Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Bafana's final training camp squad
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira announced a 29-man squad on Friday for South Africa's final training camp before the 2010 Fifa World Cup™. It's the clearest indication yet of what the final 23-man selection will look like.The training camp, which starts on 5 May, is the fourth in a series of World Cup camps and it will culminate in the naming of the World Cup line-up only 10 days before the tournament gets under way.
Parreira says he has chosen 29 players because he is uncertain when players based overseas will arrive for the camp. "We have already scheduled two matches for the 16th and 24th of May, so we need at least 18 players for those matches," he explained to Safa.net.
Having featured two very different groups of players in the last two camps, Parreira admits it will be a challenge to get the players to work together.
I will be fit for the World Cup, insists France defender William Gallas
Arsenal's France defender William Gallas has insisted he will recover from a calf injury in time for next month's World Cup.Gallas picked up the injury in the Champions League quarter-final first leg game against Barcelona in March, with coach Arsène Wenger saying at the time that Gallas's season with the club was over.
"I will be ready for France," Gallas told French daily Le Parisien. "Had it not been possible to recover I would have pulled out. Right now, I feel good and ready for France."
France were drawn with hosts South Africa, Mexico and Uruguay in Group A. Coach Raymond Domenech will unveil his 23-man squad next week.