Australia's first friendly is Tuesday against Denmark and then it plays the United States in another friendly Saturday.

Australia's first official game in the monthlong World Cup tournament is June 13 against Germany in Durban.

There were fears that the friendly match between Australia and the United States could be a target for a terrorist attack because the two countries are heavily involved in Middle East conflicts. Australia has troops in Afghanistan and has had troops in Iraq.

But round-the-clock security is tight at the training camp for Australia's team at the exclusive private school St. Stithians in the fashionable Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.

John Boultbee, the head of Australia's national teams. said he is happy with security arrangements and the advice given to the team including from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"We are comfortable with the advice we are getting from both our Australian and South African consultants and also particularly with DFAT," said Boultbee.

There are no plans to change any dates and he has been talking with the U.S. team regarding security, he said.

"We are in close consultation with the Americans about security regarding their team. The U.S. have their own advice as well and take their own precautions so the security around that match will be a combination of their security and our security," Boultbee said.

Concern over security at the upcoming World Cup after The Sunday Times, a newspaper in Johannesburg, reported that the event would be a target for terrorist acts.

The article said the U.S. Congress had been briefed on threats from Pakistani and Somali extremists, including al-Qaida and its Somalian off-shoot Al-Shabaab. Both are suspected of operating training camps in Mozambique, which borders South Africa to the northeast.

The newspaper also said that South African security authorities are monitoring around 40 suspects already in South Africa. The government has deployed more than 44,000 specially trained security personnel to operate in the 10 host stadiums in nine cities including Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria.

The tournament kicks off with the first games in Group A being played June 11. South Africa plays Mexico in Johannesburg and Uruguay plays France in Cape Town.

The U.S. team, in Group C, plays its first game against England in Rustenburg's 44,500-seat stadium June 12, Slovenia June 18 in Johannesburg and wraps up group play June 23 against Algeria in front of 50,000 fans in Pretoria.

The United States is fielding one of its youngest teams.

"We're young, we're energetic, we're excited and we're going to surprise people in the World Cup," U.S. player midfielder DaMarcus Beasley said of the 15-man squad whose average age is 27.

The final is to be played July 11 in Johannesburg's 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium, which was reopened May 24 by South African President Jacob Zuma after a major refurbishment.

Around 3 million tickets were available for the tournament. More than 1 million of 2.5 million tickets already sold have been bought by South Africans.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News