World Cup Friendly 5/06

USA v Australia


Saturday, June 5

USA v Australia

Verdict: Both countries will play their final friendly match before the tournament begins in a week's time. The venue for this stadium is the Ruimsig Stadium, in Johannesburg. Australia defeated Denmark 1-0 at this same venue, four days ago, in what can be described as a scrappy contest as both teams battled the altitude conditions and the movement of the Jabulani ball. The US will play their first game in South Africa after coming back from a goal down to defeat Turkey 2-1. Will power probably got the Stars and Stripes the victory as Turkey were unfortunate not to have increased their 1-0 lead going into the half time break.

In team news, Australia will most certaintly give Brett Emerton a run out after sufficiently recovering from a calf injury. Harry Kewell is also on the mend and is likely to play some part in this encounter after training fully with the squad on Thursday. The US have injury concerns over striker Jose Altidore as he sprained his ankle during a training session.

Australia have used this ground as their training base for the entire week so it is likely that they will play the conditions much better than the USA. In addition, Australia's back line showed up very well on Tuesday as they restricted the Danes to minimal long range efforts. The same could not be said of the US against Turkey.

Picks:
Australia +0.25AH @1.94 (sbobet, 10 units)
USA 3 - 1 Australia
Australia 1x2 @3.23 (betcruise, 3 units)
USA 3 - 1 Australia