Ghana and Germany take wins to open Group D

Germany and Ghana both took opening wins in Group D at the 2010 World Cup.  Germany was expected to take care of an overmatched Australia squad, but it was even easier than expected as Germany rolled to a 4-0 victory.  It took only 7 minutes for Germany to get on the board as a perfect pass to the backpost found Lukas Podolski who rifled home.  Miroslav Klose headed home on 26 and Germany were easily on their way.  Australia lost all hope in the second half when Tim Cahill was shown a straight red card for a tackle.  From there it was jsut a matter of how many goals Germany were going to net.  Thomas Muller and Cacau added goals for the 4-0 final margin.

Ghana took a hardfought 1-0 win over Serbia in a monster game.  Ghana is now in a great position to advance from the group into the knockout phase.  It was an even match for most of the day.  Neither team looked like they wanted to make the mistake and give away the opening goal as both sides played fairly conservatively and the first half ended scoreless. 

The second was also a tight affair until a second yellow card to Aleksander Lukovic in the 74th left Serbia to finish with 10 men.  It actually spurred Serbia on as they created three scoring chances over the next few minutes and were unlucky to have not grabbed the lead despite playing short.  Then with less the 10 minutes to play a Ghana cross into the Serbia penalty area was handled by Kuzmanovic resulting in a penalty kick for Ghana.  Asamoah Gyan stepped up and scored the spot kick sending Ghana to the important victory.

Germany face Serbia next while Ghana play Australia.