world cup is coming - queens birthday fixtures, page-4

Not withstanding the injury to Essien, I expected Serbia to win anyway and even though many are billing the Germany v Australia clash as the 'Big One', I think the clash between Serbia and Australia will be just as important in determining who progresses through the group stage.

Serbia is a formidable opponent and could well top the group given Germany's somewhat depleted line-up and given Ghana's lack of leadership and drive in the midfield through the loss of Essien combined with its frailty in defence ruling out any chance of it progressing beyond the group stage.

The reference to Ghana's weak defence comes from the friendly between Japan and Ghana that I watched last September that saw a scoreline of Japan 4 Ghana 3 with the Ghanaian defence conceding three goals in a five minute period in the second half to effectively give up a game they had until then had well and truly under their control. If you concede so many goals to Japan, how many will you concede against superior, some might say far superior, opposition in Germany, Serbia and Australia?!

For anyone who is interested, highlights of the game in question can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

http://www.freesoccerhighlights.com/soccer/highlights/2009/09/09/japan-4-ghana-3-international-friendly-wednesday-september-9-2009/