Soccer: French squad preparing in 'paradise'

Preparations for the World Cup, just nine days away, moved up a gear yesterday as the French squad arrived in Japan to fine-tune their training before beginning the defence of their crown.

With Brazil also closing in - they are spending six days in Malaysia - and England installed in South Korea before a game against the joint hosts, the phoney war is almost over.

Three-times world champions Germany do not arrive in Japan until tomorrow, and they will be without midfielder Sebastian Deisler.

The loss of the Bayern Munich-bound player, who injured his right knee in a friendly against Austria on Sunday, is another huge blow to Germany coach Rudi Voeller, who is already without injury victims Christian Woerns, Jens Nowotny and Mehmet Scholl.

"At first we had a glimmer of hope," Voeller said about Deisler, who suffered the damage during Germany's 6-2 rout of Austria.

"But now what is important is to think of the health of Sebastian and not about the World Cup. I can only wish that he is fit again soon."

Elsewhere, the warm-up matches continued yesterday. Turkey beat a Hong Kong XI 2-0 and South Africa downed Scotland by the same score in a four-team tournament in Hong Kong.

France have just one more friendly scheduled, against Korea on Sunday, before getting the tournament under way against Senegal in Seoul on May 31.

They will spend five days in the tiny Japanese coastal resort of Ibusuki, enough to get over the disappointment of their 2-1 home defeat by Belgium on Sunday.

"The place ... really looks like paradise. It's where we need to be to prepare ourselves," team spokesman Philippe Tournon said.

France have been provided with two grounds, one to train on and the other to take on Japanese first division side Urawa Reds in a friendly match of three 30-minute periods tomorrow.

The only player missing from the world champions' squad when they flew in was Zinedine Zidane, who delayed his trip until tomorrow after his wife gave birth to their third child on Sunday.

Brazil's injury-hit striker Rivaldo said he had finally shaken off the pain in his troublesome right knee as the four-times champions arrived in Malaysia.

Rivaldo, whose knee has become a major worry for Brazil, trained with his team-mates for the first time since the squad assembled in Spain last week.

He said he wanted to play the whole of Sunday's friendly against Malaysia.

"It depends on the coach, but if it depended on me then I would like to play the full 90 minutes."

Rivaldo has not played a competitive match for nearly a month.

England, who had had a week in sweltering Dubai, welcomed the change of scene and a drop in temperature from 39C to 22C as they acclimatised on the sub-tropical island of Cheju.

After playing Korea, England leave on Sunday for Kobe, Japan, where they meet Cameroon in a friendly the next day before opening their finals campaign against Sweden on June 2.

"[Dubai] was half-work, half-holiday - but now it is work," England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said yesterday. "You can say that today it starts."

The coach of Africa's best bet, Nigeria, has warned that his side are running into form at just the right time and that it is no foregone conclusion for England and Argentina to qualify for the last 16 from pool F, the "group of death".

"My players will rise to the occasion.

"It's good that we have peaked at the right time and I believe the world will see the wonder of Nigeria in Japan," Adegboye Onigbinde said.

China's estimates that 100,000 fans would follow them to their first World Cup are now looking wildly optimistic. Only 25,000 have so far bought tickets. High prices have put many off.

- REUTERS

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