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Roodepoort - Australia coach Pim Verbeek admitted his players struggled to deal with the playing conditions despite a 1-0 win over Denmark at Ruimsig Stadium near Johannesburg Tuesday.
A scrambled 71st-minute Josh Kennedy goal was enough to hand the Socceroos victory but the Dutchman believes it will take time for his players to get used to high altitude.
"I think defensively we did very well and played very compact. Playing at altitude means that you have to change the way of playing and we saw that Denmark struggled when they tried to play long balls over the top," he said.
"We're going to train at altitude for the next 10 days but we play Germany at sea level in our first match so it will be interesting to see if we can change the way of playing."
Denmark have been in the country only since Saturday and struggled in the second half after shading the first period. Coach Morten Olsen revealed that his team also struggled to deal with the flight of the ball.
He said: "It was a game where there was very compact midfield play and space behind the defence. I will not search for an excuse for my team but it was difficult for both teams to get used to the ball.
"We still have two weeks to get used to the conditions because from what I saw it was very, very difficult to control the ball, but, of course, every team has to cope with that."
With the deadline for countries to submit their final 23-man squad falling at 2200GMT Tuesday, Verbeek confirmed he had made his mind up but refused to reveal those who would be dropped until he has spoken to his players.
"I'm going to tell my players first. We'll have a discussion with the medical staff to check everything is okay and then we will finalise the decision. We will tell the players tonight which will be in the final 23."
Olsen has already submitted his final squad but injury doubts remain about goalkeeper Thomas Sorenson and striker Nicklas Bendtner with neither expected to feature in a final warm-up against hosts South Africa Saturday.
"We have to take it step by step. We will analyse them every day because they are very important players for us.
"I'm not sure whether they will be fit to play this Saturday but what matters is that they are ready for our first World Cup match," he said.
