Ballack out: should England WORRY ?

Six wrote:

blutgraetsche wrote:

Six wrote:
Neither of these things make it a group of death. Only Brazil's can be called that - the term is massively overused these days.

Brazil
Ivory Coast
Portugal
North Korea


Germany
Ghana
Serbia
Australia


I fail to see the big difference. Why is Brazil's group a "group of death" while Germany's isn't?

Ghana is very comparable to Ivory Coast, Serbia had a very good qualification campaign, in contrast to Portugal. Quite a talented team, too. And Australia are tougher than North Korea.

Qualification doesn't mean much really. Portugal and Ivory Coast are far more likely to make the quarter finals then Ghana (no Essien) or Serbia (they qualified well in 2006 too). Players like Drogba and Cristiano are far more likely to make a difference in cup competitions.

Germany should win the group comfortably, with 3 decent teams fighting for 2nd. Can't say the same about the other group. anything could happen.

Be honest which group would you prefer to be in? Germany's any day.

This is the Essien-less Ghana team that reached the final of the ACON.

Ivory Coast have just replaced their manager, and were shown to be pretty overrated in the ACON. Portugal look pretty poor at the moment. Relying on one of Ronaldo's 4687 shots per game to go in is hardly the sign of a good team.

I would much rather be in Brazil's.

I don't understand this

a number of German doctors claim that with a certain treatment

Ballack could indeed play in South Africa AFTER ALL

http://www.bild.de/BILD/sport/fussball-wm-2010-suedafrika/2010/05/21/aerzte-streit-um-michael-ballack/haette-unser-kapitaen-bei-der-wm-spielen-koennen.html



it seems Bierhoff and Co refuse to contemplate trying it out though , because they rely on , the admittedly, usually excellent Müller-Wohlfahrt

but

should we not TRY EVERYTHING to get the Kapitän fit

They should, but 'fit' is really stretching it otto. Even if they could fix it, he'd be far from match fit.

Ballack's injury is / was a huge blow, but at least it came at the 'right time' (or could have been timed worse at least) - still some (not much, granted) time left to build a new midfield axis. That's what Löw should be concentrating on now, unfortunately the Bayern players still have a CL final to play.