By Liam FitzGibbon
November 17th 2008 @ 8:04am
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Socceroos slowly coming together in Bahrain
Most of the remaining Socceroos squad members will arrive in Manama on Monday as Australia continue a hurried preparation for Wednesday’s (Thursday AEDT) World Cup qualifier against Bahrain.
The team had its first training run on Sunday evening with coach Pim Verbeek running the seven already-arrived players, including captain Lucas Neill and goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, through a light session on a cool evening in the Persian Gulf island nation.
They will be joined by 11 more players including Tim Cahill, Scott McDonald and Harry Kewell on Monday - providing they come through their weekend club matches unscathed - with Mark Bresciano and Richard Garcia expected to complete the squad on Tuesday.
Verbeek will wait to assess the fitness of his star players before picking a team from a squad already hit by injury.
Veteran midfielder Brett Emerton (hamstring) on Sunday joined Vince Grella (hamstring), Craig Moore (testicular cancer), Matthew Spiranovic (ankle) and Mark Milligan (Achilles) in being ruled out of the match through injury.
The disjointed preparation is nothing new to the Socceroos, who have endured similar scenarios this campaign and Neill was confident the side would get the job done regardless of who played.
“It depends who makes it out of the games on the weekend to see how we go strength-wise as a squad,” said Neill, who played in West Ham’s scoreless draw with Portsmouth on Saturday before boarding a plane to Bahrain.
“But I’m sure whoever plays will do a proud performance for the country and hopefully we’ll be sitting on the top of the table with nine points.”
Australia go into the match top of Group A with six points from their two games, with Bahrain fourth in the five-team pool with a solitary point.
Conditions are unlikely to resemble the testing environment experienced by the Socceroos in Dubai, Doha and Tashkent earlier this year with temperatures on Wednesday only tipped to reach 25 degrees Celsius and the match kicking off at 6pm local time (0200 Thursday AEDT).
“It’s surprised us, it’s nice and pleasant out here actually,” Neill said.
“I think the conditions are perfect, we’ve not seen the match pitch yet but there’s no excuses.”
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jimbo said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:14pm | Report comment
One thing about the current Socceroos squad is their determination to make the next World Cup.
In a non-FIFA Sanctioned round, the Socceroos and Pimbo have shown tremendous determination, loyalty and national pride to do everything possible, including stand up to their club manager’s and make the trek to play for the green and gold.
This sort of attitude will take them a long way.
Is it too early to start thinking of a place at South Africa 2010 if we win again against Bahrain?
dasilva said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:53pm | Report comment
Jimbo although it’s great that a lot of Socceroos are determined to play in these WCQ.
It is not a non-FIFA sanctioned round.
It is a single FIFA date friendly round. Therefore clubs are obligated to release players 48 hours before the match (normal WCQ date clubs are obligated to release players 5-7 days before the match). It’s not a non-FIFA date like the Asia Cup qualifiers against Bahrain and Kuwait couple of years ago where clubs can just refused to release players.
Midfielder said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:00pm | Report comment
I feel good about this match and I hope Mariner Jedi gets on the park
dasilva said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:50pm | Report comment
This one of the few matches where I dont feel nervous to the lead up of the match and it seems like the nation agrees. Most of the time you’ll get articles during every WCQ playing up the opposition, play down our chances, warn against complacency and go on about it will be a difficult and hard match it will be. Now it seems like to the media we just have to rock up and win
jimbo said | November 18th 2008 @ 8:52am | Report comment
Thanks dasilva,
being a full round of EPL matches last weekend and again this weekend, I assumed it was not a FIFA sanctioned week.
Because of that, the EPL managers were refusing to release players.
Shows how the spirit of the team is growing and they can almost reach out and touch a FIFA WC spot now.
Towser said | November 18th 2008 @ 9:09am | Report comment
I’m expecting a big game from Harry.
He’s been in excellent form for his club & has adjusted his style according to his physical problems.
Schwarzer is also in excellent form for Fulham. If this guy was an outfield player he would be lauded as our greatest footballer ever.
A model of consistency at a high level.
dasilva said | November 18th 2008 @ 3:45pm | Report comment
I would like to see either Djite or Holman (whoever starts) to step up. I would like to see one of the second striker cemented themselves on this team
Pippinu said | November 18th 2008 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
Plenty of players pulling out with injury - opportunities galore for whoever wants to take them.