Fuleco the Armadillo, the mascot for 2014 FIFA World Cup stood on a float of Leandro de Itaquera samba school.

With only 100 days remaining for World Cup 2014, the Australian soccer squad is in full practice mode to make a stand in the most coveted soccer tournaments held every 4 years.

But prior to the team's departure for Brazil, which is hosting the 2014 world cup, Aussies will play with South Africa a warm-up game, as Football Federation of Australia announced the news on March 3. The match will be played in Sydney on May 26.

South Africa unable to qualify for World Cup will also play a friendly match with Brazil in Johannesburg this week. The Socceroos and Bafana Bafana have played for 21 times in total with 12 win for South Africa and six for Australia. They previously met in London in 2008 and the match ended with draw.

David Gallop, Chief Executive of Football Federation of Australia, said FFA tried to organize a friendly match with European nation. But owing to lack of time and travel, they could not manage the same.

Gallop clarified "There's no doubt that we did look at a number of options, but this was the one worked for us best. Obviously it's not that easy to find opponents that will travel to Australia at that time of year."

Meanwhile, FIFA also confirmed the warm-up match for Australia in Brazil against Croatia on June 6 before their opening match with Chile a week later.

Australia qualified for World Cup for four times but there has been no significant achievement so far by the Socceroos.

The friendly matches organized may also give the team more exposure to get ready for the final tournament lying ahead. After qualifying for World Cup 2014, Australia played friendly match against France, Brazil and Costa Rica but the again the result doesn't seem very bright. But it will be interesting to see their performance in this match. A decent win will definitely boost the spirit of the Socceroos.