There was a lot at stake in the 2010 FIFA World Cup semifinal between Germany and Spain. All of the historic and recent records insisted that German team was the heavy favorite in this game. Meanwhile, the Spanish team entered completely new territory in the World Cup stages, reaching their first ever semifinal. Germany breezed through its first round and quarterfinal games, while Spain struggled. Nevertheless, over 61,000 fans at Durban Stadium knew they’d witness an unpredictable battle.

Germany came into this Semifinal match without Thomas Mueller, who was suspended. Mueller, who scored 4 goals at this year’s World Cup, knew that his absence could play a major role in the outcome of the match.

During the first half, Spain missed some great opportunities to take an early lead with some plays from David Villa, Pedro, and Iniesta. The Spanish side controlled most of the possession during the first half, and the German’s barely had any looks at the Spanish goal. Tied at 0-0, the teams headed into the locker room to come up with some new strategies.

Early in the second half, German coach Joachim Low introduced Marcell Jansen and Toni Kroos to the pitch. The substitution didn’t do much for the German side. Only moments later in the 74th minute, defender Carles Puyol leaped into the air and hit a header from a corner kick to give Spain a 1-0 lead.

In the last 15 minutes of the game, Germany looked disorganized and failed to create any meaningful plays from any side of the pitch. Spain defended its lead well and advanced to its first ever World Cup Final.

At the end of the day, Spain simply was more aggressive, as evident by 13 total shots taken, compared to Germany’s only 5 shots. For such an occasion, it was a surprisingly clean match, as no warning cards were given out.

Saturday’s quarterfinal match between Germany and Argentina features two soccer powerhouses who have a budding rivalry.

Germany eliminated Argentina from the 2006 World Cup in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks in a game that ended with players and staff from both teams clashing. A war of words has preceded Saturday’s match, and fans will be treated to a hard-fought, contentious match between two of the world’s best.

German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has accused Argentina of a “lack of respect” for the game and has criticized them for their apparent ability to influence officials. “You see how they gesticulate, how they try to influence the referee. That is not part of the game. That is a lack of respect. They are like that. We should not be provoked by them,” Schweinsteiger said.

Germany played just well enough to win Group D, winning against Australia and Ghana but suffering a loss to Serbia. They started the knockout stage very well, however, defeating England 4-1. Their young stars have been tremendous in the tournament. Mesut Ozil and Thomas Mueller have been magnificent, overcoming doubts that this World Cup was too soon for them. Ozil has played so well that Werder Bremen general manager Klaus Allofs has stated that he has outshone Argentina midfielder Lionel Messi, who is widely regarded as the world’s best player.

Argentina represents a much bigger challenge for Germany than any other team they have faced. They are one of two teams to win all four of their games and they feature the always-intimidating Messi. In addition to Messi, Argentina has joint top scorer Gonzalo Higuain who has scored four goals in the tournament.

Saturday’s match should be something special. The two teams are very evenly matched and they both feature some of the world’s best young players. Schweinsteiger’s words will certainly be in the minds of both teams as the international soccer giants seek to advance to the semifinals.

On the 23rd of June Ghana and Germany will square off out of Group D in the 2010 World Cup. On paper it appears that this is a lopsided match, but anything goes in a soccer game with such worldwide implications.

The beauty of this game is that though Germany is ranked much higher in many of the world rankings, that takes away nothing from the ability of Ghana to stay in this game. You can expect Ghana to be pumped up to play a high level of soccer as they play one of the premier teams in the world. If Ghana can take this one match it will give them the confidence to move along and make a solid run in this World Cup just as they did 4 years ago in Germany.

The home continent crowd cannot be talked about enough as it will be a huge advantage to have millions of people in the area supporting your team against all other teams that are not from Africa.

Germany will have to be defensively sound if they hope to seal the deal in this game. They have given up more goals than a top level team normally would in their recent matches and that gives any team a chance to play with them in a game.

The Ghana team will need to show their defense is capable of stopping a formidable attack as well if they hope to compete. They may have the second best defense of Group D and will need to show it in order to compete.