Another set of friendlies announced

South Korea have been very busy looking for sparring partners. The 2002 World Cup hosts have set up a bunch of friendlies for next month. On 9 January they play Zambia in Johannesburg, South Africa, whilst also taking on some club sides from the country. They'll be without European based player until 18 January when they meet Finland in Malaga, Spain, while meeting Latvia on the 21st. Fellow Asians Japan have set up three matches with opposition from the same continent - Yemen, China and Hong Kong.

While for Korea it looks like it doesn't matter who's the opposition, as long as they can play, then New Zealand, like England, are looking opposition similar to their opponents in the World Cup finals. The All Whites will play Mexico on 3 March in Los Angeles as a preparation for their group F opponents Paraguay. Mexico itself also have a match with Netherlands on 26 May. The Netherlands will face another North American opposition on 3 March in USA. The US also have a match with Honduras in January.

Current European Champions Spain have so far announced three fixtures. The team, currently nr.1 on FIFA ranking, will play France in March, but won't take on any team until the final weeks before the World Cup tournament, with two home and on away fixture set up. The opposition has not been announced yet.

France have already have announced their opposition for the final weeks and they are Costa Rica and Tunisia, on 25 and 30 May respectively. France's group A opponents Uruguay so far have announced a match with Switzerland on 3 March.

From group B, Argentina will meet Germany in March. The Germans also have some weird fixtures in May with hosting Malta and visiting Hungary. Same goes for their group D companions Australia. Kuwait in January and Indonesia in March aren't exactly teams you'd expect to play before a World Cup finals tournament. In the same group, Serbia have a friendly with Algeria on 3 March.

Donovan off to Everton?

USA superstar Landon Donovan has been linked with a loan move to Everton in the English Premier League.

It it thought the forward would be keen on joining Everton to keep himself match fit after the end of the MLS season, like the case with David Beckham joining AC Milan in January.

Everton would also welcome the deal as there's an injury crisis and also star striker Yakubu will join up with the Nigeria squad in January for the African Cup of Nations.

It wouldn't be the first time Donovan would make a switch to Europe. As a youngster he was part of Bayer Leverkusen and past January he was also on loan from LA Galaxy at FC Bayern.

But his adventures in Europe haven't been a great success. Whilst on his day he's a unstoppable player in the MLS, he's struggled to leave his mark in European football. Maybe this time.

Meanwhile Donovan's possible future teammate Joseph Yobo, who recently said the African Cup of Nations is an ideal test before the World Cup, has been ruled out until the New Year with a hamstring injury and is in danger of missing out on the Angola 2010 squad.

Nigeria manager Shaibu Amodu will already have to do without Real Zaragoza striker Ikechukwu Uche, with a host of players, including Wolfsburg's Obafemi Martins, doubtful for the tournament starting on 10 January.

Group C overview

England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Fixtures:

12/06/2010 , Rustenburg, England vs USA
13/06/2010, Polokwane, Algeria vs Slovenia

18/06/2010, Johannesburg - JEP, Slovenia vs USA
18/07/2010, Cape Town, England vs Algeria

23/06/2010, Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth, Slovenia vs England
23/06/2010, Tshwane/Pretoria, USA vs Algeria

This group looks more straight forward than the previous two. But there's intrigue also here. The first match - England vs USA. While you'd expect England to win this game, USA have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and that win certainly won't come easy. Even if you look at the FIFA rankings. England is 9th and the US 14th.

The favorites will probably go through here. Slovenia's and Algeria's only hope would be that they could win the match between themselves and hope for a draw in the England - USA match up.

Winner of this group will take on runner-up of group D, while the 2nd place will meet group D winners (probably Germany).

Can US repeat their Confed Cup success?

The USA have happy memories of South Africa. Last summer they were losing finalist in the test tournament for the World Cup, Confederations Cup 2009.

USA lost their first matches (1:3 to Italy & 0:3 to Brazil), but managed to sneak through from the group thanks to goals scored, edging Italy's 3 out with 4. Spain, who at the time were leading the FIFA rankings, was the opponent in the semis. Surprisingly USA advanced thanks to a relatively easy 2:0 win. In the final they lost 2:3 to Brazil after having a 2:0 lead at half-time, so a mark was made and the side might be possible dark horses in the World Cup.

USA have been part of the World Cup finals ten times. Best position being 3rd in the very first in 1930. Like Asia, the US is seen with huge potential. The local league, Major League Soccer (MLS), is improving all the time, managing to lure better players to the continent (of course David Beckham being the most notable).

The rise of popularity began in 1990's. USA was picked as the host nation of World Cup 1994 and MLS was formed as the first outdoor league, since North American Soccer League (NASL) died out in the 80's. Even though World Cup 1990 in Italy was pretty much a catastrophe, with the US losing all of their games, the side managed to win the North American Cup a year later, as well as the Gold Cup.

1994 World Cup was a huge success. This not only brought attention to US as a whole, but popularized football in the country itself and also the national team got past the group stage for the first time since 1930.

1998 was the opposite, mainly due to poor manager-player relationships, but the game slowly grew in the nation and player selection widened. Also the managerial level got better with a number of specialist no involved with the team.

The 2000' arrived with another Gold Cup success and USA was involved in the "Group of Death" of World Cup 2002, where they managed to get a respectable draw versus Italy and only narrowly losing to Ghana.

2006 also turned out to be a bit of a failure. Notice a pattern? By that it looks like it's time for some success again in 2010.

Landon Donovan, who seems to have been around forever (120 caps), is now reaching his career's peak at 27. From the same age group, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley are getting great experience in Europe at Fulham and Rangers respectively. Goalkeeper Tim Howard is one of the best in the World. And there's also the curios case of Freddy Adu. Can the one time wonder kid, who's still 20 years of age, finally make a mark in World football?

Adu has been off the radar for the past few season after coming to Europe and playing for Benfica and Monaco, but there's no doubt about his talent. I mean, there's only a limited amount of Djemba-Djemba's Alex Ferguson can take notice. And the Scot praised Adu, when he was on trial at Manchester United. Adu's now at Belenenses in Portugal, on-loan from Benfica. A more relaxed environment for the attacking-midfielder, who'll be hoping he gets enough first-team football to be in contention for a place in the US side for the World Cup. The competition is getting more fierce every year.