australia coach, pim verbeek, has announced his initial 30-man squad for the fifa world cup, starting june. the squad (actually, 31 players were named, with an extra goalie just in case) will be trimmed to 23 before the tournament begins. the squad has five weeks and a lead-up match with new zealand to impress. from sbs’ theworldgame.com.au :
Socceroos 31-man preliminary squad is:
Goalkeepers: Adam Federici, Eugene Galekovic, Brad Jones, Mark Schwarzer
Defenders: Michael Beauchamp, David Carney, Scott Chipperfield, Shane Lowry, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neill, Jade North, Luke Wilkshire, Rhys Williams
Midfielders: Mark Bresciano, Tim Cahill, Nicky Carle, Jason Culina, Brett Emerton, Richard Garcia, Vincenzo Grella, James Holland, Brett Holman, Mile Jedinak, Tommy Oar, Carl Valeri, Dario Vidosic
Forwards: Joshua Kennedy, Harry Kewell, Scott McDonald, Nikita Rukavytsya
there is only one a-league player, jason culina. with the others playing in europe. verbeek has chosen some young players to get the world cup experience; oar, vidosic, valeri and rukavytsya. alarmingly, the only young defender to make the squad is rhys williams, who plies his trade with middlesborough. the depth of the defense corps will be a bit thin when moore and neill retire.
while harry kewell is reported to be injured, i would take him even if he only had one leg. he can make a difference, even off the bench. in 2006, kewell was only at about 20% fitness when he came on to score against croatia, ensuring the aussie’s passage to the next round. he’s got to go.
the next few weeks should be interesting.