South Africa set up camp in Germany

World Cup hosts South Africa arrived in Germany on Tuesday for a two-week training camp as they step up their preparations for the 2010 football showpiece.

Head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named a 25-man squad for the camp, which will run until April 30 and features none of the Bafana Bafana’s foreign-based players except for Ajax youngster Daylon Claassen.

“The Germany camp is getting closer to the World Cup, so we have to show some improvements as a team, we can’t afford any regression, and as a result we have to improve further from our previous gains,” Parreira said at a press conference in Johannesburg prior to departing for Germany.

“The team has shape and we are now competitive tactically and physically.”

The South Africans arrived in Germany just a week after finishing a month-long training camp in Brazil, the highpoint of which was a 1-1 draw against World Cup qualifiers Paraguay on March 31.

The other two friendlies in the 2010 calendar year to date saw the Bafana Bafana draw 1-1 against Namibia in Durban on March 3, after having beaten Zimbabwe 3-0 in Durban on January 27.

The highlight of the German camp will be a friendly against China scheduled for April 28.

A venue has yet to be determined for the match, which is South Africa’s penultimate warm-up match prior to their game with Denmark at Johannesburg’s World Cup stadium Soccer City on June 5.

Parreira’s men will kick off the tournament on June 11 with the opening match against Mexico. Drawn in Group A, South Africa will also face Uruguay on June 16 and France on June 22.

For his Herzogenaurach camp Parreira dropped five players from the squad at the Brazilian camp, which was the first part of his preparations for locally based players.

The most high-profile player recalled by the Brazilian coach was striker Siyabonga Nomvete.

The 32-year-old’s goal gave South Africa their only World Cup victory over Slovenia in South Korea in 2002 and he has earned 72 caps — his last coming in October 2007 — and scored 15 goals.