• The French World Cup squad homed in a posh hotel

The French Football Federation will have to account for this choice, if the team exits early.

• Chile arrived in South Africa on Sunday with Argentine-born coach Marcelo Bielsa

The coach is keen to get Humberto Suazo fit, the striker is likely to miss the opening two Group H games because of a hamstring injury.

• Brazilian keeper- Julio Cesar will miss his first match in two years for the friendly against Tanzania.




• Iker Casillas believes England’s keepers will be their weakness at the upcoming World Cup

The Spanish keeper has questioned the big-match temperament of Robert Green, David James and Joe Hart ahead of the tournament.

He said:

“Their goalkeeping situation is a real problem: none of the keepers have played even European Cup level, that’s the highest level you can play at club level. And if you have never played in the top club competition in the world, you are going to find it hard to perform at the top international level in the world when even more eyes are on you. If you look at myself, Gigi Buffon of Italy and Julio Cesar of Brazil, we are keepers who’ve all won European Championships, World Cups and European Cups.”

• Australia’s preparations for the World Cup have been thrown into turmoil

Coach Pim Verbeek describing the surface at Ruimsig Stadium, the Socceroos’ new training ground, as “hopeless”.
He commented:

“It looked very good when we started; it was hopeless when we finished.”

• Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has played down concerns over the fitness of Valon Behrami

The midfielder came off with a suspected groin injury in his side’s 1-1 draw in their warm-up game against Italy.

“Behrami was playing very direct and looked threatening. I hope it’s not serious,” said Hitzfeld. “He wanted to continue playing actually. It was the doctor who took him out.”

• Italy striker Fabio Quagliarella believes his side will arrive in South Africa “in the best possible condition” for their World Cup defence.

The Azzurri’s underwhelming preparations for the World Cup were concluded with a 1-1 draw against fellow finalists Switzerland on Saturday. That result followed a 2-1 defeat by Mexico in Italy’s only other warm-up match.

• Rabah Saadane believes his Algeria team are a step closer to where they want to be for the World Cup

However, he still plans to work on certain aspects of their game after their final warm-up match against United Arab Emirates. The Desert Hawks, in the same group as England, won Saturday’s match 1-0 thanks to a second-half penalty from Karim Ziani to end a run of four consecutive losses.

• Injury-free Argentina are in better shape than Nigeria

The teams will face each other in their World Cup Group B opener on Saturday.
According to central defender Martin Demichelis:
“We are having the good fortune that other teams are not,” Demichelis told a news conference at Argentina’s base in the University of Pretoria sports complex. We’ve had no injuries and that gives the coaching staff the confidence to demand the maximum from us. I’m confident that in the remaining days we’ll be able to get there in very good shape.”

• Italy to attend the World Cup with 24th man Andrea Cossu

Coach Marcello Lippi has injury and formation headaches to look into. To add to the misery the Azzurri drew 1-1 against Switzerland in their final friendly.

• Germany will go into the World Cup in top form despite a string of injuries

Several starting players have been ruled out, including captain Michael Ballack. But two comfortable wins against Hungary and Bosnia in the past days have the Germans in a postive mood with the team playing at times mesmerising football.

Germany take on Australia in their first Group D match on June 13. They then play Serbia and Ghana.

• Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk will keep Arjen Robben in his World Cup squad

The winger’s hamstring injury proved less serious than first thought following a scan on Sunday.The Dutch FA (KNVB) said in a statement that Robben damaged his left hamstring during the closing minutes of the team’s last warm-up match against Hungary.

• A stampede broke out during a pre-World Cup match between Nigeria and North Korea

It left 14 slightly hurt and one policeman in a serious condition. The match was stopped for around five minutes early in the second half because of the injuries and safety of the fans in the overcrowded main stand where the fencing had been removed.

Nigeria won the match 3-1.

The sport’s governing body FIFA said in a statement that they did not have any concerns about a repeat incident occurring during the World Cup, which starts on Friday.

“FIFA would like to reiterate that this friendly match has no relation whatsoever with the operational organisation of the 2010 World Cup, for which we remain fully confident,”

the statement read.

“FIFA had nothing to do with the ticketing of this game.”

For more news visit World Cup 2010 news.