Germany defender Per Mertesacker says that he will target Australia's key man Tim Cahill when the two nations clash on Sunday in Durban in their opening World Cup match. Werder Bremen's Mertesacker has identified Everton's Cahill as the Socceroos' main threat and is planning to negate his influence.
"Tim Cahill has enormous experience and has grown tremendously in England, he is one of Australia's most dangerous players and will be their midfield maestro," said Mertesacker.
"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."
Mertesacker added that it is important for Germany to get off to a good start and said the players are chomping at the bit for the tournament to get under way.
"We are concentrating on the first group game, because we know a lot can happen in the group stages, especially early on," Mertesacker added.
"We need to get as many points as possible, as soon as possible.
"I don't want to be negative about it, but it would be a very bad start for us to lose the opening game to Australia.
"The next few training sessions will be decisive to get organised come the Australia game.
"We are all really dying to get cracking after all this time waiting."