24-man Socceroos named for Bahrain clash
Socceroos Head Coach Pim Verbeek has selected 24 players in his squad for the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier Round 4 match against Bahrain in Manama on Wednesday 19 November 2008.
Socceroos Head Coach Pim Verbeek has selected 24 players in his squad for the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier Round 4 match against Bahrain in Manama on Wednesday 19 November 2008.
Carl Valeri returns to the Socceroos squad having served his one match suspension for accumulation of yellow cards, whilst Mark Bresciano, Vince Grella and Harry Kewell have all been included after successfully recovering from injuries that prevented them from being available for the Socceroos last match against Qatar in Brisbane last month.
Although Grella did get substituted at half-time with a slight hamstring complaint in Blackburn-s loss to Chelsea in the English Premier League overnight, Verbeek will await further medical advice regarding the midfielder-s fitness to travel to Bahrain.
"Darren Burgess (Socceroos Strength and Conditioning Coach) was at the game and he met Vinnie immediately after the game and yep its doesn-t look good," Verbeek told the Australian media in an organised tele-conference from Europe.
Goalkeeper Adam Federici has received a call up following his recent run of form in the English First Division with Southend, whilst on loan from Reading, and his stellar performances at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Should Federici take the field in Manama he would make his senior national team debut.
"I thought he had a good Olympics, so we know his qualities," Verbeek said of Federici. "The problem with him previously was he was not playing at a high level, but he is playing every week at Southend and doing very well from what we-ve heard."
Craig Moore is the sole Hyundai A-League player selected in the squad after his successful return from international retirement against Qatar in Brisbane.
While Verbeek is confident in the players to get the job done, he experienced enough to know the task will be a difficult one, given the limited preparation time he has with the players.
"It-s a completely different preparation than what we had last time against Qatar, because we have players coming on Sunday and Monday and some on Tuesday.
"No training sessions, just recovery sessions; we-ll see how fit the players are after this weekend-s games, especially in Europe and we-ll how many players will be available for the final 18," he said.
"I think you have to win every game, that-s the plan at least. Normally if you want to qualify you have to win your home games and draw in your away games, so you would say normally a draw is enough.
"But you know me and we-ll go for the win. We go there to win the game and worry about Japan in the next game," he added.
The Socceroos will go into the match sitting at the top of Group A of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Round 4. In the other Group A match on Wednesday night, Qatar host Japan in Doha, whilst Uzbekistan have the bye.
All Socceroos matches are broadcast live and exclusive on FOX Sports.
Socceroos SQUAD as at Monday 10 November 2008
Mark BRESCIANO Jacob BURNS Tim CAHILL David CARNEY Chris COYNE Jason CULINA Bruce DJITE Brett EMERTON Adam FEDERICI Richard GARCIA Vincenzo GRELLA Brett HOLMAN Josh KENNEDY Harry KEWELL Scott MCDONALD Craig MOORE Lucas NEILL Michael PETKOVIC Mark SCHWARZER Matthew SPIRANOVIC Shane STEFANUTTO Mile STERJOVSKI Carl VALERI Luke WILKSHIRE
Match Details
2010 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier - Round 4
Bahrain v Australia Wednesday 19 November 2008 National Stadium, Manama, Bahrain
Kick Off - 6:00pm local time (2:00am AEDT Thursday 20 November 2008)
Match will be broadcast live and exclusive on FOX Sports