Teams: Germany, Serbia, Ghana, Australia
Predicted qualifier: Serbia, Germany
Serbia has been struggling in the warm-up matches. They didn’t look good in their defence, creativity and even finishing. But these matches could not be determined their quality and potential. Spain and England have also struggling in warm-up watches, aren’t they? Looking at their performance in the qualifying round, they are really impressive. Kolarov and Ivanovic are great full back in pushing up and don’t lose their position easily while doing so, Vidic is one of the best center back in the world, Stankovic provides plenty of experience down the midfield, while Krasic and even Jovanovic and Tosic could provide some assists. Zigic provides height, and Pantelic coming from bench will give a vital finishing to break the balance. I really fancy this team to go far in this tournament and repeat the fate of Croatian 12 years ago in France. Germany has bit well hit by injuries. They don’t look solid in midfield without Ballack, their goalkeeper Neuer tend to come out from his zone far too often, and more worrying would be their starting forwards, Klose and Podolski who only managed to score a combined 5 goals in a whole season. They certainly would have difficulty to overcome England or USA in second round, but they are far better than Ghana and Australia in this group. Essien is out, Appiah only plat 2 games this season, Muntari doesn’t look good in Inter Milan as well. No chance Ghana. Australian tends to play rather defensively since Verbeek took over the team. They are more solid at the back, but I don’t think they are sharp enough in counter attacks to score goals against Serbia and Germany, especially when Kewell has been haunted by injuries all these long.
Below are squad lists of the teams:
GERMANY
Goalkeepers: Hans-Jorg Butt (Bayern Munich/Germany), Manuel Neuer (Schalke/Germany), Tim Wiese (Bremen/Germany)
Defenders: Per Mertesacker (Bremen/Germany), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich/Germany), Jerome Boateng (Hamburg/Germany), Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin/Germany), Serdar Tasci (Stuttgart/Germany), Marcell Jansen (Hamburg/Germany), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich/Germany), Dennis Aogo (Hamburg/Germany);
Midfielders: Sami Khedira (Stuttgart/Germany), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg/Germany), Marko Marin (Bremen/Germany), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich/Germany), Mesut Ozil (Bremen/Germany), Toni Kroos (Leverkusen/Germany)
Forwards: Lukas Podolski (Cologne/Germany), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich/Germany), Stefan Kiessling (Leverkusen/Germany), Cacau (Stuttgart/Germany), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich/Germany), Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich/Germany).
SERBIA
Goalkeepers: Vladimir Stojkovic (Sporting/Portugal), Bojan Isailovic (Zaglebie Lubin/Poland), Andjelko Djuricic (Uniao Leiria/Portugal)
Defenders: Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea/England), Antonio Rukavina (Munich 1860/Germany), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United/England), Neven Subotic (Borussia Dortmund/Germany), Aleksandar Lukovic (Udinese/Italy), Ivan Obradovic (Zaragoza/Spain), Aleksandar Kolarov (Lazio/Italy)
Midfielders: Dejan Stankovic (Inter Milan/Italy), Gojko Kacar (Hertha Berlin/Germany), Nenad Milijas (Wolverhampton Wanderers/England), Zdravko Kuzmanovic (VfB Stuttgart/Germany), Radosav Petrovic (Partizan Belgrade/Serbia), Milos Krasic (CSKA Moscow/Russia), Zoran Tosic (Manchester United/England), Milos Ninkovic (Dynamo Kiev/Ukraine), Milan Jovanovic (Liverpool/England)
Forwards: Nikola Zigic (Birmingham City/England), Marko Pantelic (Ajax Amsterdam/Netherlands), Danko Lazovic (Zenit St. Petersburg/Russia), Dragan Mrdja (Vojvodina Novi Sad/Serbia)
GHANA
Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson (Wigan/England), Daniel Agyei (Liberty Professionals/Ghana), Stephen Ahorlu (Hearts of Lions/Ghana)
Defenders: Samuel Inkoom (Basel/Switzerland), Jonathan Mensah (Granada/Spain), Lee Addy (Bechem Chelsea/Ghana), Rahim Ayew (Zamalek/Egypt), Hans Sarpei (Bayer Leverkusen/Germany), John Mensah (Lyon/France), Isaac Vorsah (Hoffenheim/Germany), John Pantsil (Fulham/England)
Midfielders: Sulley Muntari (Inter Milan/Italy), Derek Boateng (Getafe/Spain), Anthony Annan (Rosenborg/Norway), Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese/Italy), Andre Ayew (Marseille/France), Stephen Appiah (Bologna/Italy), Quincy Owusu Abeyie (Al Sadd/Qatar), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Portsmouth/Portsmouth)
Forwards: Matthew Amoah (NAC Breda/Netherlands), Asamoah Gyan (Rennes/France), Prince Tagoe (Hoffenheim/Germany), Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan/Italy)
AUSTRALIA
Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer (Fulham/England), Adam Federici (Reading/England), Brad Jones (Middlesbrough/England)
Defenders: Lucas Neill (Galatasaray/Turkey), Craig Moore (unattached), Scott Chipperfield (Basel/Switzerland), David Carney (Twente Enschede/Netherlands), Luke Wilkshire (Dynamo Moscow/Russia), Mark Milligan (JEF United/Japan), Michael Beauchamp (Melbourne Heart/Australia)
Midfielders: Tim Cahill (Everton/England), Mark Bresciano (Palermo/Italy), Vince Grella (Blackburn/England), Brett Emerton (Blackburn/England), Jason Culina (Gold Coast/Australia), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray/Turkey), Brett Holman (AZ Alkmaar/Netherlands), Carl Valeri (Sassuolo/Italy), Mile Jedinak (Antalyaspor/Turkey), Richard Garcia (Hull/England), Dario Vidosic (Nuremberg/Germany)
Forwards: Josh Kennedy (Nagoya/Japan), Nikita Rukavytsya (Twente Enschede/Netherlands)
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