PV took Australia to SA early and they went straight to Johannesburg to acclimatise to the altitude of 1750 metres.

Our Group D opponents are still in Europe.


They are not getting acclimatised for the altitude they will be playing in SA.

Serbia and Poland played their match last night at an altitude of around 500 metres which is like having a hit out somewhere between Woodford and Lawson in the Blue Mountains.

Germany will play FYR B-H in Frankfurt tonight at 110 metres above sea level.

As of a couple of days ago Ghana were in Rotterdam getting flogged by the Dutch at below sea level.

ALl this is going to help the Socceroos.

Problem is (stop me if I am wrong) our first game is at sea level against the Germans. By the time we play Serbia and Ghana they should have had some time to adjust.

Still, every little bit helps. Good for the confidence etc.

I was of the impression that Serbia were training in Austria (at some altitude) to help acclimatisation. Still, no substitute for already being in the host country is it.

not really. each country knows what they doing and i think these countries have their preparation under control. yes being in the host country early is good, but i think the others have a fair idea of where they need to be.

That's the first thing that stood out to me watching the Serbia v Poland game last night: how in Gods name is preparing in such cold and wet conditions going to better prepare this team in crystal clear skies like South Africa?

Australia holds a serious advantage over Serbia and the other teams in our group preparing in South Africa. We've had superior preparation to theirs.

You do remember that we play Germany and Serbia at 8:30pm local time and it is winter so it will be very cold.

During the Confed Cup last year some teams struggled to come to terms with the cold in South Africa so preparing in cold conditions isn't that much of a hindrance.

Also us preparing at altitude isn't going to help us against Germany because the game will be at sea level and as has been mentioned Ghana and Serbia will have had time to acclimatise by the time we play them. So our preparation while being better than the other teams probably isn't as superior as most people think.

This is true, but our aerobic capacity will be increased from two weeks of training at altitude.

Our two matches against Ghana (In Rustenburg) and Serbia (In Nelspruit) will be at altitude though, Rustenberg 1500M above sea level and Nelspruit is up J'Burg way, in the north of the country. BTW That MBombela Stadium in Nelspruit looks fantastic - With the Zebra stripes on the seating and the giraffe looking roof supports - The seats are REALLY close to the ground too, just like some of the best grounds in the UK!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbombela_Stadium

Edited by GloryPerth: 3/6/2010 05:41:00 PM

After training at altitude, then going back to sea level, how quickly do you lose your altitude fitness? Or expressed differently, how long to you keep it?

Any mountain climbers or doctors out there to answer this?

I'm no mountain climber, but was a year 12 PE student some time ago, and we looked at the phenom of why Kenyan runners are so good long distance...

How it works is that by training, and more specifically LIVING, at altitude, your body become more adept at more efficiently using oxygen, as there is less oxygen in the air. This process grows at a more rapid rate at the beginning, after 2-3 weeks, 'altitude training' has peaked, but the oxygen efficiency gains become negligible.

The effects of losing such 'altitude training' (or conditioning) don't kick-in straight away, so the players will maintain this, even if they play games at sea-level.

The problem with training at altitude, is that despite making the body more efficient at using oxygen, the body doesn't have the capacity to carry out the amount of work that it can carry out, when training just above sea-level.

The optimal method of training to provide MAXIMUM aerobic capacity, is by living at altitude, and training at just above sea-level. This isn't feasible in South Africa because the travel time between sea-level and altitude is not managable for training...

It is a misconception to think that we have a better prep than Germany and Serbia to this extent, as training at different levels preps the body accordingly. We seem to have given a higher amount of concern to the games at altitude, whilst teams training in Austria are trying to do a more balanced training.

Finally, having rabbited on about all that, the altitude effect in SA is not as significant as in some cases - there is unlikely to be any altitude poisoning!! It does play a big part when teams play against Bolivia in La Paz (for example), where it is 3,300 meters above altitude. Remember, they beat the Argies there 6-1 in this WCQ campaign!

Poisoning plays it's biggest part where a team is based and training at or around sea level, and travels to the highest games on the day before, or 2 days before the match - that is when altitude poisoning is at it's worst. If they come on the day, they won't get poisoned, but will obviously get a lower performance than usual.

Not sure where Ghana and Serbia are based during the WC, but if either are at sea-level, then we could see some impact. Conversely, we won't be at our best vs Germany - a good thing to remember whatever the result of our first game!!!

Go Aussies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Edited by jhayward: 3/6/2010 10:31:22 PM

If you're talking about running that all makes sense, but i'd suggest the main benefit will come through being used to the weird things the altitude does to the flight of the ball.

Yeah its moreso to do with how the ball reacts, for those of you who watched Aus v Denmark you would have seen the ball doing some wack things (having a hard, sandy pitch didn't help much either)

"having a hard, sandy pitch didn't help much either"

Are we talking about professionals here ?