Germany began the search for its fourth World Cup title with a convincing 4-0 victory against Australia in the second match of Group D at Durban. This was the first World Cup rout of South Africa with good display of football. Germany showed that it has a promising team. Despite the absence of Michael Ballack, who suffered an injury before the tournament, Joachim Löw's team proved that it could be squad capable of the World Cup title.

During this first game and despite the absence of bright stars in a list composed entirely of players from the Bundesliga, Germany has succeeded in forming a group that plays with solidarity and a great offense.

The Australians, on the other hand, showed a decline from the team that reached the knockout stage in Germany 2006. The Aussies did not play as defensive as expected during the game.

The meeting began with a characteristic strength. Germany began to attack since the first minute of the game. Australia did not confine itself in defense organized its offense against the Teutonic giants. The Australians took an early shot at goal from half-back by Richard Garcia, but it was blocked by the German captain Philipp Lahm.

Germany’s first goal came in the 8th minute after a powerful shot from Lukas Podolski that beat Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Germany grew more confident and after 24 minutes, Miroslav Klose failed just before the Australian goal. This would had been the second goal for the Mannschaft. Two minutes later, the same Klose took advantage of a bad move from the Australian goalkeeper and completed a header to score the second goal for Germany.

Four minutes later, the German Mesut Özil missed out the third goal when, after the shot stung the ball beside the Australian goalkeeper, the captain Neill managed to save the goal with his feet.

The Germans kept attacking and the Australian defended well until the first half ended.

In the second half, the Australian team’s performance declined when Tim Cahill was sent off after a controversial redcard by the Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez.

Cahill fouled Bastian Schweinsteiger from behind, and Rodriguez showed the red card to the Australian. In addition, the Socceroos (Australia), demanded a hand inside the area by Per Mertesacker, but the Mexican referee did not consider it was so.

The Australians felt offended by referee Marco Rodriguez and the constant complaints against the Mexican kept the Australian team out of focus. Germany took advantage and capitalized with two more goals.

Thomas Müller scored the third goal for Germany. Podolski took the ball in midfield, nobody was guarding him. He passed the ball to Müller, who still had time to advance and define a shot in front of the goal away from the Australian goalkeeper, scoring the third.

Three minutes later came the fourth goal. Özil send a diagonal pass in the area to Cacau, who had just entered the field. Cacau kicked an accurate shot and seal the first rout victory of the World Cup with a 4-0 crushing of the Aussies by Germany.

Germany coach Joachim Low stated he was really pleased with his team’s performance; especially when handling the ball and creating great plays on the offensive end.

“I think the way we set up our attacks is something we’ve been working on intensively. But we’ve also worked on how we play off the ball — to move into unused space. We were very good on the ball tonight, and we created beautiful goals,” expressed Low.

The Germans will now face Serbia on June 19th at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

About the Author

Ally White has been a prominent writer on daily 2010 South Africa World Cup reviews, sports news and sports betting industry updates for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.