DURBAN, South Africa, June 13, (AFP): Three-time champions Germany fired out a warning to World Cup challengers with a comprehensive 4-0 dismantling of Australia in their opening Group D match here Sunday.
The Germans totally dominated the Socceroos, with captain Philipp Lahm and rising stars Mesut Oezil and Thomas Mueller running Australian veterans Scott Chipperfield and Craig Moore ragged down the right wing.
Goals from Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Mueller and Brazil-born striker Cacau were just rewards for a team which also had a hatful of other scoring opportunities. The victory leaves Germany atop of Group D, Ghana having beaten Serbia 1-0 in the day’s other game.
Podolski opened the scoring in the ninth minute, the happy recipient of a text-book training ground move executed to clinical perfection.
After Oezil had played in Mueller, the Bayern Munich right winger cut the ball back across the face of the goal for Podolski to hammer home left-footed, with Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer getting a hand on it.
Klose, top scorer in the 2006 World Cup, made it 2-0 in the 27th minute with a well-taken goal - and his 11th in World Cup finals - rising between Australian captain Lucas Neill and Schwarzer to head powerfully home from a Lahm cross.
“Everything worked well and it is important that things went well in the first game,” Klose said.
“We have earned some respect. You could see that we had fun playing football out there. I know what I can do. I feel great.”
Germany coach Joachim Loew was delighted too.
“I am very happy about the performance, we showed some quick passing and good speed,” he said.
The Socceroos paid a heavy price for the dismissal of Tim Cahill, shown a straight red card in the 56th minute by Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez for a very clumsy challenge on Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Two goals in a matter of minutes from Mueller (67) and Cacau (70), on as a replacement for Klose, sealed Australia’s dismal start to their third World Cup campaign.  Mueller, who started the season in Bayern Munich’s reserves, looked like he’d overrun a Podolski through-ball it but he dragged it back and shot accurately past Schwarzer, in off the post.
Disarray
With the Australian defence in disarray, Caucau then had a simple tuck-in from another inch-perfect pass into the box by the 21-year-old Oezil.
It was Australia who had the first real chance of the game, Lahm clearing a close-range effort by Richard Garcia in the fourth minute.
And for all their fine attacking instincts, Germany did at times look slow to close down at the back, allowing time and space for both Garcia and replacement Brett Holman to have shots on target. Between them, Klose, the top scorer at the last World Cup, and Podolski, voted the best young player at Germany 2006, scored just five goals in last season’s German league.
But both German hot-shots lived up to their reputations as proven goalscorers as Joachim Loew’s side began their quest for a fourth World Cup title by putting the Socceroos to the sword in Durban.
Klose’s goal was his 11th at World Cup finals and he is the only player in South Africa who can realistically overtake Ronaldo’s record of 15 goals in all finals.
Having scored five goals - all with his head - at the 2002 World Cup finals, when Germany lost to Brazil in the final, and five again in Germany four years ago, the Polish-born striker has now been on the scoresheet at each of the last three finals. He spent last season warming the bench at Bayern Munich, while Podolski had an unremarkable season at mid-table Cologne.
See Also Pages 49, 50 & 51
But the pair answered their critics as they led the attack in a youthful Germany side with an average age of just over 25.
As an attacking midfielder, Podolski has played consistently well for Germany since the last World Cup and has made the national side’s left-wing berth his own, while Loew’s faith in Klose was repaid with interest.
There had been calls in the German press to drop Bayern Munich’s Klose, 32, as Germany’s lone striker, but the veteran’s 26th minute header ended the debate.
He missed an absolute sitter just moments before when Podolski, 25, set him up right in front of goal, but he overstretched and howled in rage at missing his shot, but made no mistake seconds later.
It was Klose’s first goal in the white shirt of Germany since hitting the winner in Moscow last October which booked his side’s World Cup berth and was his 49th goal in his 97th appearance for his country.
He is now third among Germany’s top goalscorers, but needs 20 more goals to beat Gerd Mueller’s record of 68 from the 1970s.
Klose could easily have scored more as he was denied by Schwarzer from close range before he was replaced by Cacau, who along with Thomas Mueller completed the rout.