South Africa

South Africa

South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was satisfied after seeing his team beat Colombia 2-1 in a scrappy FIFA World Cup™ warm-up at Soccer City on Thursday.

With the FIFA World Cup hosts due to play in the opening match on 11 June against Mexico at the rebuilt stadium, the Brazilian said he was pleased how his players responded to the frenzied atmosphere made by 75,000 supporters. "I'm happy that we have played here now because we could not start the World Cup without having experienced that atmosphere," he said.

"Colombia are a big team and there was excitement from beginning to end. I'm pleased with my players because they will face all these challenges against Mexico on June 11. We didn't play as well as the last game (against Bulgaria) but conditions were different - it was like a World Cup game."

May 21, 2010 South Africa call for McCarthy   South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has made few surprise choices in his preliminary squad for the World Cup, opting to select most of the players he has tried and tested since taking charge of the team in October last year. Benni McCarthy, who has had a love-hate relationship with the South African Football Association (SAFA), is named despite his recent injury troubles. The West Ham striker is one of four players from the Premier League named - the others being captain Aaron Mokoena of Portsmouth, Kagisho Dikgacoi of Fulham and Everton's Steven Pienaar. However, there was no place for Racing Santander defender Nasief Morris.

Group A

Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Uruguay	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0