Monday, November 29, 1999

World Cup Group E news - Cameroon/Japan/Denmark/Netherlands

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Latest Group E news ahead of the World Cup in South Africa which starts on June 11.NETHERLANDSNetherlands will start their official World Cup training camp on Wednesday when they travel to Austria with a 24-men squad.After the training stage in Dutch Hoenderloo coach Bert van Marwijk dropped midfielders Otman Bakkal, David Mendes da Silva and Wout Brama.Rafael van der Vaart and Klaas Jan Huntelaar will join the squad after finishing their club season last weekend but Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel and Wesley Sneijder will follow next week.All three are set to feature in coming Saturday's Champions League final in Madrid.JAPANWhile Moscow-based team mate Keisuke Honda jetted into Japan and held an impromptu news conference at Narita airport declaring the Blue Samurai can win the World Cup, international captain Yuki Nakazawa had explosive news of his own.Japan's skipper unveiled the new boots he will wear in South Africa next month, emblazoned with a flame-coloured "volcanic lava" stripe and his name on the sides, also in fiery orange."They're as hot as my personality," boasted Nakazawa, having edged team mate Shunsuke Nakamura in the race for the most hi-tech and eye-catching World Cup boots. "I will be on fire when I wear these."Meanwhile, Japan coach Okada found an ally in Endo's Gamba Osaka manager Akira Nishino, who said picking goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, just returned after a horror leg break last September, was a master-stroke."For Nakazawa especially, as captain, it will be a huge plus," Nishino said of Kawaguchi, who has been picked for his fourth World Cup squad. "It will give the whole team a boost."CAMEROONCameroon coach Paul Le Guen has said he will take veteran defenders Geremi and Rigobert Song to the World Cup next month, ending speculation their international careers were at an end.Le Guen told the French television station Canal+ the duo would form part of his plans and he had already decided on his 23-man squad for the tournament, save for one or two places that would be verified in upcoming warm-up internationals and a training camp in the Austrian Alps.The pair, who have a combined 247 caps, both lost their places in the team during the African Nations Cup finals in January and were left out all together from the squad that played a friendly in March against Italy.DENMARKReaching the knock-out phase is a realistic goal for Denmark at the World Cup, national team coach Morten Olsen told Danish TV3+ television at the weekend."We are not Spain, we are not the Netherlands. The Dutch have a realistic chance of becoming world champions. For us it is a realistic ambition, to begin with, to make it to the knock-out phase," he said.Olsen said he and his assistants had seen the 7-10 most recent matches played by the Danes' group-phase opponents -- the Netherlands, Cameroon and Japan -- and would watch all of their World Cup first-round rivals' remaining warm-up matches.(Editing by Miles Evans; To query or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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