Pim Verbeek’s Australian side has set up another friendly game in preparation for the World Cup. The fixture, on the 1st of June against Denmark, slots in with the “Socceroos” other friendly matches against New Zealand on May 24th and the USA on June 5th, to form their World Cup preparation programme.

Dutch manager Verbeek, who has announced he will be stepping down from the role after the World Cup, has stated that Denmark will be a good preparatory opponent, given they have a similar style and strength to that which his team expects to face in their group.

Verbeek also showed respect for Danish head coach Morten Olsen, saying that he was a fantastic player in his footballing days, and is a strong and experienced manager who Verbeek expects to put forward a well organised team both in the friendly game and the tournament itself.

Australia have been drawn in Group D, one of the toughest groups in the tournament, with Germany, Ghana and Serbia as their opponents. If they make it through the group stage they will play against finalists from Group C, within which the favourites to progress are England and the USA.

Denmark also have a tough job ahead of them in the group stages, with the Netherlands, Cameroon and Japan in their group, Group E.

Australia are seeded 18th in the world going in to the tournament, with Denmark 22nd. The seedings are decided by FIFA based on coefficients around the teams expected and recorded performances.

The only time the two teams have met before was in London in 2007, where Denmark beat the Aussies 3-1.

Pre World Cup friendlies are an important device in getting players, strategies and tactics ready for the most important competition in international football. Many managers use the friendly games as an opportunity to work with different formations and players (given a greater number of substitutions are permitted in friendly games) to tweak their teams ready for the finals.

Choosing the best opposition for this is important, and Australia’s opponents are an interesting selection. New Zealand, as their most local rivals in the tournament, are new to World Cup football and second to bottom in the seedings at 31st, and are the bookmakers’ rank outsiders, with some bookies offering 2000-1 on them winning. Australia, currently at around 125-1 should find this an easy game to run themselves in.

The USA are a well matched team for Australia to take on. Both being large nations where football is not as big a sport as it is in most of the rest of the world. Theoretically both teams have the capacity to do well, but they are not big name nations in the sport, with only a couple of star players to their names – Landon Donovan for the USA and Tim Cahill for Australia.

It will be interesting to see the approaches Verbeek takes preparing for these friendly games and how this translates into a strategy that can get the Socceroos through the group round.