Sydney: Australia showed few signs they might buck their underdog status at the World Cup when they struggled to a tepid 1-1 draw in an international friendly against an under-strength South Africa on Monday. More than 50,000 turned out at the Olympic Stadium to bid farewell to the Socceroos before they depart for the finals but the home side struggled to break down a Bafana Bafana team weakened even from that which went out in the second round of African qualifying.
Both the goals came inside a minute early in the first half with Ayanda Patosi’s 13th minute effort for South Africa cancelled out by Australia’s stand-in captain and leading international goal-scorer Tim Cahill. With world champions Spain, 2010 runners-up the Netherlands and Chile lying in wait in Group B in Brazil, Australia would have been hoping for a different conclusion to the evening than the slow handclap that rang around stadium towards the end of the match.
Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou was always up against it with just eight months to bring fluency to his young team before Australia’s third successive World Cup finals campaign and it showed in the largely ragged performance. “I can't really criticise the players,” he said. Meanwhile, the countdown to the 2014 World Cup begins in earnest this week as a raft of international friendlies signals the final phase of preparations for nations heading to Brazil.
1966 champions England, who head to Brazil with all-time low expectations, play the first of three pre-tournament friendlies against Peru on Friday at Wembley before heading to Miami for subsequent warm-up matches against Ecuador and Honduras. Captain Steven Gerrard acknowledged these final few weeks leading up to the tournament would be crucial ahead of their June 14 opener against Group D rivals Italy.
Meanwhile, 1998 world champions France will emerge from their secluded Clairefontaine training camp to face Norway in Paris on Tuesday. Title-holders Spain host Bolivia on Friday, a final chance for fringe players to impress with coach Vicente del Bosque expected to finalise his 23-man squad the following day.
Germany play African hopefuls Cameroon in Moenchengladbach on Sunday. The Germans have been in Italy for a 10-day training camp with notable first-team regulars Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger still nursing their way back to fitness.
