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.

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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.’

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Morten Olsen reveals Denmark's 23 man squad for World Cup.

Denmark coach Morten Olsen on Friday unveiled a 23-man squad that will meet the Netherlands, Cameroon and Japan in group E of the World Cup.

Goalkeepers: Thomas Soerensen (Stoke City/ENG), Stefan Andersen (Broendby), Jesper Christiansen (FC Copenhagen).

Defenders: Daniel Agger (Liverpool/ENG), Simon Kjaer (Palermo/ITA), Per Kroeldrup (Fiorentina/ITA), Lars Jacobsen (Blackburn/ENG), Simon Busk Poulsen (AZ Alkmaar/NED), William Kvist Joergensen (FC Copenhagen), Patrick Mtiliga (Malaga/ESP).

Midfielders: Daniel Jensen (Werder Bremen/GER), Christian Poulsen (Juventus/ITA), Christian Eriksen (Ajax/NED), Jakob Poulsen (AGF), Martin Joergensen (AGF), Mikkel Beckmann (Randers), Thomas Enevoldsen (FC Groningen/NED), Thomas Kahlenberg (Wolfsburg/GER), Dennis Rommedahl (Ajax/NED), Jesper Groenkjaer (FC Copenhagen).

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Strikers: Jon Dahl Tomasson (Feyenoord/NED), Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal/ENG), Soeren Larsen (Duisburg/GER).

Indomitable Lions 30 man squad.

Cameroon names World Cup squad and includes veterans Rigobert Song and Geremi Njitap.

French coach Paul Le Guen has found places for veterans Rigobert Song and ex-Chelsea midfielder Geremi Njitap.

Cameroon will play in Group E in South Africa alongside Denmark, Japan and The Netherlands.

Bassong's Tottenham team-mate Bennoit Assou Ekotto is also included in the squad after missing the Nations Cup in Angola with an injury.

But Burnley's Andre Bikey has been left out of the line-up.

Coach Le Guen is also giving an opportunity to two home-based players John Patrick Abouna Ndzana of Stars FC Yaounde and Patrick Mevoungou of Canon Sportif.

Other notable inclusions are Samuel Eto'o of Inter Milan and Arsenal midfielder Alexander Song.

The Indomitable Lions kick off their World Cup campaign on 14 June against Japan.

Cameroon squad:

Goalkeepers: Guy Roland N'Dy Assembe (Valenciennes), Idriss Carlos Kameni (Espanyol), Hamidou Souleymanou (Kayserispor), Patrick Tignyemb (Bloemfontein Celtic)

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Defenders: Patrick Abouna (Astres Douala), Benoit Assou Ekotto (Tottenham Hotspur), Sebastien Bassong (Tottenham Hotspur), Gaetan Bong (Valenciennes), Aurelien Chedjou (Lille), Geremi (Ankaragucu), Boukar Makadji (Al Nahdha), Nicolas Nkoulou (Monaco), Rigobert Song (Trabzonspor)

Midfielders: Achille Emana (Real Betis), Enoh Eyong (Ajax Amsterdam), Jean Makoun (Olympique Lyon), Georges Mandjeck (Kaiserslautern), Joel Matip (Schalke 04), Patrick Mevoungou (Canon Yaounde), Marcel Ndjeng (Augsburg), Landry Nguemo (Celtic), Alexandre Song (Arsenal)

Forwards: Vincent Aboubakar (Coton Sport), Eric Choupo-Mating (Nuremburg), Stephane Mbia (Marseille, France), Samuel Eto'o (Inter Milan), Mohamadou Idrissou (Freiburg), Dorge Kouemaha (Club Bruges), Achille Webo (Real Mallorca), Jacques Zoua (Basle)

Denmark faces goalkeeper worries

Danish national coach faces tough selection challenges after Thomas Sorenson his first choice keeper suffered an elbow injury.

Denmark's coach Morten Olsen will likely postpone the announcement of goalkeepers for his World Cup squad after his first-string choice, Thomas Sorensen, picked up an elbow injury Sunday.

Stoke City's Sorensen was injured in the 7-0 thrashing handed out by Chelsea.

"He has been a terrific goalkeeper during the 10 years I have been manager, and he still is," Olsen on Monday told the online newspaper spn.dk.

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Results of a scan are pending to determine the extent of Sorensen's injury.

Olsen was set to announce his World Cup squad May 10, but said he will wait until June 1 concerning the three goalkeepers.

"If we select Thomas Sorensen, and he can't play, then we have a problem. We will wait until June 1 when we will inform (football's ruling body) FIFA," Olsen added.

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.

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"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.