Portugal, Holland, Aussies pick up wins

By foxsports
Published

Portugal beat 10-man Cameroon 3-1 and the Netherlands outplayed Ghana 4-1 in World Cup warmups Tuesday, but Switzerland slumped 1-0 at home to non-qualifier Costa Rica.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o was sent off for a second yellow card in the 33rd minute at the Portuguese town of Covilha, a minute after Raul Meireles had scored the first of his two goals.

Although Pierre Webo replied in the 69th minute to make it 2-1, Nani added a third for the home side in the 81st.

Portugal is in arguably the toughest World Cup group, facing five-time champion Brazil, Ivory Coast and North Korea in Group G. Cameroon faces Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The Dutch, two-time World Cup runners-up, showed off their attacking prowess against another qualifier in Rotterdam.

Dirk Kuyt and Rafael van der Vaart scored the first two goals before Asamoah Gyan replied for Ghana in the 78th. Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie made the result even more impressive.

Winston Parks ran past three Swiss defenders to score Costa Rica's winner in Sion and the home side has lost all three friendlies since clinching qualification last October.

"It was important for morale to win the match. "With a little bit of luck we would have equalized," said Switzerland's German coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who has one more scheduled warmup to change his side's fortunes, against World Cup holder Italy in Geneva on Saturday.

In a meeting of two more World Cup teams, Josh Kennedy scored the only goal in the 71st minute as Australia beat Denmark 1-0 at Ruimsig Stadium - just outside Johannesburg - where more than 2,000 fans turned out for a first taste of international football ahead of the World Cup.

The Australians face Germany, Ghana and Serbia in one of the toughest groups.

The next warmup games are on Wednesday when Brazil travels to Zimbabwe to face the national side in Harare.

Greece and Paraguay meet at Winterthur, Switzerland and Serbia takes on non-qualifier Poland at Kufstein, Austria. Honduras is also in Austria to get the sort of high altitude training they will face in South Africa and meets Azerbaijan at Zell am See.