Group D: Friendlies prior to the WC

Agreed. So with so many teams that are, for various reasons, basically even, perhaps we should call it the "Group of the Severely Ill" instead of the Group of Death.

 

Yeah, thats right! I´d call this group the intensive care ward

 

Serbia-Cameroon 4-2 halftime

it was 0-1 and 1-2 for Cameroon. both Cameroon goals were almost the same, pass from the left and header, mistakes of Serbian keeper and Subotic.

Krasic and Stankovic scored nice goals, third goal was Milijas from penalty (stupidity of Cameroons defender, he slapped Jovanovic ) and 4th was also mistake of Cameroon defense. (Pantelic scored)

There was not much to see in this game, friendly atmosphere, no hard fouls and not much aggression. Subotic makes me worried but on the other hand he is reserve to Vidic who is sick. Zigic and Pantelic are better a bit then last week and that makes things a bit better. In general, almost everything that we and Cameroon shot went in. Funny game.

PS: Audience is applauding more to the keeper when he catches the ball then when someone scores

4-3 at the end. Same nothing as in the first halftime. Serbia still doesnt have the game.

 

As a Dortmund supporter and Subotic fan as well, I got to say he is not the great defender many make him out to be. I love the guy and I am so happy be plays for BvB but he is still a little raw in some areas.

 

I finally found a better compilation, watch this:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clLaVzzQpVE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clLaVzzQpVE[/ame]


unfortunately, the scene where Cacau is fouled in the penalty area is also missing in this one.
At least you can see Müllers dive in this one, watch from 7:10 on.
Also watch from 8:50 on to see the foul on marin in the penalty area.

 

Many people on this board think so: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1257447
I think the reason is the different point of view. Ours is that of the seed, and the most dangerous combination are probably Germany, a strong Euro team, a really strong team from Africa or South America and a punching bag, where you cannot afford to lose a game on a bad day (say: Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea); others look on it from the point of view of a mediocre team, and think a group without a punching bag is tough, because you have to beat two solid teams instead of one, and a victim. Three medium-level teams are bad for them, but good for Germany; they will take more points from each other, than from us, and we will probably win the group with 7 or even 5 points.

 

I wouldn't underestimate them. But if you break their defense and avoid counters you should win it.

 

Counters... with Joshua Kennedy being the attack?

 

Probably not with him up front, but our plan B is Holman, Kewell, Emerton with the ball on the ground at pace.

 

It looks better with those names in there. Kennedy is an impact option, nothing more. What was wrong with Holman? Of the little I saw of the match he would've caused the US defence some problems. They looked more reactive than ours?

 

Wow....really?

I would go with A, B or G myself. I think those are more likely to produce that type of matches we expect to see from a Group of Death. But then again, those groups rarely live up to their expectations.

I had to laugh at a few of those: England, US, etc.....

 

He was being rested.

 

We havent seen the the full strength 11 for australia play yet and theres a good chance it will happen on sunday night. Ive been pretty down on our chances, but theres alot of circumstances for the less than average performances in the friendlies. This team is capable of so much more than what we have seen so far.

 

I agree, and I think we've had a good workout - the results are not important we know what we're capable of. But unfortunately we're not playing well enough to beat Germany.

 

Thing is, Germany can play better than we've seen so far. Khedira & Schweini start in the middle for the 2nd time, Muller's 3rd match. Lots of young players learning our system still.

I actually expect a more refined German team than the one we saw vs Bosnia. Defense I will not be confident really and I can see them getting exposed against any team. :S

 

It's funny you say that because that's the one area of Germany's game that has not improved. They have reason to be confident against most teams, but they wouldn't want a lot to rest in the hands of their defence. If it were 2004/5 when we had some decent strikers I'd be reasonably confident we'd score a few against Germany.

 

You still might get 1 or 2 in *IF* Germany get over confident and get caught up. They are pretty slow in the back...not sure what Oz looks like up front anymore but if you have speed you could do it. If your defense is like '06 you could keep the score low too...Lord knows the German front line has not been scoring well in league play.

Many undetermined factors. Certainly not a gimme game for Germany.

 

What does how they do in the league matter at all? They scored 26 in qualifiers (10 games) as well as 3 each game in the friendlies they played. Podolski scored 2 goals all season in the league yet has probably scored 3 times the amount in qualifiers.

 

Is Australia's starting lineup going to be one of the oldest in World Cup history?

 

Because current form is usually a factor in how players perform.

 

Right, but they scored 10 of the 26 goals against Liechtenstein, and another 6 against Azerbaijan. What does this tell you for the WC?

 

Don't know. Darn good question...where is Gregorak when we need him?

Given that these teams below are also high on the age list, I imagine they might also field some fairly long-in-the-tooth teams as well:

Average Team Age:

Paraguay – 28.1
Italy – 28.2
Australia – 28.4
Brazil – 28.6
England – 28.7

A decent run-down on WM stats is here.

 

Exactly. Now, it does not mean Klose or Gomez won't go on a tear and start scoring; they are certainly capable players. But unless Loew has magic pixie dust in his pockets the likelihood of guys who are not in the best scoring form all of a sudden scoring is a tall order.

 

Starting XI

-----------37
28----32-----34---34
------29-----30
--31-----30-----31
--------27

Avg 31.18

 

That has to be high on the all time oldest list.