German wingers plan to ‘tear apart’ Socceroos

ERASMIA: Wingers Lukas Podolski and Marko Marin revealed Germany’s plan to pepper the Australian defence with enough crosses to ‘tear them apart’ in today’s World Cup clash.

The Socceroos and the Germans, who are favourites to win Group D, meet at Durban Stadium in their opening game of the tournament. Germany are set to use a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Podolski likely to start on the left wing and Mesut Oezil on the right, but Marin proved his worth off the bench in Germany’s warm-up win against Bosnia last week with a series of darting runs which stretched the defence.

Debate, though, is raging in Germany whether Miroslav Klose, the top scorer at the last World Cup, or Stuttgart’s Cacau will start as Germany’s lone striker. Either way, Podolski and Marin plan to supply the front-man with plenty of balls.

“The Australians will be playing deep and it will be important to ‘tear them apart’, so to speak, by putting balls in from the wing,” said Marin. “It is no problem having a lone striker up-front, we just have to make sure he is well fed with possession.”

The three-time world champions have a relatively young squad in South Africa and with Michael Ballack out, Philipp Lahm takes over as captain of a side boasting several members of the impressive team which won the Under-21 European Championship in 2009. The defensive midfielder role vacated by Ballack is likely to be filled by Stuttgart’s Sami Khedira, 22, while the dazzling skills of Oezil and Marin, both 21, can play havoc with defences.

Australia will be looking to build on their impressive performance from the 2006 World Cup in Germany when they finished second in their group behind Brazil and ahead of Croatia and Japan.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2010.