World Cup 2010 News: Australia

Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Denmark not good enough against Australia

A slow and sloppy performance against Australia demonstrated that Denmark’s football side still has a lot of work to do

It was a line-up filled with new faces that national team head coach Morten Olsen fielded for Tuesday’s World Cup warm-up match against Australia – many of which may not be seen on the pitch again this summer after the team’s woeful performance.

The final score was 1-0 to the Aussies, but the shoddy level of play will be of greater concern to Olsen, whose team face the highly-fancied Netherlands in their opening World Cup match on 14 June. The Dutch hammered Ghana in their friendly yesterday 4-1.

None of the Danes stood out in the uninspired affair, which saw Australia’s Joshua Kennedy score the match’s only goal in the second half following a miscommunication between Andersen and defender Daniel Agger over a loose ball around 20 metres from goal.

While Olsen did not believe his players gave their best efforts yesterday, he also blamed the controversial, heavier World Cup ball, which many top players and coaches have criticised as well.

‘We’re playing with an impossible ball, but we’ll just have to get used to it,’ he told TV2 Sport. ‘That’s not an excuse, it’s a cause. We had trouble controlling the ball and getting any pace on our passes.’

Sunday, 30 May 2010

Ghana announce 23-man squad

Bernard Kumordzie, goalkeeper Stephen Adams and midfielder Agyemang Badu were the other casualties from the 29-man squad released by the Serbian late on Saturday as the team prepared to hit Rotterdam for an international friendly against Holland on Tuesday.

Ghana’s Serbian coach settled on his final squad after five days of training in Paris and decided some of his big names were past it ahead for the campaign in South Africa.

The official squad made nonsense of the many rumoured lists that made the rounds in the media in the past weeks and is bound to shock many in the Ghana game too.

Laryea Kingston missed the 2006 World Cup through suspension and was desperate to put in a show in South Africa so much so that he run into trouble into his club side Hearts over his national team commitments.

Hamini Dramani and Eric Addo who both played in Ghana’s first World Cup seemed to have fallen on their poor showing for Ghana at the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola while Emmanuel Agyemang Badu lost out because of an injury he picked up towards the end of the Serie A season.

Rajevac kept faith with John Mensah despite the fact that he had done very little contact training with the squad all week after a season at Sunderland which was blighted by one injury after another. Also in is Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who last played for the Black Stars in Rajevac’s first game in charge back in September 2008.

The squad are now due to arrive in Rotterdam on Sunday ahead of their friendly meeting against Holland on Tuesday before travelling to England to play Latvia in Milton Keynes next Saturday.

Ghana kick off their World Cup campaign against Serbia in Pretoria on June 13 in Group D which also includes Germany and Australia.

Ghana Squad:

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson, Daniel Agyei, Stephen Aholu

Defenders: John Paintsil, John Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Hans Adu Sarpei, Rahim Ayew, Lee Addy, Isaac Vorsah, Jonathan Mensah

Midfielders: Kwadwo Asamoah, Anthony Annan, Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Stephen Appiah, Andre Ayew, Derek Boateng

Attackers: Asamoah Gyan, Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah, Mathew Amoah

Thursday, 27 May 2010

World Cup favourites Brazil arrive in South Africa

The World Cup is definitely ready to kick as favourites Brazil arrived today.

Brazil arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday to embark on a journey they hope will take them to a record sixth World Cup title.

Usually hot pre-tournament favourites wherever the quadrennial international football showcase is staged, Brazil have been downgraded by many bookmakers to second spot behind European champions Spain.

A crisp, clear dawn in the South African economic hub greeted the South Americans, who flew from Brasilia having been given an official send-off by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Landing 12 hours after the Australia's team the Socceroos became the first qualifiers to reach South Africa, Brazil followed the same procedure of restricted assess to select TV crews and photographers and no interviews.

Australia's Socceroos are the first team to land in South Africa

Australia national team the Socceroos are the first of the World Cup teams to arrive in South Africa. the 30 man squad touched down on Wednesday at Johannesburg's international airport.

The 'Socceroos', in Group D with Germany, Ghana and Serbia, boarded a luxury coach for the trip to a hotel in the elite northern Sandton suburb and will start training Thursday at a college in another upmarket area of the South African economic capital.

Australia have lined up friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and the United States on June 5 in Roodepoort on the western outskirts of Johannesburg.

Sunday, 2 May 2010

Japan's samba star is ready for the World Cup

Marcus Tulio Tanaka Japan's Brazilian born defender has vowed to give all for his country in the forth coming world cup

Japan's Brazilian-born defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka has vowed to make his first World Cup a bruising battle he can remember with pride as a hard man among the Blue Samurai.

"I don't want the World Cup finals to be like food that I can't remember the taste of," the J-League Nagoya Grampus player said.

"It would be fantastic if our hard work from the World Cup tastes like strawberries but there is also a possibility it could taste nasty," he told Kyodo news agency in an interview published Wednesday.

"Even if we get hammered and it is not a nice feeling, I want to feel it completely in my body. I don't want to come back home wondering maybe if I could have given a bit more," said the 185-centimetre (six-foot-one-inch) player.

Tulio, who turns 29 on Saturday, is seen as sure to be selected alongside Yokohama F Marinos' Yuji Nakazawa as the main centre backs when Japan face Cameroon, the Netherlands and Denmark at the World Cup group stage in South Africa.

He has scored seven goals in 37 international appearances.

Despite being crowned the 2006 J-League Player of the Year, Tulio was ignored by Japan's then-coach Brazilian legend Zico for the squad that made an early exit from the 2006 World Cup in Germany after losing to Australia and Brazil and drawing with Croatia.

"Maybe I won't have another chance to play at the World Cup and I just want my whole body to react when someone mentions the tournament in 70 years time, if I'm still alive then," Tulio said.

Tulio first came to Japan, his father's homeland, aged 16, to enrol at a high school as an exchange student and football player. He joined the J-League Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2001.

He moved to Urawa in 2004 after a year on loan to a second-division side and helped the country's best-supported team win the AFC Champions League title in 2007. He signed with Nagoya in January.

Tulio, who obtained Japanese nationality in 2003, will become the third Brazilian-born player to represent Japan at the World Cup, following Wagner Lopes in 1998 and Nagoya team-mate Alessandro Santos in 2002 and 2006.

He admitted he was at first sceptical of Japan coach Takeshi Okada's ambitious goal of a semi-final spot in South Africa.

"To be honest I also thought 'what?' first of all, but we have played against a number of strong opponents and I see no reason why we can't achieve that," he said.

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Australia Coach to quit after World Cup

The Australian coach Pim Verbeek has confirmed to the Sydeny Morning Herald that he will be resigning after the World Cup irrespective of the outcome.

SOCCEROO coach Pim Verbeek last night confirmed the worst-kept secret in Australian soccer - that he would quit when his contract ends after Australia's involvement at the World Cup is over.
The Dutchman, speaking by phone, said that he wanted fresh challenges and did not want stay so far away from family in Europe. The travel, jet lag and other challenges made it too big an ask to carry on, he said.
Not even the lure of coaching the national team at the Asian Cup finals in Qatar in January 2011, proved tempting enough for him to renegotiate a new deal on a seven-figure salary.
Been there, done that, was his reply when asked why he was leaving before that tournament, referring to his involvement with South Korea at the 2007 Asian Cup.
Football Federation Australia boss Ben Buckley said that the search for a successor had already begun.
Verbeek is likely to have some influence on who might fill his shoes, as Buckley said he would be consulted about a replacement.
''We have a very close relationship with Pim and we respect his views and of course we will talk to him and get his views [on prospective successors],'' Buckley said last night. ''We have started looking at who might be available and drawn up a list of potential candidates.''
Buckley stressed that the FFA wanted a long-term coach to take the Socceroos to the Asian Cup and to the next World Cup. Graham Arnold took temporary charge after Guus Hiddink's departure in 2006 and took the team to the Asian Cup in 2007 as caretaker before becoming Verbeek's assistant. Australia was disappointing in 2007 and the FFA does not want a repeat.

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

USA and Australia agree to World Cup warm up match.

The USA and Australia step up preparations for the World Cup in South Africa

Australia and USA will meet on 5 June in a 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa tune-up match in suburban Johannesburg on the weekend before each team plays its opener in the global football showdown.

The match at Roodepoort comes one week before the Americans open in Group C on 12 June against England at Rustenberg and eight days before the Socceroos play Germany in Group D in Durban.

"The match against Australia gives us a great opportunity to give the team a challenge a week before our opening match," US coach Bob Bradley said. "Australia demonstrated in 2006 (they went out to eventual champions Italy in the last 16) that they're a team capable of competing at the World Cup. A match against a quality opponent on South African soil at that point in our preparations will help our readiness for the game against England."

World Cup 2010 News