Predictions and Germany v Australia

With four days completed in the World Cup Finals of 2010 the whole world has been waiting for one team to step up and say ‘right, we are the team to beat’. With two of the favourites England and Argentina playing in the first two days of the tournament the scripts were written for Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney or head coaches Fabio Capello and Diego Maradona to be the one’s everyone is talking about. But instead it’s 2006 runners up and 3 time champions Germany who have stepped up and really opened up this World Cup from a rather dull start.

It was Werder Bremen’s Mesut Ozil and Bayern Munich duo Thomas Muller and Phillip Lahm who really caught the eye and showed this World Cup is not just between Spain, Argentina and England. Germany was outstanding against Australia who could not get close to them and will be glad Australia’s rugby team beat England the previous day. Free-flowing football from the German’s is not something you come to expect but that is what we got. It was a performance of perfection, a performance that even Barcelona would have been proud of.

Germany were under-rated going into this World Cup with their squad not offering such star names as we are used to. They are missing Michael Ballack though injury who is normally their leader and driving force but could that actually proof to be a blessing in disguise after the influential but aging German has also been released by Chelsea this summer. After that performance the world certainly know the names of the new breed of German stars.

Every major competition the German team get written off and every time they perform; this is a team that have not lost a World Cup group match since 1994 and hold the record alongside Italy of World Cup final appearances including the last World Cup in their home country under the management of Jurgen Klinsmann. Now coached by then assistant manager Jurgen Lowe Germany have continued the same way Klinsmann’s team did, who really went for it and almost delivered their fourth World Cup victory.
So with Brazil, Spain, Holland and Italy all still the play Germany have set the benchmark for the team to beat; but we all know what happens when you peak too early in the Group stages. I wonder just how many bets the book takers have taken on Germany at 14/1, surely that’s worth a cheeky ten pound note or perhaps double with Miroslav Klose being the golden boot winner after scoring his 11th World Cup goal against the ‘Soccerroo’s’.

My Prediction: The Results

Before sharing my views on England’s performance against the USA let’s look at my predictions for England v USA. I predicted a narrow 2-1 England win and I could of quite easily got that right should England of put away their chances. I said an early goal for England would happen and England being of course England, they would become nervous and USA would come back into the game. One thing I don’t think anyone expected to happen was a howler by Robert Green who became a member of an elite club of England goalkeepers who have made big errors in big games, he’s in good company alongside David Seaman, Paul Robinson and most recently Scott Carson. It may be easy to blame Robert Green for his mistake but he is also the reason England did not go behind after a World Class save prevented Jose Altidore adding to England’s blushes with a powerful run and shot that was tipped onto the post by Green.

I predicted Steven Gerrard would play a big role in this England team and a super taken goal after just four minutes gives me one prediction I got right. I still don’t understand how Shaun Wright-Phillips got the nod after 30 minutes when James Milner left the field who had had not trained much all week after a virus, poor selection maybe from Capello? I would much rather see Joe Cole on the left wing and it says a lot when Glen Johnson from right back is creating much crossing opportunities on his left foot than Shaun Wright-Phillips himself. I’m still not a fan of his and I don’t think I ever will be. Dare I say it but will England ever fix the problem of the left sided midfield player?

One out of three is an average performance on the prediction front.