Socceroos Squad Announced for AFC Asian Cup

Football Federation Australia today named the 23-man squad that will represent Australia at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Coach Graham Arnold declared it was a difficult task selecting the final squad, with four players selected from the Hyundai A-League.

Football Federation Australia today named the 23-man squad that will represent Australia at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. "Australia was united as never before in their support of the Socceroos at the World Cup last year and the AFC Asian Cup will provide another opportunity for the country to get behind their national football team at a major event on the world stage," said FFA CEO Mr. Ben Buckley.

"It's an honour for us to be playing in such an historic event and we will continue to give the team all the support they need to achieve success."

National Coach Graham Arnold said selecting the final 23 players had been a difficult task.

"I am very pleased with the squad and they will represent Australia with a lot of pride," said Mr. Arnold.

"Selecting squads for tournaments are never easy. There will always be disappointed players but if there weren-t then we would have a problem."

"I have worked closely with the players and their clubs to manage the difficult balance between full time jobs in the clubs, for whom July is an exceptionally important time, and the players absolute desire and commitment to play for Australia in a tournament where although their is no financial reward as there was at the World Cup, their is the real possibility of some silverware."

"Since I was given the opportunity to coach the Socceroos I have worked hard to build depth with a view to the Asian Cup and also the 2010 World Cup qualifiers."

"This squad is reflective of the need to continue to build depth but we also want to win the tournament. We want to be the pride of Asia."

The Socceroos squad features 10 of the starting 11 from the recent match against Uruguay and several members of last year-s World Cup squad.

The strength of the Hyundai A-League is confirmed with four of the squad drawn from that competition including current player of the year Nick Carle from Newcastle Jets. In addition a further six players from the Hyundai A-League are in the stand-by squad. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup there were two players from the Hyundai A-League.

Australia plays its first match of the AFC Asian Cup on 8 July against Oman in Bangkok, with Iraq and co-hosts Thailand also in the same group.

The squad will assemble in Singapore on 21 June and play their national team on 30 June in the final preparation match before the AFC Asian Cup.

The tournament will be shown on FOX SPORTS and their commitment to football will be unmatched as they show every game of the tournament live except when there are matches played simultaneously.

“We are delighted that Fox Sports have shown such a huge commitment to the tournament and it is a tribute to the quality of the Fox Sports coverage that matches they commentate live in the stadiums will be used by the AFC for the English language world feed,” added Mr Buckley.

Socceroos SQUAD FOR 2007 AFC ASIAN CUP

John Aloisi (Alaves, Spain), Michael Beauchamp (Nuremberg, Germany), Mark Bresciano (Palermo, Italy), Tim Cahill (Everton, England), Nick Carle (Newcastle Jets, Australia), David Carney (Sydney FC, Australia), Jason Culina (PSV Eindhoven, Holland), Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers, England), Vincenzo Grella (Parma, Italy), Brett Holman (NEC Nijmegen, Holland), Brad Jones (Middlesbrough, England), Harry Kewell (Liverpool, England), Patrick Kisnorbo (Leicester City, England), Mark Milligan (Sydney FC, Australia), Lucas Neill (West Ham, England), Michael Petkovic (Sivasspor, Turkey), Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough, England), Mile Sterjovski (Basel, Switzerland), Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory, Australia), Michael Thwaite (Wisla Krakow, Poland), Carl Valeri (US Grosseto, Italy), Mark Viduka (Newcastle, England), Luke Wilkshire (Twente, Holland)

Stand-by players: Daniel Allsopp (Melbourne Victory, Australia), Mark Bridge (Newcastle Jets, Australia), Simon Colosimo (Perth Glory, Australia), Adrian Leijer (Melbourne Victory, Australia), Scott McDonald (Celtic, Scotland), Jade North (Newcastle Jets, Australia), Danny Vukovic (Central Coast Mariners, Australia).