Striker Cacau scored his third goal in two games for his adopted country to seal Germany’s 3-0 win over Hungary in a World Cup warm-up on Saturday.
Brazilian-born Cacau, who only qualified to play for Germany last year, came off the bench to add to the two goals he scored in the 3-0 win over Malta to strengthen his case for a place in the starting line-up for the World Cup.
Germany begin their World Cup campaign in Group D on June 13 against Australia and fly to South Africa next Monday after their final warm-up game against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday.
Alongside Cacau, Lukas Podolski and Mario Gomez weighed in with goals to cap impressive performances.
Germany coach Joachim Loew was pleased with the performance, but must cut two players before announcing his final 23-man squad for the World Cup tomorrow.
“There will be lots of speculation in the next few days,” Loew said. “The coaches will sit down together on Sunday and Monday with the coaching staff and announce the squad on Tuesday. Of course, it will hurt for the players concerned, but unfortunately we can only take 23.”
With Germany captain Michael Ballack injured and out of next month’s World Cup, Bayern Munich striker Miroslav Klose took over the skipper’s armband.
Having played in last weekend’s Champions League final defeat, Bayern Munich quartet Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Mueller, Hans-Joerg Butt and Germany’s new World Cup captain Philipp Lahm were all rested.
Like Loew, Hungarian coach Erwin Koeman opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Augsburg forward Sandor Torghelle as the lone striker.
Germany opened the scoring at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium when Podolski, playing as an attacking midfielder, drilled in a long-range shot which Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly palmed over the bar. From the resulting corner, defender Per Mertesacker was fouled in the penalty area and referee Claus Larsen of Denmark had no hesitation awarding the penalty.
Kiraly dived to his left and Podolski rifled his shot into the top right-hand corner to make it 1-0 to Germany after four minutes.
To compound things for the hosts, defender Laszlo Bodnar was shown the first yellow card moments later for hauling down Podolski on the edge of the penalty area.
Germany hammered the Hungarian defense in the first 20 minutes, with Werder Bremen’s Mesut Oezil going close with three clear chances to score.
Trochowski was booked in the 41st minute for a heavy tackle.
It finished 1-0 at the break, but early in the second half Loew brought on VfB Stuttgart striker Cacau for midfielder Oezil and defender Dennis Aogo came on for midfielder Sami Khedira.
Germany temporarily dropped their tempo in the second half and with 60 minutes gone Loew introduced Marcel Jansen for rising star Toni Kroos, Marko Marin for Trochowski and Gomez replaced sriker Klose up front.
Marin, who was a constant threat, made an instant impression when he slid a pass through to Gomez who beat Kiraly on 69 minutes.
Kiraly’s luck did not improve as his clearance was headed into the path of Cacau, who drew the goalkeeper and tapped home on 72 minutes to seal a convincing display by his side.
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