Group D opens up with the game of Serbia versus Ghana in the beautiful city of Pretoria, and even though the group stage belongs to Germany there is still interest on the second qualifying position with 3 more or less equal teams willing to put up a good fight for it. And this very first game of round 1 is very important for the two opponents because if Australia gets beaten by the Germans the winning team of Serbia versus Ghana will have a huge advantage and confidence boost for the rest of the competition.

Serbia has a rich football history playing with another name as Yugoslavia with 11 overall appearances in the World Cup tournament. The national football team has reached the 4th place in two separate occasions in the first World Cup of 1930 and also in 1962. The last few years Serbia has been more or less absent from the finals but mostly on political reasons. Now that they are back in the game they would certainly love to relive the glory of the past, and South Africa seems like the perfect place to start doing just that. In 2006 Serbia had a disappointing run losing all three group games (with an embarrassing 6-0 defeat against Argentina - the country’s worst ever international result). This came after qualifying first in the tournament, with an undefeated record and only allowing a single goal in 10 games leaving powerful Spain behind. Having more experience for this young team will make the difference this time, they will not play the punching bag again this time.

The Black Stars of Ghana have something to prove also this time, playing in their second consecutive World Cup competition. Ghana is one of the top African teams having won the continent’s cup a total of 5 times, and they finished in second place recently in 2010. Ghana was the only African football team to go past the group stage in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while having the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of just 23 years old. A lot of these players are now more experienced and hungry to go even further (they reached the 13th place in 2006). Like all African teams they are fast, strong and athletic, able to create some serious problems to any opponent that will get carried away in their game. Playing in front of an African crowd is also definitely very important for the psychology of each game.

World Cup 2010 - Related posts:

1. Ghana defeats Serbia by 1-0 in Pretoria After a stupid penalty from Zdravko Kuzmanović - that Asamoah Gyan successfully shot in the 84th minute of the game,...
2. Ghana versus Australia DATE: June 19 2010 CITY: Rustenburg GROUP: Group D Last match of Group D in Rustenburg and the Black Stars...
3. Serbia versus Ghana video highlights Watch all goals and highlights from the World Cup 2010 game between Serbia and Ghana for Group D of the...
4. WATCH LIVE: Serbia versus Ghana The live World Cup 2010 game between Serbia and Ghana will be played on June 13 2010 at 4:00 PM...
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