Australians First to arrive in South Africa
With the World Cup due to kick off on June 11th, the Australian bandwagon has made its way to South Africa, making them the first team to arrive at the scene of the battle. The Socceroos were not just one of the first teams that qualified but now they also have the honour of being the first team that touched down on the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
This isn’t the first feather in their cap; they were also “Numero Uno” in trying out the newly created special arrival facility for World cup squads at the airport. This facility enables teams to be escorted out of the terminal away from the eye of the crazed fans and general public. Their visa and passport processing is also done away from the rest of the passengers, sure seems like the Australians had no trouble stepping out into the lands of Johannesburg. Where the world’s biggest football extravaganza countdown has begun!
The twenty eight Australian team members, along with their coach and managers landed in Johannesburg at night from Melbourne on a chartered flight. The squad includes some high profile names such as Tim Cahill, who made a name for himself during the English Premier League, Captain Lucas Hill, Harry Kewell and Mark Schwazer. Before being chaperoned out to their team bus, they made a brief media chat and posed for pictures. Their team base is situated on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The Chief Executive of the organising committee, Danny Jordaan was there to welcome the contingent at the airport and he expressed his delight at the arrival of the team. Talking to the media, Jordaan said that the time has come when everything they had prepared for so long was now finally in order. Everything from the stadiums to the fans are ready to witness epic battles. And with the first team arriving in South Africa, the dreams of the organising committee are finally bearing fruit.
The Australian contingent also spoke to the reporters standing by briefly. Coach Pim Verbeek, who hails from the Netherlands, expressed his excitement at reaching South Africa. He said “I have been in this country about eight or nine times already and I have always enjoyed my stay here”. Talking about the tournament, he said it was essential for Australia to win their opening match, as it eases the pressure slightly. The reason he gave for arriving early was to adapt to the conditions and the altitude that they would be playing at. This gives the players ample time to train in the conditions that they would actually be playing their group matches in. Australia is also due to play warm up matches leading up to the group stages.
Australia has Ghana, Serbia and three time world cup champions Germany in their group. Their first match will be on June 13 against the mighty Germans in Durban. After that, the issue of altitude comes in, because they will play Ghana in the high terrain area of Rustenburg and then Serbia in similar conditions at Nelspruit. Therefore getting used to the conditions would be essential for Australia.
Before their pursuit of the world cup trophy begins, Australia will play a few warm up matches to gain momentum. Their first warm up match will be against Denmark and then against the United States. Both those matches will be played after the June 1st deadline of downsizing the team to a 23 man squad. Thus by that time, the warm up matches rolled around coach Verbeek would have a fair idea of which players he would want to start with.
The next team to touch down in South Africa is Brazil, followed by Argentina and Denmark due to land over the weekend. FIFA fever has begun!
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