ENGLAND-based duo Roque Santa Cruz and Paulo Da Silva have been included in Paraguay's 23-man World Cup squad.

FABIO Capello must announce his 23-man squad for the World Cup finals today but there is general agreement on which players will be axed.

JOHN TERRY believes England's ability to "keep it tight at the back" will have a massive bearing on their World Cup bid.

Many pundits have expected bigger things from Nigeria. An impressive side, but Pele's prediction of an African nation winning the World Cup before the year 2000 gave them

ASTON VILLA'S Stephen Warnock could be a surprise inclusion when Fabio Capello names his England World Cup squad today.

The Spain team that won Euro 2008 two years ago will show little change at the World Cup . The first-choice team at that tournament consisted of: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Marchena, Puyol, Capdevila, Iniesta, Xavi, Senna, Silva, Villa and Torres. Read more... Spain’s Secret Weapon? originally appeared on About.com World Soccer on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 04:32:15.

Doha, Qatar , 01 June - Asia’s governing football body, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have enthusiastically endorsed the arrangements in place for Qatar’s biggest sporting event next year, the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™. Senior officials from the AFC’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur are in Qatar to look at the preparations and planning for Asia’s premier football tournament which brings together the continent’s 16 top teams from 7-29 January next year. The AFC visited the five stadiums staging the 32 matches in the tournament, including the jewel in Qatar’s crown, Khalifa International Stadium, which will be hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, Qatar’s matches in the group phase, one quarter-final, one semi-final and the final. “We have visited all the venues as well as the Main Media Centre and the International Broadcast Centre and we went through many details with the venue planning team. We have completed, during our visit, all venues planning as well as the finer details related to the broadcast requirements”, said Mr Tokuaki Suzuki, AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ Tournament Director. The two sides were also discussing Ticketing, Marketing and Accreditation programmes with a particular focus on attracting football fans from the region as well as Qatar. In addition, the local organisers presented their plans for a stunning FanZone with games, food and entertainment which is expected to be the hub of activities during the tournament. The AFC’s management team also fine tuned the planned broadcast operations for the event which will be watched by hundreds of millions of viewers across Asia. The local organisers, the Qatar Local Organising Committee (QLOC), are working closely with host broadcaster Al Dawri Al Kass to provide High Definition (HD) coverage of every match in the tournament for the first time in Asian Cup history. QLOC’s Chief Operating Officer Dr Athanasios Batsilas was also optimistic that his team, a number of them with international event experience, would produce a world-class tournament. “Nearly all the elements are in place,” he said. “We have had very fruitful discussions with the AFC and are on track to stage a great event which will showcase the best of Asian football.” Mr Suzuki added: “We appreciate all the hard work that has been done by the venue planning department of the QLOC to get the facilities up to the standards of AFC. I believe the QLOC have done a very good job and we look forward to working with them closely over the next seven months”. To underline the quality of the tournament, four of the 16 qualifiers – Australia, Japan, the Korea Republic and DPR Korea – will be taking part in the World Cup in South Africa which kicks off on 11 June. Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Asian Cup football

Group A Kick off: 3pm (GMT) Date: 11 JUNE 2010 Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg (ITV)

Group A Kick off: 19:30pm Date: 11 June, 2010 Green Point Stadium, Cape Town (BBC)

Few can claim to have stepped over Brazil and Argentina to reach the tournament, but then Paraguay's campaign has been anything but ordinary. Watch this improving side for

Love him or hate him it's impossible to deny the natural flair of Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo. If this squad does have a weakness it could be an inexperienced back

A hard-working side, Serbia features a powerful defensive backbone and some potent striking threats. Nikola Zigic and Dejan Stankovic will give opponents plenty to think about

On Sunday night, London's Royal Festival Ha ll hosted an unusual football event. While three big screens played the infamous 1973 England v Poland W o rld Cup qualif ier in its entirety , a n ensemble of Polish folk, classical and rock musicians belted out a boisterous soundtrack to accompany it. Huge Aston Villa banners slung along the sides of the Clore Ballroom gave a clue as to the evening's instigator - Nigel Kennedy , the enfant terrible of UK classical musi c who became a household name in Britain twenty ye ars ago for his unusual image: A yobby football lad, albeit with a mockney accent, wh o at the same time brought Vivaldi to the masses with the elan and sophistication of the finest musicians. Instead of a violin case, Kennedy preferred a carrier bag, instead of black tie, a Villa shirt. An indication of how big Kenned y had become was that he was flown out to Sardinia during Italia '90 to entertain the England s quad with a flourish of the Four Seasons. Football still clearly matters for him as he took the stag e in a Villa shirt wit h 'Agbonlahor' on the back, and alongside the claret and blue were the red and white stripes of KS Cracovia, his adopted Polish club (he lives in Krakow with his Polish wif e.) For 'Nigel Kennedy's World Cup Project', the now middle-aged wild one, s till sporting his trademark quiff, jammed with the at times industrial roar of hi s Polish entourage, while the time capsule of the famously fated qualifier played out above them. Some Polish lads had come with shirts and scarves as if for a real match, cheering and clapping every wonder save from 'the clown' (as Brian Clough famously called him), Jan Tomaszewski . The match itself was fascinating, even if the result was known beforehand. England needed t o win to qualify for the 1974 World Cup and deserved to progress in terms of the enth usiasm and physical endeavour they displayed at Wembley. But despite laying siege to the Polish goal and peppering Tomazsewski until he sneezed, Alf Ramsay's men could only draw 1-1. Poland went to Germany; England stayed at home and Ramsay, England's so far only World Cup-winning coach, got the sack. The attack-attack-attack style England played that night created many a six- yard box scramble and last-ditch Polish tackle, but despite the overwhelming dominance of England, the Polish net only billowed once. I could not help feeling a good team today would take a mor e psychological approach and try to draw the opposition out and hit them on the counter once it was clear they were going to stick every man behind the ball and play for a point. Top-level football today is about playing in phases - understanding when to funnel men into attack, when to put men behind the ball and when to frustrate and tire out your opponents by maintaining possession. This 1973 England had but a single phase - an attacking one, which soon became predictable as one ball after another was lobbed into the box or thump ed down the channels. From a spectator's point of view it may have been fun to watch one team trying to scorch the other from the off, but the joy of a high-octane opening would become a frustrating toil by the end as the Polish woodwork wallowed in its charmed life and England huffed and puffed increasingly desperately. Kennedy's men strummed and stroked and drummed away happily, but almost oblivious to the events on-screen; not a silent film accompaniment, rather background music amplified so loud the matc h became a distraction high above. An odd evening therefore, but hats off to Kenn edy for flying football colours in unfamiliar surroundings, and reminding us of how far, or not, England has come in 37 years. England 1:1 Poland , 17th Oct 1973, Wembley, Att: 100,000 England - Shilton, McFarland, Hughes, Hunter, Madeley, Currie, Bell, Peters, Chivers, Channon, Clarke Poland - Tomaszewski, Szymanowski, Bulzacki, Gorgon, Musial, Kasperczak, Cmikiewicz, Denya, Lato, Domarski, Gadocha (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football