Whose World? What Cup? (Day 03a)

Ghana-Serbia 1-0 might have been a surprise to some, but Germany-Australia 4-0 cannot really be said to have been a surprise. The thing about the Germans is that they always think they will win. To them, it is not surprising at all; at the very worst, they don't think they will lose.

In contrast, Australia, ever-optimistic and positive, made the mistake of hoping to win. It wasn't the hope that was the mistake, but the lack of certainty. Spurts of violent industry, the occasional Chipperfield run down the left, Tim Cahill (as he does at Everton) being a troublesome man up front — all these are quintessentially Aussie. But they are signs of optimism, the expectation (in the hopeful sense) that the future will be better than warranted.

That's not the same as knowing the future is bright, which is what all German teams seem to believe. There is no optimism. Just the expectation (in the deterministic sense) that if the opponent is lower-ranked, they will be beaten — and that if the opponent is higher-ranked, this can be corrected by the proper application of strategy and skill.

Lahm, not an obvious captain, was an engine of creativity and defence up and down the right. But then, so was everyone else in his team, wherever they were. On offence, Germany appeared to have a single sweeper and six midfielders, a sort of 1-6-3 formation. On defence, everyone retreated in order to give a 6-3-1. Of course, it was neither; it just seemed that way... just as it seemed that members of the Australian side were somehow not quite present most of the time.