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Having been handed a brutal World Cup draw, Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou isn’t counting on having any luck when the Asian Cup draw is announced next week.
As hosts of the 2015 tournament, Australia were confirmed as the top seeds, which means they’ll avoid top-ranked sides Japan, Iran and Uzbekistan when the draw takes place in Sydney on March 26.
But Postecoglou, who is preparing to face Chile, World Cup finalists the Netherlands and world champions Spain in Brazil, isn’t expecting too much when Australia’s Asian Cup opponents are decided.
“I’m not planning on it (having any luck). I haven’t had a lot so far,” he said.
“But that’s OK.
“At the end of the day, regardless of our draw we’re at home and we’re playing at a major tournament in our country and we want to do well.”
Postecoglou will be at the helm for just his third match when the Socceroos take on South Africa in their farewell game on May 26, before departing for Brazil two days later.
But the coach hopes he’ll have six international friendlies organised in the months after the World Cup in the lead-up to the January 2015 Asian Cup.
“There’s a pretty important time post-World Cup where there’s a few windows for us to play some games,” he said.
“Probably the only thing I’m lacking in the World Cup build-up is games with the players.
“I want to make sure we’re well prepared for the Asian Cup, so we’ve begun some preliminary planning for those friendlies.
“So once the draw is done, we’ll try to put our program together pretty quickly.”
Forefront in Postecoglou’s thoughts, however, is settling on his extended 30-man World Cup squad. The announcement will be made by May 14 before he names his final 23-man squad by June 6.
The coach said he was casting his net wide and compiling a database on players of interest.
Postecoglou says he’s planning a trip to Asia before he names his Brazil squad to assess the likes of Ryan McGowan, who plays in China, J-League player Mitch Nichols and Korean-based Luke DeVere, Alex Wilkinson and Robert Cornthwaite.
However, he won’t make a trip to the Middle East to look at Mark Bresciano, Brett Holman and Alex Brosque.
“I know them pretty well, so I don’t think I’ll find out anything new,” he said.
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