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It may only be a friendly, but there’s a lot to be excited about as the Socceroos take on Korea Republic in Hwaseong tonight. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 9.00pm AEDT.
Tommy Rogic, Eli Babalj and Aziz Behich are all in the 19-man squad and in the framework to earn their first international caps tonight.
I must admit I’ve not seen much of the Serbian league this year so I can’t comment on the form of former Heart striker Babalj, but both Behich and particularly Rogic have been in excellent form so far this A-League season.
There are three more current domestic players in the squad (Archie Thompson, Michael Thwaite and Matt Ryan) giving a decidedly homely feel to Holger Osieck’s team.
In all, only six of the 19 players (Neill, McGowan, Wilkshire, Schwarzer, Spiranovic and Valeri) haven’t appeared in the A-League – another great advertisement for the growing strength of our domestic league.
But on to the game. Korea currently sit on top of the other AFC qualifying group, with wins over Qatar and Lebanon under their belt.
Despite their loss to Iran, a world ranking of 25th suggests that our hosts are not to be taken lightly. We saw this first hand in the Asian Cup last year when a 1-1 draw was played out between the two sides.
Australia’s all-time record against ‘The Red Devils’ (Wikipedia tells me this is their nickname, despite the massive jungle cat on the KFA crest) reads nine wins, nine draws and just six losses.
Let’s hope history is on our side as our shaky start to the qualifying campaign has given many fans cause for concern. A convincing performance (even in a friendly) against a quality opponent is vital, as I don’t see Hong Kong providing us with much to worry about in a week’s time.
Personally, I’d love to see Holger go with a very youthful team here. He’s made a statement in picking a young squad, now let’s see if he can carry some of these names across into the starting XI.
Join us around 8.45pm AEDT for all the line-ups, formations and team news.
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