Kewell wants to play in Sydney

Qantas Socceroo captain Harry Kewell has no intentions of staying away from Sydney for the final game of the AFC 2010 World Cup qualifiers against China, despite the result of the game being only academic to the final group standings.

Qantas Socceroo captain Harry Kewell has no intentions of staying away from Sydney for the final game of the AFC 2010 World Cup qualifiers against China, despite the result of the game being only academic to the final group standings.

With Australia qualified for the next phase with a 3-1 win over Qatar in Doha and China eliminated after they lost 2-1 against Iraq in Tianjin, one could have excused the former Liverpool winger of perhaps skipping the game and spending his energy on finding a new club.

But Kewell was adamant straight after the match, where he played 85 minutes and scored a goal, that he would be backing up for the match in his home town.

“I have told him that I want to play,” Kewell stated emphatically after the match. “I am looking forward to playing.

“I said I was always going to play in all four games and I am really looking forward to it.”

It was a mixed game for Kewell, who is still adapting to playing the lone striker-s role, making a hash of a chance that led to the opening goal, but then scoring one that was disallowed and then getting his reward with a goal that ultimately sealed the deal for the Socceroos.

Asked about his swing and a miss, which brought back memories of his most famous miss-kick against Uruguay in Sydney in 2005, which led to Mark Bresciano-s match-winning goal, he laughed “It was a dummy. No, it was good backing up by Brett; if the striker misses it that-s where you need your wingers to come in and finish it off and he did that.”

On his goal, “I think the defender misread it and it bounced over his head. He was only small, which was fortunate enough for me that I pulled off the back; it kind of sat up there and they gave me enough time to bring the ball down and pick my spot.”

Kewell, who has led by example during these qualifying games, was full of praise for the teams performance after a trying two weeks in the testing Middle East conditions.

“It was a great result,” he said. “We came out of the gates really well; played some great football in the first part of the first half. We scored the goal and then kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit and they came back into it.

“We realised we had enough energy and felt good enough to go out there and press on in the second half; we pushed and got the two extra goals we needed.

“We-re a young team; we-re working hard and each game is good, because this is the first time we have played in real World Cup qualifiers, so we are all learning; even I am learning in this game and it-s important for us to take this and push on to the next game on Sunday.”