South Africa coach Parreira leaves unfit McCarthy out

South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira axed West Ham striker Benni McCarthy yesterday when naming his 23-man World Cup squad.

High-profile McCarthy had been involved in a race against the clock to get fit and rediscover his form after an injury-interrupted English Premiership season with Blackburn Rovers and the Upton Park club.

Brazilian Parreira said: "I am not going to talk about individuals who did not make the final squad. We applied five principles when making our choices.

"This is not the end of the road for the five footballers whose dreams I have cut short. There will be other opportunities to play for the national team," stressed the 1994 World Cup-winning coach.

McCarthy played in only one of four warm-up matches last month, coming on as a second-half substitute in a bruising 2-1 victory over Colombia at Soccer City last Thursday.

He saw little of the ball and did not have an opportunity to increase his record 32-goal haul for Bafana Bafana, who are in Group A with Mexico and former world champions France and Uruguay.

Parreira, who will overtake Serb Bora Milutinovic next month by making a record sixth World Cup tournament appearance as a coach, said everywhere he goes in South Africa people tell him to make the country proud.

"We will make the country proud.

"We are ready to face Mexico on June 11 in the opening match," said a weary Parreira who had just four hours sleep before the announcement.

He and his squad left northern city Polokwane late Monday on a 400-kilometre coach journey to Johannesburg after a 5-0 thumping of central American minnows Guatemala.

It was a record winning margin for South Africa, bettering four-goal victories over Chad and Thailand, and also a memorable night for captain Aaron Mokoena as he became the first South African footballer to be capped 100 times.

South Africa complete their warm-up schedule at Atteridgeville township near Pretoria on Saturday against fellow qualifiers Denmark, who are in Group E with Netherlands, Cameroon and Japan.