Socceroos vs South Africa Preview

By: Daniel | August 19th, 2008

Aussies take on South Africa in a friendly (5.00pm AEST) at Loftus Road Stadium in London. The game is going to be a good run out in order to see what level the players are at and get a few of the guys together ahead of World Cup qualification matches which starts on September 10th in Uzbekistan. Happy That the games going to be in london so we don’t have to be subject to the bitching and moaning about the club vs country battle.

Even then a few players have been left out of the squad. Verbeek has decided not to call on Michael Beauchamp, Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell. Harry’s getting settled into his new club so i can understand why he was allowed to have a rest.

Not too worried about Beachy not coming down, but wouldve liked to have seen Harry and Emo torture the SA wingers. If you guys didnt catch it, Harry headed home a brilliant cross on his debut for Galatasaray. heres a link to the vid, this guys going to light up that league (barring any major injuries).

Players Brought in
David Carney, Bruce Djite, Richard Garcia, Mark Milligan, Nicky Carle and Matthew Spiranovic are the non regulars that have been brought into to the squad by Pim Verbeek.

I’ll start by getting something off my chest…. ahem…. WHY the hell does Mark Milligan get called up to this team? The guy is clubless for god sake! I would choose frigin Mclenahan before i choose this guy… at least he plays, allbeit in English league 5 or whatever. I cant for the life of me understand this love affair with this guy whos main goal in a game is to hoof it out of defense and up-field!

And Holman… How many mistakes does that guy have to make before he is excluded from this squad for God sake!

Anyway with 2 negatives come 4 positives. Love the fact that Nicky Carle, Matty Spiranovic, Bruce Djite and Richard Garcia have been brought into this team. Each and every one of them thoroughly deserve to be there. Nicky’s skills cannot be questioned. If Pim lets him, he will run the attacking midfield possie for us. Spira showed us at the Olympics that he is a confident, solid defender who is not affected by the pressure. Richard Garcia has topped off a week to remember as his Hull side won their first game in the prem.

And Djite… You frigin legend! is in the squad! This guy was left out of the Olympics by the doosh Graham Arnold and didn’t let it affect him. Hes put his head down and got to work at his new club in Turkey and has been ripping it apart there ever since! He recently score the winning goal to give gencler….(whatever the name is) the pre-season cup. A future superstar of the Socceroos and would love to see him get a run.

The others are pritty much regulars. This seems like its a pritty strong squad, most likely because its played in London so it will be a good gauge on where we are at leading into the World Cup Qualifiers.

Prediction
I predict that the game finishes 2-0 to the Socceroos. The players Pim has brought sort of leans towards the roos playing some good football, especially with the names Bresciano, Carle, Grella and Cullina running the show in the mid. Hoping that Scotty McDonald can show all of Aus what he is capable of and bag a goal for us, he needs to put one away in a game like this to get the Aussie media off his back. Hope to G.O.D that Pim puts him and Djite up front! that would be a troublesome forward line but i think that Holman will get a run which will spoil my wish.

Should be a great game though. I think that South Africa will be the ‘decent’ opposition that the Aussies need to come up against before the qualis.

SOCCEROO SQUAD
Mark Bresciano, US Citta di Palermo, Italy
Nick Carle, Crystal Palace FC, England
David Carney, Sheffield United FC, England
Scott Chipperfield, FC Basel, Switzerland
Chris Coyne, Colchester United FC, England
Jason Culina, PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands
Bruce Djite, Genclerbirligi, Turkey
Richard Garcia, Hull City, England
Vincenzo Grella, Torino FC Spa, Italy
Brett Holman, AZ Alkaamar, Netherlands
Josh Kennedy, Karlsruhe SC, Germany
Scott McDonald, Celtic FC, Scotland
Mark Milligan, uncontracted
Lucas Neill, West Ham United FC, England
Michael Petkovic, Sivasspor, Turkey
Mark Schwarzer, Fulham FC, England
Matthew Spiranovic, FC Nurnberg, Germany
Mile Sterjovski, Derby County FC, England
Carl Valeri, U.S. Grosseto FC, Italy
Luke Wilkshire, FC Twente, Holland