that starts with Grella and Moore in the line up has got to be behind the eight ball before a ball has been kicked.

Cahill is not a striker, he likes to come from midfield to score.

Whilst it's of no consolation, Verbeek has acknowledged his error and hopefully can redress the situation, though I doubt it.

[neekoy]

Australia were very poor, left hand side was terrible, Bert held his own though so from Rovers perspective was happy. Should never have been a red card and we have probably lost our best player for the most crucial game. No Kennedy, no Kewell, no Bresciano, Verbeek looks as though he was aiming for the next two games. Hopefully they will bounce back, Moore and Chipperfield need to go though.

Germany were brilliant, had quality all over the park and are a real threat.

[Rover Down Under]

It was a harsh red card but I am actually happy about it. The media here have upped their furious masturbating over this guy to sickening levels since the last WC, you can't watch TV or read a paper without hearing his name or seeing him every 2 minutes. He probably earns about 90% of total TV advertising revenue and I wouldn't have been surprised to see this lineup for the game:

---------- Cahill ----------

-Cahill-Cahill-Cahill-Cahill-

----Cahill--Cahill--Cahill----

-Cahill----------------Cahill

------------Cahill-----------

Hopefully now the Socceroos will win the 2 (or is it 1?) games without him and show people that there are ELEVEN men in the team and that they are perfectly capable of playing without him.

And before anyone says "it's not his fault, it's the media" - the man has a mouth and brain, he can say "No thanks, Playstation ad and one interview a week only thanks, try one of the other lads."

A prime example of todays mercenary, egotistical, prima donas that really aren't as good as everyone makes them out to be.