LAYING to rest the ghosts of a dismal last appearance at the World Cup will be on the Serbia players' minds when they face Ghana in their Group D opener in Pretoria this

ITALY midfielder Gennaro Gattuso will retire from international football after the World Cup. The 32-year-old AC Milan player, who helped the Azzurri to World Cup glory in Ger

WHEN THE controversy kicked off about the official World Cup ball, the Jabulani Crawfish Pie Fillet Gumbo or Jabulani for short, I must admit I thought it was a non-story. Pro

NOT UNTIL lunchtime today does this World Cup complete one of its truly dramatic arcs.

AT 105, 33 places behind New Zealand, North Korea are the lowest-ranked of the World Cup qualifiers, which makes their position in what – despite the recent struggles of Port

FRANCE are still looking to unearth a new Zinedine Zidane, but they at least seem to have found the next Patrick Vieira.

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SOUTH Africa woke up with a smug satisfaction yesterday despite only drawing in the opening World Cup match.

ONE MATCH down and already Argentina are bamboozling us with their unpredictability, cutting Nigeria open with their scalpels and yet only scoring off a routine set-piece pla

A DAY to treasure for South Korea; a day to terrify Greece.

FRANZ BECKENBAUER is normally a voice of reason. As Germany's most revered footballing icon, he can be relied upon to provide realistic and insightful analysis. One thing

PAUL LE GUEN'S managerial reputation hangs in the balance. Whether it will be tipped in his favour is just one of the storylines waiting to come out of Africa in the day

ENGLAND goalkeeper Robert Green believes he has the mental strength to recover from his howler which gifted the United States an equaliser in the 1-1 Group C opener in Rustenb

DIEGO Maradona's last public pronouncement before bringing his Argentina team to South Africa was that he would run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires if the Albice

THE Scottish disease has headed south. England was once secure enough in its goalkeeping tradition to mock the very notion of keepers from Scotland, but no more.

Celebrity astrologer Anita Nigam is predicting the outcomes of all 64 World Cup matches at www.anitauniverse.com/wc2010 World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football

Their team's preparation could hardly have been worse, but the wait is finally over for Japan fans as the Samurai Blue get set to make their bow at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Coach Takeshi Okada's embattled side turned in a string of poor performances in pre-World Cup friendlies, but there will be far more at stake when captain Makoto Hasebe leads his team out against Cameroon at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontain today. Japan go into the match knowing that the clash with African hopefuls Cameroon arguably marks their best chance of victory, but given that a lack of goals remains a constant problem for Okada's side, all eyes will be on who the bespectacled tactician selects up front. The consensus is that CSKA Moscow attacker Keisuke Honda may get the nod, despite the fact that he normally plays as a creative midfielder for his club side. That would mean that Shimizu S-Pulse striker Shinji Okazaki will have to be content with a place on the bench, with Okazaki paying the price for his chronic lack of goals in 2010. If Japan are struggling in attack, they're also less than watertight at the back, and inexperienced Kawasaki Frontale goalkeeper may be preferred to error-prone veteran Seigo Narazaki in goal. Yet it's several old stagers who Japan are likely to rely upon for defensive inspiration, with the talismanic Yuji Nakazawa set to lead by example alongside Marcus Tulio Tanaka in central defence, while Okada favourite Yasuyuki Konno looks set to get the nod at right-back over former incumbent Atsuto Uchida. Whatever his formation, Okada will be acutely aware of the intense scrutiny his side face from both the Japanese and international press. His claim that Japan should aim for a semi-final berth was met with widespread derision both at home and abroad, and anything less than a win over Cameroon will almost certainly spell a swift World Cup demise for the Asian football heavyweights. It's all eyes on the Free State Stadium then, as Japan look to lay the ghosts of 2006 to rest with a convincing opener against their unpredictable opponent. Whether they have the personnel required is the question on everyones' lips. Copyright © Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com J.League News Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football