Spain head Confed Cup

Spain, Brazil and world champions Italy will be the favourites at the two-week tournament and will get the opportunity to experience South African conditions 12 months before the 2010 World Cup finals.

The eight-team Confederations Cup, serves as a test event for next year. The field is made up of the champions of the six continental confederations plus the last World Cup winners and the 2010 host nation.

A 6-0 win over Azerbaijan in a friendly on Tuesday marked a record-breaking 32 consecutive matches without defeat for Spain, who are top of the world rankings.

They will now seek to extend that run in the Confederations Cup.

"It is a great chance to have all the players together in unusual conditions and as European champions we have a reputation to defend," said Spain coach Vicente del Bosque in an interview this week.

"None of my players have played in Africa before and we go to a country where it is cool, a change from the hot summer of Spain. It will be a good test of character."

Spain will meet New Zealand in their first Group A game, a match that will be preceded by South Africa and Asian champions Iraq.

The 2010 hosts are desperate for a morale-boosting set of performances, having slumped drastically in form over the last years.

"I need more time with this team," South Africa's Brazil-born coach Joel Santana said after a warm-up win over Poland at the weekend. "But I'm happy with their concentration; we have now begun to show progress."

Brazil and Italy are both in Group B, with Egypt and the United States having the potential to play a spoiling role.

Brazil, who won the 2005 Confederations Cup in Germany, will make the exhausting cross-continental trip three days before their opening game against Egypt because of their World Cup qualifier against Paraguay on Wednesday.

Italy, in contrast, will have been in South Africa for seven days, and played two warm-up matches, by the time they start against the Americans on Monday.

"We will use the next 20 days to work hard and to also hopefully win the tournament," Italy coach Marcello Lippi said this week.

Officials have been at pains in recent weeks to sell the Confederations Cup as a credible, stand-alone event, though their stance is at odds with FIFA's decision to turn the tournament into a World Cup test event.

Slow ticket sales present a potential embarrassment to the 2010 hosts, who have sought help from South African companies to block-buy seats and pass them on to employees or customers.

"It doesn't have the importance of other tournaments but we are happy to participate," Del Bosque said.

Four of the 10 venues for next year's World Cup are being used for the two-week tournament, which kicks off and concludes at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

The others are in Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Rustenburg, all of which recently completed renovations.

A fifth venue in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth was originally scheduled for the Confederations Cup but was dropped 11 months ago when officials feared it would not be finished in time.

The venue has, however, been completed and the new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will host a British and Irish Lions rugby tour match next week as its first event.