Australia look to Cahill for inspiration

GROUP D/Germany v Australia:IT ALWAYS seems a little bewildering when well-paid professional footballers get hung up ahead of major championships on how much they might get paid for representing their countries.

Still, there might be one or two Australian players here in South Africa to whom the €440,000 cheque they would receive, in the unlikely event that their team actually wins the World Cup, would still matter.

Tim Cahill, the dynamic midfielder around whom the whole team now revolves, is hardly one of them. The Sydney-born midfielder is not above being influenced by a fat cheque, at least at club level, as a proposed move from his first English club, Millwall, to Crystal Palace a few years back floundered over excessive demands.

Two improved contracts down the road at Everton, though, and with his status as something of an icon back at home secure, the 30- year-old from Sydney has bigger fish to fry than where his next bonus is coming from.

While German boss Joachim Loew was this week trying to provoke the Australians into adopting a more attacking game tomorrow by publicly dwelling on their inclination towards defence, his players queued up to identify Cahill as the key man to be watched amongst the opposition.

“Cahill has enormous experience and has grown tremendously in England,” says Werder Bremen defender Per Mertesacker. “He is one of Australia’s most dangerous players but if we can mark him tightly, it will make it hard for him to play a role. We will try and nip his attacks in the bud, and even maybe double mark him. But he is still dangerous and can create chances in front of goal, so it will be hard to contain him.”

It’s not hard to see why Cahill stands out. Having severely complicated his international future by accepting an invitation to represent Samoa at underage level while visiting his grandmother during his early teens, Cahill flirted with the idea of declaring for Ireland on the basis of his father’s lineage before lining out for his homeland, against South Africa in March 2004.

It took some time for him to really establish himself and it was not really until he came off the bench in the group game against Japan in Germany four years ago that his potential appears to have been fully appreciated. But two goals in that game changed everything and he has since eclipsed the likes of Harry Kewell, Lucas Neill and Scott Chipperfield as the team’s main influence.

Loew is right to suggest Australia are likely to sit back a fair bit on Sunday but they showed in Thomond just how well they can play on the break, with a good proportion of Cahill’s 20 international in 40 international outings, coming from just such situations.

There is plenty more to the threat he poses around the box, though, and before coming off injured in the 3-1 defeat by the USA last weekend, he pounced on a corner that eluded everyone else to convert from close range. At least as important, he is a tireless worker for the team, an insightful passer of the ball and implausibly good for his size in the air.

Not even that range of gifts would seem likely to upset the Germans if they play well, however, and Cahill admits they will have to hope that the three-time champions continue what he sees as a knack for being “slow starters”.

One of their new generation at this tournament, Mesut Oezil, dismisses the notion, insisting that the team is “well prepared and totally motivated,” for the game but there will be a slightly fresh -faced look about the Germans with Sami Khedira, 22, likely to replace the injured Michael Ballack and the likes of Marko Marin, 21, firmly in contention ahead of their clash with the second oldest squad in this tournament.

The Germans believe this can be the start of another great time for them and Australia’s coach, the well-travelled Dutchman, Pim Verbeek, knows Loew’s isn’t just turning to youth in desperation.

His own approach has been to invest heavily in a core group of players. Few teams at this World Cup will be have been better drilled by their coach in what is expected of them and it’s hard to think of any squad that arrives with a more settled side.

But none springs to mind either that is so heavily dependent on just one man. And talented as Cahill is, that’s not really such a good thing, especially when the midfielder will start tomorrow still feeling the neck injury that forced him off after scoring against the USA.