Headlines: Brazil tunes up, and today's friendlies

The big shots are here. Check out the third goal (and that's Brazil in blue):

Today's friendlies:

Italy vs Mexico: First of two last-minute tuners in Europe for Italy, this one at Brussels. Mauro Camoranesi misses out injured (at Brussels). Mexico heads off to South Africa after this one, the end to a somewhat chaotic pre-World Cup camp. They certainly can’t complain about not having enough game action - this is their eighth friendly since May 7. But in two of those against quality opponents England and Holland they were outscored 5-2 combined and lost both. Italy certainly counts as another one of those - let's see if young Javier Hernandez can continue to hit the target.

Spain vs South Korea: The World Cup favourites continue to stretch out in Europe, with one more scheduled after this before they head to Africa. Fernando Torres will be rested, but Cesc Fabregas will get his first game action in two months. For Korea, a 1-0 loss to Belarus last out with a strong lineup took some of the shine off a fine preparatory phase, and they lost defender Kwak Tae-Hi. Playing their best XI here, all that good work could give way to some serious jitters and self-doubt just before the real games start.


Germany vs Bosnia-Herzegovina (GolTV, 2:30 p.m. eastern): Tough Mannschaft luck continued last out with Schalke defender Heiko Westermann the latest casualty in the Germany camp. All the chopping and changing has made for a nightmare for coach Jogi Low. Newly-minted captain Philipp Lahm will return at his usual left back post in Frankfurt and Brazilian-born forward Cacau will look to continue his strong form at the expense of Miroslav Klose, who hasn’t been able to turn around his miserable season and is running out of time to impress Low.