South Africa should be very proud of hosting a wonderful tournament & Spain are worthy World Champions

Spain have cemented their place as the best as well as most entertaining footballing nation in the world.

They are the new football kings of the world & their team sheet reads like the "who is who" of the football world, a team of champion players playing beautiful football in a champion team

They won a spiteful final match this morning against a Dutch team which played very ugly at times but should nevertheless be commanded for trying to neutralise Spain's attractive & attacking style.

South Africa & her people should also be very proud of staging such a wonderful tournament & largely the sceptics (including myself) wrong.

Other accolades go to New Zealand for its gutsy & impressive effort, & to Germany & Argentina for playing the game in its right spirit & scoring plenty of goals (as opposed to Spain who played beautifully but were unable to capitalise on their superiority most of the time & scored a mere 8 goals, one of the lowest for a World Cup winning side).

Whilst many expected France to disappoint, having only qualified by "the hand of Henry", & considered the defending Champions Italy over the hill & out of sorts, most were surprised by the poor results of England in particular, and Portugal & Brazil to a lesser extent.

And then there was the one & only worldwide superstar of the World Cup,"Paul the Octopus"! He managed to correctly pick all of Germany's 5 wins & 2 defeats plus Spain's win in the final & in the process became a superstar. How I wish he had picked Germany to beat Spain in the semi finals!
As for me personally, this has been a great World Cup despite my beloved Socceroos poor start to the tournament & their subsequent early elimination & my life long idols Germany not reaching the final.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the kind remarks & show of support & encouragement from all of you who were following my blog. A special mention also goes to Deborah Cameron & Jennifer Lacey at ABC 702 Sydney morning show (radio station) for their enthusiasm & support.

To top it all, I even managed to inadvertently get under the skin of a rather cranky Les Murray of SBS TV, who this morning sent me a less than complimentary email belittling me for merely suggesting that despite Spain's attractive way of playing, their multiple 1-0 victories & lack of goals were not a great way to promote the beautiful game to the casual non core supporters! I hope most of you agree with my point.

I must however emphasise that SBS once again provided Australia with a world class presentation & in fact managed to show all 64 games live. We are very lucky in Australia to have such a dedicated team at SBS.

On a final note, as exciting as the annual club competitions such as the Champions League & some of the European and other leagues are, they will never be able to fully replace the World Cup as the premier football (& indeed sporting) event in the world stage. Only European Championships come close & that is because it is similar to a mini world cup!

My blog will recommence at the beginning of the European season in late August. I hope you can join me from time to time!

Viva Espana! Congratulations to Spain & its supporters for playing wonderfully entertaining football on their way to winning the World Cup. They are worthy winners & will be hard to catch in the coming years.

Australia's Socceroos vs Germany, facts, stats & key German players to watch out for

The Socceroos will undoubtedly face a much more difficult opening game next Monday morning in South Africa 2010 than they did in Germany against japan in 2006.

As both a fan of the Socceroos & Germany since Australia's first qualification for Germany 1974 World Cup, I was hugely disappointed when my two beloved teams were drawn together! But I must say Germany has brought the Socceroos luck in the past as Australia's two previous qualifications to the World Cup were in 1974 & 2006 when the Cup was held in Germany in both occasions.

In the absence of their influential Captain Michael Ballack (above left) who got injured in the English FA Cup Final whilst playing for Chelsea, the new Captain & vice Captain, Philip Lahm (middle) & Bastian Schweinsteiger (right) will be two of the key experienced leaders for Germany in South Africa. Here are some of the facts & stats about Germany:

• Germany are well known as a disciplined "Tournament" team capable of lasting till the later rounds of the Cup. This is clearly the case as demonstrated by their record in the World Cup:


• Germany have reached the World Cup final a record 7 times (equal to Brazil's) and the semi finals a record 11 times.


• They have won the World Cup 3 times (Brazil have won it 5 times & Italy 4)


• They have won their opening game in the last 5 World Cups. As the SBS Football Commentator Craig Foster rightly points out, experienced World Cup teams know how important it is to win the first match, draw or win the second & rest players for the third (depending on potential draw). This was evident after Australia's win in its opening match of the 2006 World Cup against Japan.


• Their team in South Africa is their youngest since they won the World Cup in 1954. In contrast, Australia's squad's average age makes the Socceroos the second oldest team in South Africa.


• Only 7 players from Germany's 2006 team are present in South Africa. Although most players in the current squad did play in Euro 2008. Germany reached the final of that tournament for a record 6th time (another proof of their resilience in tournaments)

Germany had to deal with several injuries to key players as well as disagreements between the coach & influential players which resulted in axing of some key players. As mentioned, Ballack was ruled out 3 weeks ago. The no 1 goal keeper Rene Adler was also ruled out due to a rib injury, and holding midfielder Simon Rolfes due to an ankle injury.

The German coach Loew refused to recall the highly experienced Torsten Fringes, a veteran of 2002 & 2006 World Cups in place of Ballack. He also ruled out a return for Kevin Kuranyi, who scored 18 goals this season in the German Bundesliga. As a result, it was reported that Germany had selected 6 strikers in the final 23 squad.

Whilst this is correct in theory, English speaking commentators were as usual too simplistic in their appraisal. The German coach, like many other top coaches around the world ins a big fan of the modern 4-2-3-1 system. This means most probably two of the wingers in the 3 number will be from the 6 strikers. Here's my prediction for Germany's line up on Monday morning:

Neuer (Goal keeper)

Lahm (C) Friedrich Mertesacker Badstuber (or Jansen)

Kedira Schweinsteiger

Podolski Muller Ozil

Klose

Key players to watch out for:

• Captain Philip Lahm, a world class left & right back. Appeared as left back in the 2006 World Cup & scored the opening goal of the tournament, but appears to have settled into his preferred right back role
• Bastian Schweinsteiger: is to fill Ballack's holding midfield role, which he so successfully did for his Clubside Bayern Munich during the European season which earned him comparisons to Spain's Xavi.
• Podolaski & Klose, whilst they both had terrible seasons scoring a total of 5 goals between them, their international goal scoring record for Germany is fantastic. They scored 8 goals between them in 2006.
• Ozil, Kroos, Merin & Muller: all less than 22 years old world class attacking midfielders capable of scoring goals from seemingly impossible positions.
• Mario Gomez: Bundesliga's most expensive German player who has up to now disappointed at international level & is therefore desperate to prove his calibre & class (given the chance)

There are several young midfield players including Tony Kroos & Marco Merin, and the other three forwards Cacau, Marion Gomez & Stefan Kiessling who are hoping to feature in the starting line up, but the above line up seems to be the most likely based on most reports I have seen on the net.

Germany's weaknesses which the Socceroos may be able to exploit are:

• Absence of Michael Ballack
• Lack of goal scoring form of Klose & Podolski, although they both have enviable international goal scoring records
• unsettled central defence: for the past 6-7 years a reliable pairing has been in short supply
• Young squad: Many of the above players have had less than 10 full international caps
• Underestimating the Socceroos legendary will to fight tooth & nail

Having watched the last warm up matches for both teams, the Germans played a very well disciplined second half against Bosnia & scored three goals in the process, whilst Australia were badly exposed whilst trying to play an open attacking match against the USA& conceded 3 goals in the process.

My prediction: Germany's faster players will get the better of the aging Socceroos. However, no matter which teams finishes on top, I will be heartbroken & happy at the same time!

Germany to win by 2 goals, 3-0 or 3-1. I am still hoping for a Socceroos/Germany vs England in the second round!