Warm-up Matches for the 2010 World Cup

International friendlies are in full swing just days before the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It’s time for the coaches to do last minute fine tuning of their teams.

Scores of  International matches will be played in the US with USA national team actively involved. The American team will host the Czech Republic on Tuesday in Hartford, Connecticut and face Turkey on Saturday in Philadelphia, Penn.

Tuesday’s match against the Czech Republic can be seen on Fox Soccer Channel.

On May 22, Turkey beat Czech Republic 2 – 1 at Red Bull Stadium in front of 17 thousand mostly Turkish fans. Czechs who were missing their key players including the captain Tomas Rosicky and Milos Baros can thank the goalie Petr Cech for allowing only two goals. Turkey opened the score in the 31st minute when Arda Turan with the help of the post put the ball into the net. Six minutes after the start of the second half  Nihat made it 2 – 0 for Turkey. Czech substitute Milan Cerny managed to intercept a pass by a Turkish player and scored  from that with nine minutes to go.

Turkey will go on to face Norther Ireland on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Europe, Croatia hosted Wales who showed up without their 15 senior players, making you wonder who actually came to Gradski Vrt stadium in Croatia.” The other team” from the British Isles, England easily overcame Mexico by a score of 3 – 1. Ledley King, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson were the scorers.

But the biggest surprise must be the goalless draw between Portugal and bunch of amateur players from Cape Verde. Despite the fact they ranked 117th not even Cristiano Ronaldo could score against them. Coach Carlos Queiroz down-played the result, saying that this was just a “training match”, but I’m sure the match left Portugal “feeling green”.

Coach Takeshi Okada offered to resign after Japan’s embarrassing loss to their rival South Korea.

The Argentinian team gave coach Maradona a decisive 5 – 0 win when they destroyed Canada in Buenos Aires.