South Africa national football team profile

South Africa national football team is the national team of South Africa.They returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned from FIFA. They will be hosting the 19th FIFA World Cup in June 2010 after they hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009. South Africa will be the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup.Football first arrived in South Africa through colonialism in the late nineteenth century.South Africa has made two appearances in the FIFA World Cup, they have not made it past the first round. Their first appearance was in France 1998, six years after they had been readmitted to the global football family. Despite a 3-0 drubbing to France in their opening game, they went on to draw against Denmark and Saudi Arabia. Korea/Japan 2002 was expected to be an opportunity for Bafana to step up to the next level but unfortunately, they failed to succeed, crashing out after the group stage despite beating Slovenia 1-0 for their first-ever FIFA World Cup win.
Provisional squad list:
GK Rowen FERNANDEZ,GK Moneeb JOSEPH,GK Itumeleng KHUNE,GK Shu-Aib WALTERS,Matthew BOOTH,Franklyn CALE,Lance DAVIDS,Kagisho DIKGACOI,Bevan FRANSMAN,Siboniso GAXA,Andile JALI,Thanduyise KHUBONI,Bongani KHUMALO,Reneilwe LETSHOLONYANE,Tsepo MASILELA,Benni McCARTHY,Innocent MDLEDLE,Teko MODISE,Aaron MOKOENA,Bryce MOON,Surprise MORIRI,Katlego MPHELA,Anele NGCONGCA,Siyabonga NOMVETHE,Bernard PARKER,Steven PIENAAR,Siyabonga SANGWENI,MacBeth SIBAYA,Lucas THWALA,Siphiwe TSHABALALA
source by wikipedia.org

England national football team profile

England are one of seven national teams to have won the FIFA World Cup.In 1966 when they hosted the finals.They defeated West Germany 4–2 in extra time in the final. Since then their best performance at a World Cup was reaching the semifinals in 1990, where they lost to West Germany on penalties. They reached the semifinals of the UEFA European Championship in 1968 and 1996. They were the most successful of the home nations in the British Home Championship with 54 wins (including 20 shared wins) before the competition was suspended in 1984. They remain a prominent team on the global stage, rarely dropping outside of the top ten on both the FIFA and Elo rankings.They joined FIFA in 1906 and played their first ever games against countries other than the Home Nations on a tour of Central Europe in 1908. Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground. The relationship between England and FIFA became strained and this resulted in their departure from FIFA in 1928, before rejoining in 1946. As a result, they did not compete in a World Cup until 1950, in which they were beaten in a 1–0 defeat by the United States, failing to get past the first round. Their first ever defeat on home soil to a non-UK team was a 0–2 loss to the Republic of Ireland on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary was their first ever defeat to a non-UK/Republic of Ireland team at Wembley. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1. This still stands as England's worst ever defeat. After the game, a bewildered Syd Owen said, "it was like playing people from outer space".

In the 1954 World Cup, two goals by Ivor Broadis saw him become the first England player to score two goals in a game at the World Cup finals. He beat Nat Lofthouse by 30 minutes when both scored 2 each in a thrilling 4–4 draw against Belgium. After reaching the quarterfinals for the first time, England lost 4–2 to Uruguay.The 1966 World Cup was hosted in England and Alf Ramsey guided England to victory with a 4–2 win against West Germany in the final, in which Geoff Hurst famously scored a hat-trick. England qualified for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as reigning cup holders. They reached the quarterfinals but were knocked out by West Germany. England had been 2–0 up but were eventually beaten 3–2 after extra time. They failed to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups. They qualified, under Ron Greenwood, for the 1982 World Cup in Spain and were eliminated from the second round without losing a match. The team under Bobby Robson fared better as England reached the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup and finished fourth in the 1990 World Cup.England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. At Euro 96, held in England, Terry Venables led England to their best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semifinals. He resigned following investigations into his financial activities and his successor, Glenn Hoddle, similarly left the job for non-footballing reasons after just one international tournament—the 1998 World Cup—in which England were eliminated in the second round. Following Hoddle's departure, Kevin Keegan took England to Euro 2000, but performances were disappointing and he resigned shortly afterwards.England to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup and 2006 World Cup. He lost only five competitive matches during his tenure and England rose to a No.4 world ranking under his guidance.Capello took charge of his first game on 6 February 2008 against Switzerland, in which England won 2–1. Under Capello, England won all but one of their qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup. A 5–1 victory over Croatia at Wembley ensured the team qualified for the final tournament with two games to spare, a feat that had never been achieved before.
2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 World Cup draw, which took place on 4 December 2009, placed England in Group C. They will play their first match against the United States on 12 June, followed by Algeria on 18 June and finally Slovenia on 23 June.
Provisional squad list:
GK Robert GREEN,GK Joe HART,GK David JAMES,Leighton BAINES,Gareth BARRY,Darren BENT,Jamie CARRAGHER,Michael CARRICK,Ashley COLE Joe COLE,Peter CROUCH,Michael DAWSON,Jermain DEFOE.Rio FERDINAND,Steven GERRARD,Emile HESKEY,Tom HUDDLESTONE,Adam JOHNSON,Glen JOHNSON,Ledley KING,Frank LAMPARD,Aaron LENNON,James MILNER,Scott PARKER,Wayne ROONEY,John TERRY,Matt UPSON,Theo WALCOTT,Stephen WARNOCK,Shaun WRIGHT-PHILLIPS

Germany team profile

FIFA World Cup 3 winners Germany. 1950 to 1990, the team was called West Germany in English, as since World War II, the DFB is based in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) which was commonly referred to as West Germany from 1949 to 1990. The DFB continues to field the German national team that had been fully reinstated by FIFA after the 1950 FIFA World Cup, retaining all records and traditions. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate national teams had also been recognized by FIFA, the Saarland team (1950–1956), and the East German team (1952–1990). Both have been absorbed into the current national team, along with their records. The official name and code "Germany" FR was shortened again to "Germany" in 1990.Germany is one of the three most successful national teams at international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups and three European championships. They are also one of the most consistent teamsthey were also runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup and won 3rd place in the World Cup three times as well.The current coaching staff of the national team include head coach Joachim Löw, assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick, goalkeeper coach Andreas Köpke, athletic coach Shad Forsythe, athletic coach Oliver Bartlett, scout Urs Siegenthaler, technical director Matthias Sammer and team manager Oliver Bierhoff.
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

In their penultimate match on 10 October 2009, Germany secured first place in their qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup by beating second placed Russia in Moscow 1–0.
Squad list of Germany:
GK Hans Joerg BUTT
GK Manuel NEUER
GK Tim WIESE
Dennis AOGO
Holger BADSTUBER
Michael BALLACK
Andreas BECK
Jerome BOATENG
CACAU
Arne FRIEDRICH
Mario GOMEZ
Marcell JANSEN
Sami KHEDIRA
Stefan KIESSLING
Miroslav KLOSE
Toni KROOS
Philipp LAHM
Marko MARIN
Per MERTESACKER
Thomas MUELLER
Mesut OZIL
Lukas PODOLSKI
Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER
Serdar TASCI
Christian TRAESCH
Piotr TROCHOWSKI
Heiko WESTERMANN

Spain national football team profile

The Spanish national football team represents Spain in international football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.Spain are the current European champions, having won the UEFA European Championship in 2008. They also won the European Nations' Cup in 1964 and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. Spain have qualified for the FIFA World Cup twelve times, reaching fourth place in the 1950 tournament.n July 2008, Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in their history, becoming the sixth nation, and the first who has never won the World Cup, to top this ranking.1950 World Cup

The 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil from June 24 to July 16. Spain were drawn in Group 2, along with England, the United States and Chile. Spain ended the Group stages winning all their matches, and finishing at the top of Group 2.

At this time, the winner of the World Cup was decided not by a single championship match, but via a group format involving the four teams who had won their respective groups in the previous stage. The four teams in the final group were Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain. Spain failed to record a win and finished in fourth place. To date, this fourth place finish remains the furthest that Spain have reached in the World Cup.

Spain's leading scorer during the 1950 World Cup was striker Estanislao Basora, who ended the tournament with 5 goals.

1982 World Cup in Spain

In 1966, Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup featured 24 teams for the first time. Expectations were high for Spain as the host nation under coach José Santamaría. In the group stages, Spain was drawn into Group 5, in which they could only manage a 1–1 draw with Honduras in the finals' opening match, after which they had a 2–1 victory over Yugoslavia, but were defeated 1–0 by Northern Ireland. These results were enough to secure progress to the second round where they were drawn into Group B, but defeat to West Germany and a goalless draw with England meant that Spain were knocked out, and Santamaría was sacked.
2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 World Cup draw, which took place on 4 December 2009, placed Spain in Group H. They will play their first match against Switzerland on 16 June, followed by Honduras on 21 June and finally Chile on 25 June.

source by- en.wikipedia.org

2010 Fifa World Cup Theme Song

source by you tube

Spain - 2010 FIFA World Cup

Brazil national football team profile

Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international football. It is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation.They are the most successful national football team in the history of the World Cup, with five championships (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002).Brazil hosted the 1950 FIFA World Cup which was the first tournament to be held after World War II. It is the only time Brazil has hosted the tournament to date (not counting the upcoming 2014 tournament).For the 1954 FIFA World Cup, in Switzerland, the Brazilian team was almost completely renovated, so as to forget the Maracanã defeat, but still had a group of good players, including Nílton Santos, Djalma Santos, and Didi. Brazil didn't go very far though. The quarterfinals saw the favorites Hungary beat Brazil 4–2 in one of the ugliest matches in football history, which would become infamous as the Battle of Berne.
1994 World Cup.

Brazil, to the surprise of many, went 24 years without winning a World Cup or even participating in a final. Their struggles ended at the 1994 tournament in the United States, where a solid, if unspectacular side headed by the likes of Romário, Bebeto, Dunga, Taffarel, and Jorginho won the World Cup for a then-record 4th time. Highlights of their campaign included a 1–0 victory over the host in the round of 16, a sensational 3–2 win over the Dutch in the quarter-finals (often cited as the game of the tournament) and a 1–0 win over the Swedes in the semis. This set up a classic confrontation, Brazil vs. Italy, in the final. After a dour and unexciting 0–0 draw, penalty kicks loomed, and when Roberto Baggio lifted his spot kick over the crossbar, Brazil were champions once again.
1998 World Cup

Brazil finished runner-up in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After a very respectable campaign during which they beat Netherlands on penalties in the semi-final following a 1–1 draw with goals from Ronaldo and Patrick Kluivert, the team lost to host France 3–0 in a problematic final game. Brazilian marking at defensive set pieces was poor, and Zinédine Zidane was able to score two headed goals from France's corner kicks. Also, Brazilian star Ronaldo suffered an epileptic seizure a few hours before the match. Many criticized the decision to reinstate Ronaldo into the starting lineup as he put on a poor performance.
2002 World Cup
"Three R's" (Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho), Brazil won its fifth championship at the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan.Brazil's opening game against Turkey, Rivaldo fell to the ground clutching his face after Turkey's Hakan Ünsal had kicked the ball at his legs. Hakan Ünsal, who had already been booked, was sent off while Rivaldo jumped to his feet and continued playing. Rivaldo escaped suspension but was fined £5,180 for play-acting, he became the first player to be punished in FIFA's crackdown on "simulation" and "diving". They followed with a 4–0 win over China and a 5–2 win over Costa Rica.Next they defeated Belgium 2–0, in the round-of-16. Against England in the quarter finals, Brazil won 2–1. Ronaldinho scored the winner with a remarkable lofted free kick and also assisted teammate Rivaldo for their first goal, but was sent off for stamping on the right ankle of England's Danny Mills. The semifinal was against Turkey, which Brazil had faced in their group. Again, this match was difficult, as Brazil won 1–0 with a goal by Ronaldo. Rivaldo had scored one goal each in all five game up to this one but did not manage to hit the target in the sixth. He had seemed all set to repeat Jairzinho´s great achievement in 1970 when he scored in every game of the World Cup.

The final was between two of the most successful teams in the competition's history: Germany and Brazil. Incredibly, the teams had never played each other in the World Cup before, besides a match between Brazil and East Germany in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn had been the tournament's best keeper, but could not maintain that level of play, as Ronaldo vanquished his France '98 demons, scoring both goals in the Brazilian 2–0 triumph.
Copa América 2007

Brazil participated in the Copa América 2007 which was hosted by Venezuela. They were placed in Group B with Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile. Brazil surprisingly lost to Mexico 2–0 in their opening match, then bounced back with a comfortable 3–0 victory over Chile with three goals from Robinho, and won 1–0 against Ecuador, Robinho scoring on a penalty kick. They advanced to the quarter-finals, where they defeated Chile again 6–1. The semi-final was against Uruguay, after a 2–2 draw, Brazil won 5–4 on penalties. Their opponent in the final was Argentina, which were the favorites to win, having won all their matches on the way to the final. However Brazil scored early in the 4th minute when Júlio Baptista scored, and then in the 45th minute, defender Roberto Ayala scored on an own goal. Later in the second half, in the 69th minute, substitute Dani Alves scored Brazil's third goal, as the scoreline became 3–0. After the tournament, Robinho was awarded the Golden Boot in addition to being named the best player in the tournament.
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

After a 3–1 victory over Argentina in Rosario, on September 5, 2009, Brazil qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

source by Wikipedia

Argentina names 23-man squad for FIFA world cup 2010

Argentina coach Diego Maradona named his final 23-man squad for the World Cup on Wednesday, which includes Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Carlos Tevez of Manchester City and most of the country's other big stars.The big surprise defender Ariel Garce played his first international match for Argentina.The list released on Wednesday includes tremendous power up front, led by Messi, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar), Mariano Andujar (Catania), Diego Pozo (Colon).

Defenders: Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarsfield), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Walter Samuel (Inter Milan), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille), Nicolas Burdisso (AS Roma), Ariel Garce (Colon), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes).

Goalkeepers: Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Angel Di Maria (Benfica), Javier Pastore (Palermo), Maxi Rodriguez (Liverpool), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina).

Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Diego Milito (Inter Milan), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors).

source by ibnlive.in.com

Argentina football team profile

The Argentina national football team is the national association football team of Argentina.Argentina has won the most international titles by any national team (19), a record shared with Uruguay.Argentina is one of the most successful national football teams in the world.The team has twice won the FIFA World Cup, in 1978 and 1986. Argentina has won the Copa América 14 times, a record shared with Uruguay, won the Confederations Cup in 1992 and the Olympic Football Tournament in 2004 and 2008.Argentina has been very successful in the Copa América, winning it fourteen times and also winning the 'extra' South American Championships in 1941, 1945 and 1946. The team also won the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Kirin Cup, both in 1992, and an Argentine team (with only three players of over 23 years of age included in the squad) won the Olympics football tournaments in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Argentina also won six of the fourteen football competitions at the Pan American Games, winning in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1971, 1995 and 2003. In March 2007, Argentina reached the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time. World Cup 2006 Argentina had been eliminated at the group stage at Korea/Japan 2002 FIFA World Cup, although they had been among the pre-tournament favorites. There was a high expectation of a better performance in the Germany 2006. Argentina qualified for the knockout stages with wins over Ivory Coast (2–1) and Serbia and Montenegro (6–0), and a 0–0 draw with the Netherlands. Copa América 2007 Argentina won all three games in the group stage, beating United States, Colombia and Paraguay. After convincing victories over Peru and Mexico in the quarter final and semi final respectively, they were favorites to beat Brazil in the final, but were defeated 0–3. Source by wikipedia.org

Italy Profile

2006 champions Italy will naturally be one of the leading contenders to emerge triumphant at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. The only country along with Brazil to have won the tournament twice in succession, Marcello Lippi's men will be vying to match the performance of their pioneering predecessors in 1934 and 1938.
Italy have qualified for 16 of the 18 FIFA World Cup finals, failing to book themselves a place in 1958 and having not opted to take part in the first edition in 1930. They have won the competition on four occasions, in 1934, 1938, 1982 and four years ago in 2006. They also finished runners-up in 1970 and 1994 and claimed third place on home soil in 1990.
4 FIFA World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)
1 UEFA European Championship (1968)
1 Olympic Football Tournament (1936)

Italy will play Group F team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

20/06/2010 16:00 - Nelspruit - Italy v New Zealand
24/06/2010 16:00 -Johannesburg - JEP - Slovakia v Italy

Marcello Lippi, coach said, "No team is superior to Italy. I don't want to say that we're better than everyone, but you might say that we're not inferior to any other team,"

French team 2010 FIFA World Cup play chart

2010 FIFA World Cup
Group Stage
11 June 2010 Uruguay – France Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town

Group Stage
17 June 2010 France – Mexico Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane

Group Stage
22 June 2010 France – South Africa Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein

french-team-in-preparation-for-the-world-cup-2010

May 18th to May 25th, the French team will start training at 2100 m high
French Football coach, has prepared a full program for his team, now down to 24 players as of Monday, starting with mountain bike training, weights, swimming and hiking.
The French team will spend the night at the Panaramic restaurant located at 3000 m high where they will rest in sleeping bags, boot camp style. This will allow them to go on an expedition on Thursday morning to the Grande Motte glacier that they will climb together to reach an altitude of 3656m, if the weather conditions are favorable.
The French National teamshows only little faith in Raymond Domenech; only 20% of French people believe that France can pass the first round in the World Cup 2010 and this number is down to below 5% amongst football fans. Evra said that the French team will be present to win the World Cup.
Hopefully, fresh mountain air and high altitude training will prove him right and will make the French team ready to tackle the FIFA World Cup 2010 where they will play their first game on June 11 against Mexico.

absent for Aussies

Australia are set to be without Scott Chipperfield, Harry Kewell and Mark Schwarzer for Monday's FIFA World Cup™ warm-up match against New Zealand at the MCG.
Schwarzer injured his thumb during this week's training camp in Melbourne, and while it is not to expected to threaten his World Cup prospects.
Reportedly took little part in a training session today and Reading's Adam Federici is set to come in for his senior debut.
Coach Pim Verbeek is unlikely to risk the Fulham goalkeeper in a friendly match.
David Carney will get the chance to push his World Cup credentials with veteran defender Chipperfield to be rested after a busy finish to his club season with Swiss side Basle.
Carney is considered the nominated back-up for Chipperfield,But Kewell was never considered for Monday's match as he bids to be fit for the World Cup.

Paraguay - Venezuela football

Paraguay have moved level on points with leaders Brazil in the South American section of World Cup qualifying with a 2-1 victory over Venezuela.

Second-half goals from Salvador Cabanas and Oscar Cardozo put the Guaranies in command before Salomon Rondon halved the deficit for Venezuela, for whom Nicolas Fedor missed a penalty. Their hopes of being in South Africa next summer are now all but over.

Cabanas threatened first for the visitors - who booked their World Cup place with a 1-0 win over Argentina last month - but his seventh-minute effort went too high.

Paraguay went close again in the 24th minute with Cabanas once more involved. This time he set put Nelson Haedo Valdez, whose shot went just wide of the left post.

Cabanas was continuing to be a key influence on the game and 11 minutes into the second half he put the away side in front, finding the net with his left shot having been set up by Osvaldo Martinez.

Messi injury

Argentina superstar Lionel Messi handed coach Diego Maradona a 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ scare on Friday when he injured his right knee in a training match.

Barcelona star Messi immediately left the practice session, but the seriousness of the injury was played down by officials. "Messi is fine. It was only a knock and nothing else," said team official Nicolas Otamendi.

Argentina were training ahead of a pre-FIFA World Cup friendly match against Canada taking place on Monday before flying to South Africa for the finals next Friday.

Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes) and Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid) both joined up with the squad on Friday.

But Walter Samuel and Diego Milito (Inter Milan) and Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich) were missing as they are taking part in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday.

Argentina final preparations

Argentina coach Maradona held his first training session with his 2010 FIFA World Cup™ squad on Thursday, and said he had high hopes for the June 11 - July 11 tournament in South Africa.

"Our World Cup starts today because we start work with 17 players. We have high hopes," said Maradona, who led Argentina to FIFA World Cup glory in 1986.

Maradona was without five players for his first trip onto the paddock with his South Africa-bound squad. Sergio Aguero played in Wednesday's Spanish Cup final for his club Atletico Madrid, while Inter Milan duo Walter Samuel and Diego Milito, and Bayern Munich's Martin Demichelis are all in Madrid ahead of Saturday's UEFA Champions League final. Clemente Rodriguez and Juan Sebastian Veron were to play for Estudiantes later today.

Two-time champions Argentina were drawn alongside Nigeria, UEFA EURO 2004 champions Greece and 2002 semi-finalists South Korea in Group B and begin their campaign against the African side on 12 June.