SOS to the Euroroos: come home and play!

 
dasilva Roar Guru

By dasilva, 6 Mar 2009 dasilva is a Roar Guru

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    I wrote about this after the Indonesian game, but I believe this question has to be re-asked after last night’s horrific performance against Kuwait, where we were totally outplayed.

    Not only did we play poorly, the Kuwait team were toying with the Socceroos, doing fancy tricks and making a mockery of our team.

    When Cornthwaite was subbed on and placed as a striker up front with our team hoofing long balls desperately trying to grab an equaliser, it was the final humiliation of this side.

    After all the talk about how far the game has grown and how much we learned from Guus Hiddink, and how much he revolutionised our game, long balls to Cornthwaite was all that resulted from this Dutch revolution.

    I’m not criticising the tactic, as Australia look threatening from it. But it was depressing and sobering to see our team being reduced to that amateurish pub-football level.

    It is clear that the A-League team are not up to the challenge.

    So where are the Euroroos?

    I’m not expecting a first choice XI, such as Cahill, Kewell, Neill, Schwarzer, Grella, and so on.

    However, I do believe that players who are not playing and struggling to get game time from their clubs should be putting their hands up to represent Australia like they did back in 2005 when nine Euroroos played against Bahrain during a similar non-FIFA date.

    FFA should be calling up second tier European players to come to Australia and play. If the clubs say no, then fine, but at least we would have tried.

    Here are a few players that could have made the difference:

    Joshua Kennedy
    For five matches in a row, he couldn’t even get himself on the Karlsruhe bench. He is out of favour from his team and wants to leave the club. Why not give him a call?

    Nick Carle
    Although in favour with his club, he is currently serving a three match suspension due to a red card. Perhaps we should give him something to do when he is serving his suspension and give him his first cap under Pim Verbeek. Sure Pim doesn’t rate him, but even he would admit he is good enough for the A-League XI.

    Shane Steffanutto
    He is out of season for his Norwegian club FC Lyn Oslo and was considered good enough to make the senior squad against Japan and Bahrain. Hasn’t represented Australia since November 2006 and would love a call up.

    Luke Wilkshire
    We wasted an opportunity to get him to play against Indonesia when he was out of season, which would have given him match practice for the Japan match. Now he is playing preseason matches for Dinamo Moscow. Nevertheless, some attempt could have been made to get him as he is only playing pre-season matches.

    Mark Bresciano
    Got red carded in the recent Catania Vs Palermo derby. This was a great opportunity to have some matches during this three match suspension and he would have added a lot of class to this line up.

    Other players to be considered include Adrian Leijer, David Carney, Mile Sterjovski, Matthew Spiranovich (who just recovered from injury), Nathan Burns, Dario Vidosic, James Holland, Brett Holman, David Williams, Jacob Burns and even a Mark Viduka, who are all struggling to get game time from their respective squads.

    Sure, it would be a sacrifice to travel across the world to play for Australia on a non-FIFA date. But after watching a performance like this, it’s a sacrifice the players have to make or we may miss out on qualifying for the Asia Cup.

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