Australia's tough task

Australia faces a tough but not impossible task to repeat its heroics of four years ago and survive the group stages in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after drawing European powerhouse Germany and Africa's strongest nation Ghana in the official World Cup draw on Saturday morning.

Check out the draw here.

Australia faces a tough but not impossible task to repeat its heroics of four years ago and survive the group stages in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after drawing European powerhouse Germany and Africa's strongest nation Ghana in the official World Cup draw on Saturday morning.

The Qantas Socceroos were drawn in Group D with Serbia making up the fourth team of the group.

While the draw was not the easiest Pim Verbeek's team could have received, it was also far from the hardest draw as the Qantas Socceroos' managed to avoid the two strongest nations from Pot D in France and Portugal.

However Australia was drawn in one of the toughest groups overall although the 'Group of Death' appears to Group G where Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast were all drawn together alongside minnows North Korea.

But if the Qantas Socceroos' can qualify from the group stages it faces a massive reward with a likely second round showdown with England in the round of 16.

The Qantas Socceroos' opening game will be against Germany in Durban on Sunday June 13 followed by Ghana in Rustenberg on Saturday June 19 while the final group game will be against Serbia in Nelspruit on Wednesday June 23.

To repeat the efforts of Germany in 2006 - when the Qantas Socceroos' advanced to the knockout stages of the world's biggest sporting event for the first time - the Australians will need to finish in the top two in their group.

But while Germany will be the heavy favourite to top the group, second place will be a wide open battle between the Qantas Socceroos, Ghana and Serbia.

And the second placed team in Group D would then face the top ranked team from Group C in the second round with that team almost certain to be England, handed a dream draw against relative lightweights USA, Algeria and Slovenia.

Germany is ranked No.6 in the world on FIFA's official rankings and is a three-time winner of the World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990 while it finished third on home soil four years ago.

And it did not lose a single game during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup when it topped a group featuring Guus Hiddink's Russian team, which failed to qualify.

It has a host of stars led by captain Michael Ballack from English Premier League giants Chelsea as well as star strikers Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose.

But while Australia will not be expected to beat Germany, the current German team is not considered as strong as some of its illustrious predecessors and a draw would be considered a great result.

Ghana is the unpredictable team in the group but is the rising star of African football.

While the four-time African champions only qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2006, it went on to become the only African nation to reach the second round and should only be stronger this time around with the tournament being played on African soil for the first time.

Its stars include Michael Essien of EPL giants Chelsea and captain Stephen Appiah, who plays for Bologna in Italy.

At 37, Ghana is ranked 16 places below Australia at 21 on FIFA's rankings while Serbia at 20 is ranked one place above the Qantas Socceroos.

But Serbia did not win a single game in the group stages at the last World Cup in Germany, when it was also on the receiving end of a 6-0 loss to Argentina.

As a result Serbia ended the tournament as the single worst performed team of the 32 nations.