Socceroos squad for World Cup qualifiers announced

fussball - Have just located your reply to me and found some interesting comment,not all bad. However you say from the period 1980 -2005 I might have difficulty naming 24 players of "international "quality. You are kidding are you not? I mentioned 6,here are another 20 to make up your required amount. Grella,Bresciano,Kewell,Moore,Muscat,McDonald,Bosnich,Slater,Foster,Williams,Zdrillic,Farina,Arnold, Culina,Krncevic, A & T. Vidmar,Aliosi,Neill,& Skoko. All these guys played for Australia many times and all had extensive careers in Europe,and I have only scratched the surface of the years you mention.Now I do concede "international quality" is a description open to conjecture but ,if you mean at an EXCEPTIONALLY high standard we will have to wait and see if the 15 you nominated even reach the early level for none of them are yet established as"full" Socceroos. Despite this observation I sincerely hope you are 100% correct in your assessment. JB

j binnie Good to read the views of someone, like you, who obviously has a deep passion for, and knowledge of, the football landscape in Australia. I, too, was very concerned as the final whistle sounded after "the nightmare at Durban" in June 2010, but, I'm a lot more comfortable now. When I sit back and actually crunch the numbers, I don't think that things were: a) that great in the past; or b) that bad currently. I certainly agree that those players you mentioned - A1 Quality ... no question. But, how many players of that quality can we name from say 1980-2005 ... perhaps, 2 dozen "international quality" players over that 25 year period ... or 1 per year. I don't think I'm underestimating, but please correct me if I have. Then, I look at the current situation and I see players of the calibre of: => Kruse, Leckie, Rukyvytsya, Nathan Burns, Lutisca, Langerak, Vidosic, Kantarovski, Amini, Oar, Zullo, Sarota, Ibini, Birighitti, Matt Ryan (I'm sure I've missed out heaps) ... who have all developed/are developing in the HAL I feel in 6 short years the HAL has produced some quite outstanding players and, if guys like Emo and H return to play in the HAL, then it's more likely the outstanding young talent will stick around in the HAL a few more years before heading o/s. PS: I reckon if we ask Bozza, Ned, Zelko, Stan, Emo ... they would all say they had to go o/s to complete their football education - no different to now. European club football is the best in the world, so it is inevitable that the best Aussies, best Sth Americans, etc. will have to go to Europe to complete their football education.

Fussball - You don't need to apologise.I sincerely hope you are correct in your assessment of the future but ,having been involved in the Australian game for some 40 years, you will forgive me if I am somewhat cynical of what is NOT being done to KEEP our youth HERE. Whilst agreeing with your statement of "young wanderlust" I don't really feel at this point in time that is what is happening among our football youth. They are still having to go there to finish their education and I for one do not accept we have to wait 10-15 years for that to change.There is little to suggest that the millions being spent is creating players like Zelic,Okon,Viduca,Schwartzer,Lazaridis,Emerton,et.al. who played junior & youth football here before moving to Europe.That is my real concern, for, viewing the recent youth world cups left no doubt in my mind of the distance we have to travel to even catch the players I have mentioned. (Maybe there is an answer. I refer to your "50% of "new" names" where 4 out of the 6 mentioned came from the same nursery in the last 3 years?????).Somebody may be doing something right.

j binnie Apologies if I came across too strongly - just wanted to make the point that the HAL season hasn't even started so we cannot expect any HAL players to be involved in the early matches. Of the 23 man squad, 50% can be considered "newer members" - i.e. 10 caps or less. Now, when we analyse this "new talent", what is startling is the impact that the HAL has had in giving the new talent a start in professional football. 50% of the "newer names" started professional football in the A-League: Started in HAL: DeVere, Kruse, Ognenovski, Sarota, Zullo, Milligan Did NOT start in HAL: Coe, Federici, Kilkenny, Spiranovic, Troisi, Williams I am 100% certain that, by the 2018 FIFA WC qualification, 80-90% of the team will have started their pro-careers in the HAL. There will always be Aussie footballers, who move abroad and by-pass the HAL - just as some Aussie doctors, lawyers, engineers, business professional, etc. bypass the local job market and move directly o/s to work - but, as each HAL season passes, I predict the numbers of Aussie footballers bypassing the HAL will be insignificant.

asanchez theres also this young kid from portsmouth, Ryan Williams 17 ,( younger brother of Rhys Williams), a winger/ striker who's getting big wraps ATM. Keep an eye out for him

Fussball - I think you may have missed the point of my contribution completely.It is 34 years since we attempted to upgrade our standard at the highest level. During that time an almost countless number of young Australians have departed these shores to further not only their financial well being but to complete their football education.This latest squad simply shows that the status- quo has not changed despite your rightful claims about fitness etc. It was never my intention to criticise the players or the coach. You appear to have skipped over my sentence saying "some of them have just moved overseas" and I am well aware of where many of them have come from (in fact you may like to know that Nathan Coe and Matt McKay played their junior football in the same team,not at Brisbane Roar, but at Mt Gravatt). Now if we could access a crystal ball we might be able to name some HAL players who,given match fitness,could replace some of those named but I wouldn't hold my breath,would you? The 4 you mention as coming to the HAL this year???? "H" - has played overseas since he was 16,Culina-had a long career in Holland, Vidosic- has been in Germany for 2 years, get my point.???? Now, I sincerely hope you are right about the Olympic Squad, but after recent displays we have been given I'll defer my judgement no matter where they originate from.

I'm really happy with this squad. People went nuts when Guus did what he did with the national team, but I reckon Holger is doing an awesome job. This was always going to be toughest job for the new socceroos manager coming in after the World Cup. You had the Socceroos best 5-6 players all on the other side of 30, and clearly not going to be prominent players at the next World Cup. And there was also a perception that we had a massive difference in quality below those 15-20 Socceroos players, and that there was nobody at all underneath to take their place. So Holger has had to do everything, from grooming up and comers and getting them ready for the first team, while also getting results at the same time. He will also have a few more players retire in the next 2 years. I'm aware that we don't have a direct replacement for a Tim Cahill or a Harry Kewell just yet, but we've got some awesome players coming through. If Mark Schwarzer hangs up the gloves tomorrow, I'm very confident Federici, Coe, Langerak and Ryan can take over. In defense we've also found Sash, DeVere, Zullo, Williams, Spiranovic. In midfield we've uncovered Jedinak, Kilkenny, Mackay and Troisi, while Antonis, Amini and Kantarovski will also come in at some point. Meanwhile upfront we've got Kruse, Leckie, Ruka, Kennedy, Bulut, Tombides and still have Scotty Mac. The future is looking very bright for our Socceroos. In Holger we trust!!!

Come on let's be realistic - the o/s players are match-fit and ready to go. By contrast, the HAL doesn't start for another 7 weeks - it would be negligent for Holger, no matter what the opposition, to choose unfit players over fully fit players. And, let's actually review the make-up of the squad => 8 of the 23 - i.e. more than 33% of the squad - got noticed by o/s clubs after playing professional football in the HAL: DeVere, Jedinak, Kruse, McKay, Milligan, Ognenovski, Sarota, Zullo => in fact, 6 of the 23 started their professional careers at Qld/Brisbane Roar in the HAL And, the following have been regular National Team members and will be playin in the HAL this season: * Culina: but hasn't played a meaningful match since his injury last season * H: but he is on holiday and won't be back in full training until after the match (when fit, Holger said H would be the first name on the team sheet) * McKay: was an HAL player until last week * Vidosic: hasn't played a meaningful match since May Our u23 squad will be playing Olympic qualifiers soon and this squad will be predominantly from the HAL.

No one has mentioned the fact that this squad (admittedly not our strongest) contains 23 players who are all signed with overseas clubs.Yes I know some of them have just moved overseas but is it not a little frightening that there is not 1 HAL player in the selection.To me this rings warning bells that we are still not producing players of the required standard and managing to keep them here in our top competition. Hope the powers that be have an answer to this status quo which has been with us for far too long now despite the millions being spent over the last 7 years. jb

If we are going to use World Cup qualifiers as a measure of successful coaching surely Rale Rasic has to be considered for his team's achievements in 1974. Before the howls of protest start it should be remembered his team was made up of part-timers,had to travel all over Asia to qualify,had little or no monetary assistance,were drawn in a section containing the eventual winners West Germany, & a no expense spared communist government backed East Germany. They lost 2 games & drew 1 conceding only 5 goals in 3 matches. This really makes the discussion a "no contest" does it not????jb

Cat I reckon whats going to happen over a 3 year period with the squad is natural attrition with the older guys, along with some young players making a name for themselves. I mean i can't see all of those old players making it to 2014. They may contribute this year, 2012 and even 2013. But 2014 is a long way away for someone like grella, bresciano and even kewell. The selection of Spira and De Vere for me is what i'm happy with. Both are young defenders, both are playing regular game time in the J and K-leagues respectively. Its also 2011. Plenty of time for those two players to get established. if Australia does qualify, it will be the youngsters that will be the key, with the old hands lending a hand. In the prevoius campaign under Verbeek, it was the other way around. Thats why when Australia went to South Africa, it was an old squad. I'm pretty confident we will qualify and therefore dance the samba in Brazil.

Fantastic - thanks Fuss. I've been following Oar with much interest in recent times, so very happy to hear he us getting decent game time

Yes German background, but take into account that Hiddink had our old stars at their peak, I was born in the 70's cannot really comment on Venebles, yet many people hold him in high regard, I have never seen a game played under his management. Osiek is faced with a transitional phase and seems to be doing it right, would not know if Venebles during or anyone prior to his appointment faced the same. I do not profess to be an expert on Aust football, yes I am biased,but as an advocate to the A League, in words and actions, as a manager who seems to get the most from our players, during this transition playing attractive football in the period of myself enjoying football in Australia, he does compare to the top rated, that being Hiddink.

RIP Enke your name sounds German so i am detecting some biased and conflict of interest in your article. how could you say Olsiek is a our greatest coach yet, haven't you considered Aussy guss Hiddink, Venables, and even Arok. I suspect you are bind biased and have a conflict of interest.

He's also in a similar time zone which helps tremendously.

I think Osiek is the Socceroos greatest coach yet, I like what he has done and I like this team. Obvious exclusions more likely that they are fighting for first team spots, good to see Rukavytsya get subbed on against Hannover 96. I think Jesus is a top move, as he is our recognised center forward and he is performing. I. Have always liked him as cf, he offers a lot more than his head and he can hold the ball up for others.

I miss "aussy guss" Hiddink.

jamesb I think there is much merit in what you are saying, however, there is the danger that we rely on the old guard to get us there (and I'm sure they'll do the job), and then we rock up to Brazil with a bunch of blokes who have barely played together (if the transition occurs en masse on the eve of the next WC), or a quarter of all spots are taking up by blokes who are 34+. There's a definite balancing act there, and this is precisely where Holger will earn his keep - too early to make a call as to what the precise balance should be, we will only the answer 3 years own the track.

love the squad Holger has some youth, some experience and some veterans. Good mix. The point I'm trying to make is, its great that in the squad as far as defenders go you have from the old guard Lucas Neill and sasha Og, while you have young defenders like De Vere and Spira People were saying after the world cup, get rid of all the old players. I still think the older players will be valuable in the qualifyers, which then allows the younger players to find their feet. With qualifyers you do need a large squad to pick from. Players that are not part of this squad are Kewell, Bresciano, Grella, Leckie, Oar, Rukavistya, Langerak, Carney, Vidosic etc. But come 2014 (hopefully) you tend to think more than half of the older players like Neill, Grella etc won't make it.

and I'm sure everyone's old mate Ljubo will be handing out some sound advice on where Steven's international future would best lie..