Cut Day: World Cup 2010 Squads Finalized

Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Yaya Touré and Kolo Touré highlight Cote d’Ivoire’s 2010 World Cup squad, finalized by Sven Goran Eriksson on Tuesday.

The new coach of Les Elephants cut seven players off his preliminary roster, the most notable of which: West Bromwich Albion defender Abdoulaye Meite. Meite was a starter for Cote d’Ivoire last year but had recently lost time to Hibernian’s Sol Bamba. Now, the 29-year-old center half is out of the squad.

Matjaz Kek’s final, 23-man squad for Slovenia was announced Tuesday with no surprises amongst the seven names trimmed from the 30-man provisional squad.

The Slovene coach, who orchestrated the country’s surprise win over Russia in the UEFA qualifying playoff, has omitted goalkeeper Jan Koprivec, defenders Dejan Kelhar and Aleksander Rajcevic, midfielders Dare Vrsic, Mirnes Sisic, Barijan Matic, and striker Miran Burgic.

When Carlos Alberto Parreira returned to South Africa’s head coaching position, it was thought West Ham United striker Benni McCarthy - the nation’s all-time leading scorer - would come back into the team. McCarthy had been excluded under the stewardship of Parreira’s countryman Joel Santana, but the move back to Parreira was considered a sign that one of the Bafana Bafana’s few scoring options would be in the team.

McCarthy was given his chance, but when Parreira announced his final squad today, the striker was the final, 23-man team’s glaring omission.

Vladimir Weiss has named a number of recovering players to the final 23-man Slovakia squad that was announced early Tuesday.

Striker Filip Holosko has not been able to train with the team, still recovering from a broken leg suffered earlier this year. He made the team along with fellow strikers Martin Jakubko, Erik Jendrisek, Stanislav Sestak and Robert Vittek. Vittek has also been unable to fully train because of injuries.

Huh Jung-Moo only named 26 players to his provisional squad, making his job easier on Tuesday – the day he was forced to get down to a 23-man, final roster. While the South Korea coach may have had a relatively easy time of it, defender Shin Hyung-Min, midfielder Koo Ja-Cheol and forward Lee Keun-Ho are unlikely to feel similarly fortunate.Those were the three players cut from South Korea’s World Cup squad on Tuesday, when South Korea officially named the 23 players who will represent the nation in South Africa.

None of the cuts were surprises, though the inclusion of forward Lee Dong-Gook raised eyebrows. The 31-year-old Jeonbuk Motors striker has been struggling with a thigh injury but was named to the final squad, though his coach conceded Lee may not be ready for South Korea’s June 12 match with Greece.

The fourteen nations yet to name their 2010 World Cup teams will do so on Tuesday, the FIFA deadline for each of the 32 participating nations to finalize their 23-man World Cup rosters.

Coming into Tuesday, 18 of the tournament’s 32 teams had named their final teams, including tournament favorites Brazil and Spain. A number of other prominent nations had finalized their teams, including Argentina, France, Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States.