Any worries the Germans had about the loss of influential captain Michael Ballack were quickly put to rest in their 4-0 opening win against outgunned Australia in Durban. Richard Garcia provided an early scare for the three-time world champions in the nervy awkwardness of the opening exchanges, but it proved a false dawn as Germany were a goal to the good inside seven minutes of the Group D curtain raiser.
Miroslave Klose fired a warning shot after four minutes which was well dealt with by Mark Scharzer, but Australia’s Fulham-based net-minder could do nothing about what came just four minutes later. A diagonal ball from Messut Oezil sent Thomas Mueller rampaging through the right side of the area, and the Bayern Munich starlet crossed low for Lucas Podolski, a one-time Munich gem in his own right, who drilled home with his left foot past the despairing custodian, who did well just to get a hand to it.
The Australians were stunned by the early set-back and the heavy underdogs, labelled such by captain Lucas Neill in the build-up, had no luck grinding their way back into the contest. After 20 minutes, Garcia was again vaguely threatening, but his tame strike from the edge of the box failed to do justice to some clever approach work.
The Germans were eminently in the ascendancy, and threatening from both flanks. In the 24th minute, Miroslave Klose – so reliable on the world stage – fluffed an absolute sitter, woefully poking high and wide on the end of a brilliant cross out left from scorer Podolski, who was looking a new man after a horror season with FC Cologne.
It didn’t take long for Klose to go from goat to hero, rising high to head home from an inch-perfect cross – this time from the right – from captain Philipp Lahm , who recently made the apparently justifiable claim that this German team is the “best he’s ever played in,” after 26 minutes. Oezil had another golden chance on the half-hour mark, but his delicate chip over Schwarzer was booted clear by Neill, who was leading a rearguard in serious danger of total collapse as the halftime whistle, mercifully, blew an end to the opening stanza.
The second half began with Neill unceremoniously planting a knee into the back of danger-man Klose. That bit of impetuousness combined with a red card for Tim Cahill in the 56th minute for a tackle from behind on Bastian Schweinsteiger, as the full measure of Aussie resistance.
With a man advantage, the German juggernaut went into overdrive. Oezil and Podolski both went close to scoring from close range before the outstanding Mueller made it 3-0 with a sharp strike in off the post after a wily give-and-go with Podolski cut a swath through the despairing Australian defence in the 66th minute. 120 seconds later Cacau added a fourth and final goal with his first touch of the ball after coming on as a substitute for Klose, slotting home the simplest of finishes from six yards out.
The Germans, on top of the group alongside Ghana, who beat Serbia earlier in the day, next face the Serbs on 18 June in Nelson Mandela Bay while Australia will look to rebound against a powerful Ghana one day later in Rustenburg.