All Whites name best for Mexico test

New Zealand today named their strongest possible squad for their 2010 FIFA World Cup™ warm-up against Mexico in Los Angeles next month, with only two players missing from the team which clinched qualification last year.

Goalkeeper Mark Paston - one of New Zealand's heroes in the 1-0 two-leg qualification victory against Bahrain after saving a penalty - is still recovering from a fractured leg. Defender Ivan Vicelich is serving a one-match suspension and has been replaced by Tommy Smith of English club Brentford, while goalkeeper Glen Moss returns from suspension.

Attacking midfielder Craig Henderson, who recently signed for newly promoted Swedish premier league side Mjallby, has also been brought into the squad. Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon - who scored the winning goal against Bahrain - has been includeddespite a dispute with the club over his availability for the friendly.

"We haven't played for nearly four months now and we could be a little rusty," New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert said. "Mexico won't do us any favours but that gets us back to the reality of what we're going to face in South Africa in June."

New Zealand will play Mexico on 3 March and travel to Europe in late May for further warm-ups against Serbia and Slovenia.

New Zealand squad
Goalkeepers: Glen Moss (Melbourne Victory/Aus), James Bannatyne (Team Wellington)

Defenders: Tony Lochhead (Wellington Phoenix), Ryan Nelsen (Blackburn Rovers/England), Andrew Boyens (New York Red Bulls/USA), Ben Sigmund (Wellington Phoenix), Tommy Smith (Brentford/England)

Midfielders: Andy Barron (Team Wellington), Leo Bertos (Wellington Phoenix), Tim Brown (Wellington Phoenix), Simon Elliott (San Jose Earthquakes/USA), Michael McGlinchey (Motherwell/Scotland), Craig Henderson (Mjällby AIF/Sweden)

Forwards: Shane Smeltz (Gold Coast United/Australia), Rory Fallon (Plymouth Argyle/England), Chris Killen (Middlesbrough/England), Chris Wood (West Bromwich Albion/England)

Spain set for Poland friendly

Spain will complete their preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ with a friendly against Poland, the Spanish FA confirmed today.

The European champions will host Poland at an as yet unconfirmed venue in Spain on 8 June before heading to South Africa, where Vicente del Bosque's first group match is against Switzerland on 16 June in Durban.

Spain, who face France in Paris on 3 March, also have two other friendlies planned just prior to leaving for the world finals, both of which have already been confirmed by the RFEF last month.

On 29 May they will play Liechtenstein in Vaduz, and on 3 June Korea Republic will be the opposition in the Austrian city of Innsbruck.

The friendly against Liechtenstein, who Spain will also meet in their UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying group, is part of that nation's football federation's centenary celebrations.

Everything on track in SA

The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) tasked to oversee the South African government’s preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup has confirmed that all plans for the spectacle are running smoothly.

“The IMC is satisfied with the preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All the bricks and mortar are in now in place,” said the chair of the IMC, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

He said the committee was satisfied with all the reports submitted to them. These included reports on the management and training of protocol officials who will be involved in the management of guests and Heads of States attending the tournament.

“Most significantly, the meeting welcomed the report that allstadiums have been completed on time. This means no spectator will sit on wet cement come June 11 kick off,” said Motlanthe.

A book entitled “My Country “has also been published and will be distributed to communities and schools as part of an education drive to educate people about the country’s national symbols.

The IMC agreed that a mass education campaign is necessary to raise awareness among South Africans on their posture when the national anthem is sung. “Citizens as a sign of respect are expected to stand still at attention when the national anthems are sung.”

The monthly meeting also tasked the Department of International Relations and Cooperation to manage the handling of national flags and national anthems of all participating nations. This is in order to avoid confusion and to prevent the hoisting of wrong flags.

The IMC said the security cluster (which is made up of ministries that include the correctional services and defence) confirmed that the security plan for the FIFA World Cup is complete. All who will be attending the tournament will be safe.

In the transport sector all upgrades at all major airports like OR Tambo, Cape Town and Mangaung have been completed.

The Committee said it noted reports that the OR Tambo Sandton section of the Gautrain will be ready before kick-off.

“This will be a significant development given the ease with which visitors will travel between the airport and various destinations in Johannesburg,” Motlanthe said.

When coming to electricity matters, the IMC said it was encouraging to see that six stadiums have been fitted with fibre optic broadcasting infrastructure while the remaining four stadiums fittings will be completed next month.

Dunga overlooks Ronaldinho

Tuesday 9 February 2010
Ronaldinho's hopes of appearing at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ received a sizeable blow today when he was overlooked for Brazil's friendly against Republic Ireland.

The match, which will take place in London on 2 March, will be the five-time world champions' last outing before they travel to the tournament, and the 29-year-old playmaker's omission suggests coach Dunga has been unmoved by his recent return to form with AC Milan.

"You (the press) always want big-name players. But for us there is no such thing as a big name or a small name," said Dunga. "We can't create problems for ourselves."
You (the press) always want big-name players. But for us there is no such thing as a big name or a small name. We can't create problems for ourselves.
Dunga explains why Ronaldinho did not make his latest Brazil squad


However, the Seleção coach refused to close the door on Ronaldinho's chances of making his squad for the 19th edition of the FIFA World Cup.

"Every player has a chance," said the USA 1994-winning captain. "We look at the best options for the squad. This time he (Ronaldinho) didn't make it."

Robinho, who joined former club Santos ona six-month loan deal from Manchester City last month, was included in the squad, while there was a recall for Cruzeiro's Gilberto.

Brazil were drawn alongside Portugal, Côte d'Ivoire and Korea DPR in Group G at South Africa 2010. They will begin their campaign against the North Koreans in Johannesburg on 15 June.


Brazil squad
Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Doni (Roma)

Defenders: Maicon (Inter Milan), Dani Alves (Barcelona), Juan (Roma), Lucio (Inter Milan), Luisao (Benfica), Thiago Silva (AC Milan), Gilberto (Cruzeiro), Michel Bastos (Lyon)

Midfielders: Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Josue (Wolfsburg), Felipe Melo (Juventus), Lucas (Liverpool), Kaka (Real Madrid), Ramires (Benfica), Elano (Galatasaray), Julio Baptista (Roma), Kleberson (Flamengo)

Forwards: Robinho (Santos), Adriano (Flamengo), Nilmar (Villarreal), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla

Fans set for up close and personal 3-D experience

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Soccer fans could soon get closer than ever to the action without even leaving their chairs as 3-D TV gets set to revolutionise sports events this year.

Sky and Disney's ESPN will both launch 3D networks in the coming months, with ESPN airing a minimum of 85 sporting events, including 25 World Cup finals matches from South Africa.

Sky will get the ball rolling on Sunday by filming the English Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester United in 3-D and broadcasting it to selected pubs across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

It will be the first live 3-D TV sports event broadcast to a public audience anywhere, according to the company part-owned by News International.

Sky 3D will be launched in April before it is later made available to all Sky+HD customers for a wider range of content including documentaries and movies.

Gerry O'Sullivan, Sky's Director of Strategic Product Development, said in a statement: "2010 is the year for 3D TV.

"People have already embraced 3D cinema and because Sky's 3D service uses the same kind of technology, we're confident there will be demand for sport, movies, concerts and drama in 3D."

The move into 3-D broadcasting follows hotly on the success of James Cameron's 3-D movie Avatar, which this week became the highest-grossing movie worldwide partly due to 3-D engagements.

The sci-fi film had racked up a box office total of $1.859 billion on Tuesday.

ESPN will roll out its 3-D network in June beginning with the World Cup soccer match between hosts South Africa and Mexico in Johannesburg.

Seperately, Discovery Communications Inc. said it had joined ranks with Sony Corp and IMAX Corp to launch a dedicated 3-D network in the United States beginning in 2011.

The network will feature history, space, adventure shows and children's programmes and reflects a strong trend in the entertainment industry to harness 3-D in the home.

World Cup 2010: Luca Toni Is Against Amauri Playing For Italy

The Roma strike is against Amauri's possible Italy inclusion...

Luca Toni has opposed the idea of Amauri playing for Italy, saying the Brazilian doesn't deserve a call for the World Cup from Marcello Lippi.

Toni said the Juventus striker is treating La Nazionale like a spare wheel in case his chances with Brazil deflate.

"If Amauri chooses Italy then it's because Brazil will not have called him up," Toni told Il Messaggero.

"It's not right that he will be the centre forward for the national team."

He hopes to get there ahead of others as a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Toni had a chance of inclusion as an alternative to Alberto Gilardino.

"I will give it my all to be there even though I know that there are very good strikers playing in other teams around Italy who will be challenging," he added.

There have been calls for Amauri to play for Italy, but that is unlikely to happen unless he resolves questions linked to his full Italian citizenship.

World Cup 2010: Italy Coach Marcello Lippi Picks 16 Certainties For South Africa - Report

Lippi has picked the first 16 of his eventual 23-man Azzurri World Cup squad...

Marcello Lippi has chosen the first 16 of his final 23-man squad for the World Cup.

La Gazzetta dello Sport claims 16 to 17 players who will be certainties for Italy have been chosen, with the rest having just four months to make it into the squad.

The three goalkeepers are Gianluigi Buffon, Federico Marchetti and Morgan De Sanctis.

In defence, the certainties are believed to be Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Grosso, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Nicola Legrottaglie and Domenico Criscito. Salvatore Bocchetti, Alessandro Gamberini and Leonardo Bonucci will also be fighting for a call-up. Davide Santon is an outsider, while there are no guarantees of an Alessandro Nesta return.

The midfielders who will go to South Africa are Daniele De Rossi, Mauro Camoranesi, Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Gennaro Gattuso, so long as the Milan man can prove his fitness. Riccardo Montolivo and Simone Perrotta will face a tough test to earn the final midfield place.

Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alberto Gilardino pick themselves in the forward line, with Luca Toni being an alternative to the Fiorentina man over Giampaolo Pazzini and Marco Borriello. Francesco Totti is also expected to play, but this has not been confirmed.

Giuseppe Rossi, Fabio Quagliarella, Antonio Di Natale and Simone Pepe will all fight each other for the final shirt.

As for Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano, they will be waiting for a future call-up in hope more than expectation.

Uruguay’s goalkeeping quandary

Uruguay’s progress to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ was far from smooth. One of the biggest problems coach Oscar Tabarez faced along the way was finding a goalkeeper he could rely on, with four men appearing between the Celeste sticks during the campaign. FIFA.com looks at the contribution each of them made to the side's qualification, and assesses their chances of being first-choice at the world finals.

Castillo usurps Carini
It was no surprise that Tabarez entrusted Fabian Carini with goalkeeping duties at the start of qualifying in October 2007. After all, the 28-year-old was the owner of over 60 caps in total, and had appeared at Korea/Japan 2002, in the Germany 2006 preliminaries and in two Copa Americas.

The only problem was that Carini was not a starter for Inter Milan, a situation he tried to remedy by moving to Spanish side Murcia, where he also failed to hold down a first-team place. His lack of match action perhaps impacted on his performances for his country, with Uruguay winning only one of their first five games, the opener against Bolivia, before drawing two and losing two, conceding six goals in the process.

Following the 1-1 draw against Brazil in June 2008, Carini lost his place to his understudy Juan Castillo. Occupying a place on the bench for the next five matches, all the indications were that he would be restored to the starting XI after Castillo picked up an injury that October. Yet, although Tabarez included him for the November friendly against France, he was out of the picture for the March 2009 game against Paraguay.

“He hasn’t played enough,” explained the coach at the time. “I think you can put it down to his circumstances.” Tabarez has never selected him since.

Having decided to make a change between the posts, it was entirely logical that Tabarez should turn to Castillo first of all, especially as he had given the Botafogo shot-stopper his international debut two years earlier. Known in the game as Muralla (The Wall), Castillo played in the next five matches, keeping a clean sheet in three of them and conceding four goals in all. Of those five outings, Uruguay won two, drew two and lost one, against Argentina in Buenos Aires.

After helping his side defeat Colombia in Bogota, Castillo drew praise from none other than Ubaldo Fillol, who kept goal for Argentina when they won the FIFA World Cup on home soil in 1978. “He has an unconventional style,” said Fillol. “He’s not your typical steady keeper. He likes to take risks and get involved and he’s not afraid to do things differently.”

Yet, just as Castillo was cementing his place in the side, and only a fortnight after the match with Bolivia in October 2008, he tore cruciate ligaments in his right knee while on club duty.

Ghana lifted by Angolan adventure

Ghana are looking back with satisfaction on their CAF Africa Cup of Nations performance despite defeat in their first final since 1992. After the bitter disappointment of losing the deciding game in the final five minutes, despite largely having the better of overwhelming favourites Egypt in Luanda, has come the positive realisation of the magnitude of their achievement.

However, coach Milovan Rajevac has dismissed claims that he now has a rather surprising selection headache to ponder over the next six months on the way to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. “The experience we have gained here will be crucial to our preparations for the World Cup,” admitted the Serbian after watching a gaggle of promising youths perform well inAngola.

But he insists the starlets will have to wait for their time in the sun as first team players return from injury. “The young players are the future, but they cannot play on their own. For instance in the final, Egypt beat us because they had plenty of experience,” he said.

The results
Untested to start and easily beaten in their opening group game, 3-1 by Côte d'Ivoire, the Black Stars showed great fortitude in bouncing back to reach the final by winning their next three matches 1-0. First was Burkina Faso to get out of Group B, then they knocked off hosts Angola in the quarter-finals and West African rivals Nigeria in the last four. Their unlikely run ended, however, on the wrong side of a 1-0 loss as Egypt won their third consecutive trophy with a late goal from super-sub Gedo.

The good
Few predicted the Black Stars would shine so brightly through the tournament, particularly after the squad arrived without key players and then saw captain Michael Essien limp out of the tournament with injury. They instead turned to players from October’s FIFA U-20 World Cup-winning team and adjusted their hopes of success in Angola downwards. But Rajevac, who was pilloried when he first arrived to take over the Ghana job because few had ever heard of him, has won over all doubters. His side were not only the first to qualify from the African preliminaries for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but his reputation is now vastly enhanced by the way his ragtag Ghana side played in Angola.

By Rajevac’s own admission it was not a pretty performance but an effective one. He showed tremendous faith in a makeshift defence that was able to sit back and soak up pressure particularly against Nigeria in the semi-final. The Black Stars proved most effective in shutting up shop once they had taken a first half lead. With an average age of just 20, the defensive trio of Samuel Inkoom, Lee Addy and Issac Vorsah combined with veterans left back Hans Sarpei and goalkeeper Richard Kingson to form the best defence in the tournament.

The bad
A strong team performance aside, Ghana did not create a lot of scoring opportunities, only bulging the opponent’s net four times in the event, three of them through in-form striker Asamoah Gyan. They also lost concentration in the dying moments of the final to allow a goal against the run of play. That, says Rajevac, means that for all the positive impact of the young players, Ghana will still be looking to the likes of Essien, Stephen Appiah, John Mensah, John Paintsil, Laryea Kingston and Sulley Muntari, who was left out of the squad for disciplinary reasons, to return for the campaign in South Africa later this year.

Sarpei, only one of two players in the starting 11 in Sunday’s final who had been born the last time Ghana won the Nations Cup in 1982, agreed that the old guard would be making their way back into place. “You know the kids are good players. They helped us get this far, and it shows that we have a future. Whether there will be that many in the team at the World Cup remains to be seen,” said German-based full-back. “I’m sure some will be there, but I think we need to have a few more experienced players at the finals.”

Up next
The Black Stars will play two friendlies in London at the end of May, against Ukraine and Argentina, before meeting the Netherlands in Rotterdam on 1 June. Less than two weeks later they begin their FIFA World Cup campaign against Serbia in Group D, which also includes Australia and Germany.

Japan Held To Goalless Draw

Japan were held to a goalless draw by Venezuela in their first home game of the season on Tuesday as they prepare for South Africa 2010.

Japan were the first team to qualify for international football's biggest prize while Venezuela failed to reach the finals after finishing eighth in the South American group.

Venezuela had the first chance of the match when 17-year-old debutant forward Fernando Aristiguieta missed a header from close range in the ninth minute following midfielder Giacomo Di Giorgi's long-off effort.

But it appeared to be the best chance for either side in a game bereft of clear scoring opportunities.

Mitsuo Ogasawara, playing for Japan for the first time since the 2006 World Cup, fired a sizzling shot from outside the area, forcing goalkeeper Leonardo Morales to save in the 16th minute.

Ogasawara and Brazilian-born Marcus Tulio Tanaka missed a couple more shots, while Aristiguieta failed to catch up with Caracas defender Hose Manuel Rey's free kick to end a goalless first half.

Venezuela piled on the pressure in the second half but managed just one shot on goal through defender Giovanny Romero.

Sota Hirayama, who scored a hat-trick in an Asian Cup qualifier against Yemen last month, was sent on with Sanfrecce Hiroshima striker Hisato Sato in a fruitless attempt to lend the Japanese some rhythm.

Overall, Japan hit a total of 12 shots on goal and Venezuela four.

"I was disappointed that we couldn't win because Venezuela put wonderful pressure on us. But as an early game of the season, it was a nice game," said Japan coach Takeshi Okada.

"Mitsuo struggled in the first half as the combination with the others was not so good but he did very well in the second half.

"We have three more games this month (in the East Asian championship). We are going to level up our team through the championship, looking forward to the World Cup," Okada added.

Japan will play China, South Korea and Hong Kong in the championship starting in Tokyo on Saturday.