Soccer Headlines for 6/2

The 2010 World Cup is less than nine days away as teams make their final roster cuts and take part in warm-up friendly matches. Here are a few headlines and reports you may want to catch up on:

• Check out Sport's Illustrated's World Cup country power rankings. 
• American born Giuseppe Rossi was the surprise cut from the Italian roster. The Villarreal player was New Jersey born to Italian parents and opted to play for the Italian national squad. 
• Theo Walcott was cut from the 23-player squad after the 21 year old was a surprise member of the 2006 World Cup team. Joe Cole and Shawn Wright-Phillips were taken in his place as additional midfielders. 
• Benni McCarthy, South Africa's all time leading scorer, was cut from the host nation's team despite his English Premier League experience. 
• A quick recap of some of the key friendlies taken place over the past few days:
• Slovakia 1-1 Cameroon
• New Zealand 1-0 Serbia
• USA 2-1 Turkey
• England 2-1 Japan - Japan gives up two own goals
• Paraguay 2-2 Ivory Coast
• Netherlands 4-1 Ghana
• Portugal 3-1 Cameroon - Eto'o red card
• Australia 1-0 Denmark

And here is a few stories away from South Africa:

• Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro has announced that he will be leaving Juventus after the World Cup and joining Al Alhi - reigning UAE Champions. His contract was not resigned by Juventus and he failed to secure a new deal with his hometown club Napoli. 
• Spanish title holders, Barcelona, have confirmed they have opened talks with Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas. The transfer will be one of the most highly discussed stories this summer outside of the World Cup. Within hours Arsenal came out to say they would reject Barcelona's offer.