RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – The Socceroos have landed in Brazil, the first foreign team to arrive for next month’s World Cup.
FIFA’s top official in charge of the tournament, Jerome Valcke, welcomed the 27-man squad with a message via Twitter yesterday morning.
“The @Socceroos have landed! Welcome to the 1st team arriving for the #WorldCup,” he posted with a photo of Australian winger Tommy Oar speaking to media on the tarmac in Rio de Janeiro.
The team will head straight to the beachside city of Vitoria, their base for the duration of the World Cup, about 300km northeast of Rio.
Players will have only a few days to prove their worth to coach Ange Postecoglou before he trims his squad to 23 on June 2.
The Socceroos, the worst-ranked side in the tournament, play a warm-up match against Croatia in Salvador on June 6 before opening their campaign versus Chile on June 14.
Meanwhile World Cup finals-bound Nigeria have had to come from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Scotland in London in a match which is subject to a match-fixing investigation.
The build-up to the game between the Africa Cup of Nations champions and the improving Scots had been overshadowed by reports that Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) had launched a match-fixing inquiry.
