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Socceroos old hands Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer agree next month’s trip to Uzbekistan could be the most difficult World Cup qualifier of the entire campaign.
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Pim Verbeek’s men take on the “unknown quantity” in Tashkent on September 10 as the road to South Africa 2010 steps up another notch.
“It’s important that we get together now to prepare for what will possibly be our toughest qualifier for the World Cup because we go into the unknown against Uzbekistan,” Neill said from London, where the Socceroos were preparing for tomorrow’s friendly against South Africa at Loftus Road.
“We’re going into an environment that we’re not used to and they had an extremely good qualifying round previously, so it’s going to be tough.”
Neill said the key to overcoming Uzbekistan was adaptability, which he believed was a core strength of the current Socceroos outfit.
“Ever since Guus (Hiddink) came in and completely changed our formations and got us thinking about different styles we’ve learned to adapt to anything,” the Socceroos and West Ham captain said.
“And the Uzbeks have got us thinking. We’re going to have to work on our system and our system only and make sure that we can adapt in the first five minutes to whatever gets thrown at us.”
Australia will also take on Euro 2008 quarter-finalists the Netherlands in Eindhoven on September 6 in preparation for the Uzbeks.
Schwarzer said while good results in the lead-up would provide a welcome boost in confidence and morale, winning was not the priority.
“The next few games aren’t about winning necessarily, it’s about a good performance and preparing for Uzbekistan, which inevitably is the most important game,” the 35-year-old Fulham goalkeeper said, before echoing the view of his skipper.
“I think definitely the Uzbeks are an unknown quantity,” he said.
“We saw a little bit of them at the Asian Cup last year — they looked a pretty good side.
“They’re going to be a very, very difficult game for us away. That’s why these two friendly games are important because we can get together as a squad and get some game time under our belts.”
Australia’s qualifying group also contains Japan, Bahrain and Qatar, while the second group is made of North and South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The top two teams from each group qualify for the World Cup, while the third-placed teams will play a home and away play-off with the winner advancing to the inter-confederation play-off with the top team from Oceania.
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