Tank's Day 3 Summary

Game of the Day: With three relatively poor games today, Serbia/Ghana basically stumbled upon the award. Serbia, labeled by many as a darkhorse for a deep run, failed to come out and impress today. Without EPL stud Essien, I expected Ghana to not be nearly as dangerous. However, it appeared that Ghana's youthful ignorance of the magnitude of the stage worked to their advantage. They played toe to toe with the Serbs for 80 plus minutes. While it was a completely unnecessary handball in the 82nd minute that dug the Serbs' grave, it was Asamoah Gyan that buried the casket. Not only was this the first penalty of the tournament, but it gave Ghana an historical first ever win for an African squad on their home turf. "Every African is behind us," Gyan said. "I salute all you guys. We win this match for you." The Serbs had several very dangerous chances late in the game despite the fact that they were playing with ten men. After Australia's abysmal performance, Ghana are now in great position to qualify for the knockout round.

Player of the Day: With no true individual standout today, I'm going to give this award to all four of the German goal scorers. Germany was truly dominant over an Australian team that had been lauded for their defense by German coaches coming into this match. Germany threatened early and often, and today it definitely showed on the scoreboard. Australian star Tim Cahill picked up a questionable red card in the second half that may have ended any hope Australia had for getting out of the group. Marian Klose deserves to be singled out for scoring his 11th career World Cup goal, which moves him into a three way tie for 5th all-time with Sandor Kocsis and fellow countryman Jurgen Klinsmann.

Play of the Day: Tip of the cap to Lukas Podolski for his cracking strike that just slipped past Aussie goalie Mark Schwarzer. After a dangerous cross found it's way through the Australian penalty area, Podolski found himself all alone just inside the eighteen. Without hesitation, he ripped a first touch scorcher that found its way into the back of the net despite Schwarzer getting a hand on it. Hats off to this player who continues to show that being out of form for one's club doesn't necessarily translate to a poor showing on the international stage.

Almost Play of the Day: Australia walking out onto the field. They almost made you believe they were a soccer team.

Impact on Group C and D: Slovenia managed to vault themselves to the top of the Group C standings, mostly thanks to an Algerian red card and a goalkeeping blunder by Faouzi Chaouchi (ironically enough, the only reason he was playing was due to his suspension being lifted for head butting a referee during qualifying... karma anyone?). Slovenia's win now makes their upcoming meeting with the Americans nearly a must win for the U.S. A loss for the U.S.A. more than likely eliminates them from the tournament and a tie could lead to some nasty tiebreaking scenarios. In Group D, Germany is clearly the cream of the crop. Their 4-0 thrashing of Australia sets the tone for the group stage that will more than likely end in 9 points for the Germans. Australia now likely needs two wins to advance, as it will be tough to win any tiebreakers with their current -4 goal differential. Ghana also took a big step towards advancing today with a 1-0 win over Serbia. Serbia now finds themselves in a situation where they must get at least a point from Germany, assuming Ghana doesn't drop both of their remaining matches in the group stage. With how poorly the Socceroos showed today, I'd be surprised to see Ghana end the stage with any less than 4 points.