Australia national soccer team has secured its chance of going to friendly against the U.S., after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Denmark in a World Cup warm-up at the Roodepoort Athletics Stadium in South Africa on Tuesday.
Beneficiary of a lucky deflection from a Luke Wilkshire cross, an unmarked Joshua Kennedy spun around to tap home a looping ball from close range in the 71st minute to give Australia a confidence boost going into friendly against the U.S. at the same venue on Saturday, The Australian newspaper wrote.
John Boultbee, the head of Australia's national teams said he is happy with security arrangements and the advice given to the team including from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
"We are comfortable with the advice we are getting from both our Australian and South African consultants and also particularly with DFAT," Boultbee told UPI News on Tuesday.
There were no plans to change any dates and he has been talking with the U.S. team regarding security, Boultbee said.
"We are in close consultation with the Americans about security regarding their team. The U.S. have their own advice as well and take their own precautions so the security around that match will be a combination of their security and our security," Boultbee said.
Concern over security at the upcoming World Cup after The Sunday Times, a newspaper in Johannesburg, reported that the event would be a target for terrorist acts.
The article said the U.S. Congress had been briefed on threats from Pakistani and Somali extremists, including al-Qaida and its Somalian off-shoot Al-Shabaab. Both are suspected of operating training camps in Mozambique, which borders South Africa to the northeast.
The newspaper also said that South African security authorities have been monitoring around 40 suspects already in South Africa. The government has deployed more than 44,000 specially trained security personnel to operate in the 10 host stadiums in nine cities including Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria.