World Cup testers for England and Germany
With the World Cup kicking off in Munich in under two weeks, England were facing Hungary in their penultimate warm-up game on Tuesday with all eyes on striker Michael Owen after he suffered an injury scare.
Owen was passed fit after a scan on a thigh injury suffered in training revealed nothing serious and he was expected to play the full 90 minutes at Old Trafford in Manchester.
With Wayne Rooney definitely sidelined for at least the first stage of the tournament with a broken bone in his foot, England cannot afford to lose the services of their only other striker with extensive international experience.
A scan on Rooney’s broken metatarsal has been moved forward a week to June 7, giving England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson the option of calling another striker into his squad if the results show the 20-year-old cannot play any part in the month-long tournament.
Owen, 26, is expected to operate as the lone striker against Hungary in front of a five-man midfield in what Eriksson has hinted will be the team he expects to field against Paraguay on June 10 in England’s World Cup opener.
Host nation Germany, who bring the curtain up on the tournament against Costa Rica on June 9, face the stiffest test of their preparations with a match against Asian champions Japan in Leverkusen.
Germany too have injury concerns, which has prevented coach Jurgen Klinsmann from fielding his strongest lineup since the players met up for the pre-World Cup camp.
Michael Ballack, the captain and playmaker who is key to their hopes, has a niggling ankle problem which must be protected ahead of the big kick-off.
“We need to wait and see what Michael and the doctors think about the situation,” Klinsmann said. “But we will not take a risk whatever the report.”
Defender Robert Huth is also struggling with an ankle injury and first-choice left back Philipp Lahm is still recovering following an elbow operation.
Klinsmann said he was looking forward to pitting his team against Japan after the Germans barely broke sweat in a 7-0 thrashing of Luxembourg.
“Results in these matches are not that important but we would like to win to boost confidence before the opening game,” he said.
One of Japan’s most experienced players, midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata, said he was worried about a lack of competitive spirit among his teammates and suggested a heavy defeat by Germany would fire up the younger players.
“I could be wrong but the atmosphere in the team seems to me a little bit too friendly still,” Nakata told Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
In contrast to the busy preparations of England and Germany, World Cup holders Brazil have enjoyed a relaxed build-up in the idyllic Swiss retreat of Weggis, with just one game scheduled, against New Zealand.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira dismissed concerns that global stars such as Ronaldinho and Ronaldo would begin the tournament rusty due to a lack of match practice.
“If you start off at 100 percent then you’ve got no room for improvement.
“My objective is to improve game by game so that by the end of the tournament we are at our peak,” Parreira said.
France, the winners in 1998 but flops at the 2002 finals in South Korea and Japan, still have the confidence of their nation, according to a poll published in L’Equipe newspaper on Tuesday.
Fifty-one percent of respondents said they believed the team led by Zinedine Zidane would reach the semi-finals at least.
One of Africa’s representatives, Ghana, have more modest ambitions, but a 4-1 victory over Jamaica in a friendly in England on Monday had captain Stephen Appiah setting his side a target in their first World Cup appearance.
“We’ve gained a lot of confidence,” Appiah said. “Our objective must be to reach the second round.”
Meanwhile the involvement of Iran looks set to add a deeply political edge to the world’s biggest sporting event.
The Iranian government confirmed on Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would definitely not be travelling to Germany to watch his nation’s matches.
But the main group representing Jews in Germany said it still intended to use Iran’s opening match against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 to demonstrate against Ahmadinejad’s stated wish to destroy Israel and his denial that the Holocaust took place.
Source:Soccer News
Related posts:
- Wounded Germany braced for Japan World Cup test
- Magnificent seven as Germany warm up for finals in style
- England can win World Cup without Rooney: Ferdinand
- Klinsmann urges caution after Germany pole-axe Luxembourg
- Striker Owen fit for England
- Only World Cup will do says Klinsmann
- Ballack and Huth set to miss Japan game
- Hiddink may use Kewell off the bench in World Cup opener
- Togo Coach: Germany does not have a chance in World Cup
- Klinsmann Springs Surprises in Naming World Cup Squad