Australia coach Pim Verbeek cut striker Scott McDonald, midfielder Nick Carle and defender Jade North from the provisional 28-man World Cup squad he will take to a training camp in South Africa.
Verbeek trimmed his squad from the preliminary 31 to 28 - one more than originally flagged after convincing Football Federation Australia to let him take four goalkeepers to the camp.
Socceroos' 28-man provisional squad:
Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer, Adam Federici, Brad Jones, Eugene Galekovic.
Defenders: Scott Chipperfield, David Carney, Lucas Neill, Michael Beauchamp, Shane Lowry, Craig Moore, Mark Milligan, Rhys Williams, Luke Wilkshire.
Midfielders: Vince Grella, Carl Valeri, Jason Culina, Mile Jedinak, Tim Cahill, Brett Holman, Dario Vidosic, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Richard Garcia, James Holland, Tommy Oar.
Strikers: Nikita Rukavytsya, Josh Kennedy, Harry Kewell.
The Socceroos squad departs Melbourne on Wednesday for a pre-World Cup training camp in Johannesburg.
Youngsters Tommy Oar and James Holland are part of the squad, but Verbeek said they were effectively going for the experience and were unlikely to be part of the final squad.
McDonald, who played for most of Monday night's 2-1 win over New Zealand at the MCG, was the surprise omission.
With a dearth of strikers, Verbeek opted not to plump for McDonald, who has failed to score in 16 matches for his country.
Instead Belgian-based Nikita Rukavytsya will back up Josh Kennedy and Harry Kewell.
Verbeek admitted the Middlesbrough striker struggled in his lone striker system, and had missed out for that reason.
"Scotty is a typical two-striker player, and that's where he feels happy also," Verbeek said.
"But we don't play with two strikers. We play with one striker up top and wingers, so Scotty doesn't fit in this system.
"He knows it, and he tried everything."
Everton star Tim Cahill and Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer also headline the squad.
Verbeek said the players from this squad who did not make the final 23 would be kept on in South Africa for the duration of the tournament.
Australia plays friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and USA on June 5 in Roodepoort ahead of itsopening World Cup group match against Germany in Durban on June 14
WTF. What happens when you chase a game and need two strikers? (McDonald) What happens when you chase a game and you need a guy that can make a defence splitting pass? (Carle)
Predict Garcia, Galekovic, Oar, Holland, and Lowry to be cut from final squad.
Australia coach Pim Verbeek cut striker Scott McDonald, midfielder Nick Carle and defender Jade North from the provisional 28-man World Cup squad he will take to a training camp in South Africa.
Verbeek trimmed his squad from the preliminary 31 to 28 - one more than originally flagged after convincing Football Federation Australia to let him take four goalkeepers to the camp.
Socceroos' 28-man provisional squad:
Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer, Adam Federici, Brad Jones, Eugene Galekovic.
Defenders: Scott Chipperfield, David Carney, Lucas Neill, Michael Beauchamp, Shane Lowry, Craig Moore, Mark Milligan, Rhys Williams, Luke Wilkshire.
Midfielders: Vince Grella, Carl Valeri, Jason Culina, Mile Jedinak, Tim Cahill, Brett Holman, Dario Vidosic, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Richard Garcia, James Holland, Tommy Oar.
Strikers: Nikita Rukavytsya, Josh Kennedy, Harry Kewell.
The Socceroos squad departs Melbourne on Wednesday for a pre-World Cup training camp in Johannesburg.
Youngsters Tommy Oar and James Holland are part of the squad, but Verbeek said they were effectively going for the experience and were unlikely to be part of the final squad.
McDonald, who played for most of Monday night's 2-1 win over New Zealand at the MCG, was the surprise omission.
With a dearth of strikers, Verbeek opted not to plump for McDonald, who has failed to score in 16 matches for his country.
Instead Belgian-based Nikita Rukavytsya will back up Josh Kennedy and Harry Kewell.
Verbeek admitted the Middlesbrough striker struggled in his lone striker system, and had missed out for that reason.
"Scotty is a typical two-striker player, and that's where he feels happy also," Verbeek said.
"But we don't play with two strikers. We play with one striker up top and wingers, so Scotty doesn't fit in this system.
"He knows it, and he tried everything."
Everton star Tim Cahill and Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer also headline the squad.
Verbeek said the players from this squad who did not make the final 23 would be kept on in South Africa for the duration of the tournament.
Australia plays friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and USA on June 5 in Roodepoort ahead of itsopening World Cup group match against Germany in Durban on June 14
WTF. What happens when you chase a game and need two strikers? (McDonald) What happens when you chase a game and you need a guy that can make a defence splitting pass? (Carle)
Predict Garcia, Galekovic, Oar, Holland, and Lowry to be cut from final squad.
garcia is another attacking option so thats why he went, youngsters going as experience are holland, lowry and oar, galekovic is there so anything could happen with that
Thought Mcdonald, although has poor scoring form for the country was worth taking as back up for Kewell. Unusual decision only taking 3 "strikers".
In saying that though, there are others who can play make-shift forwards.
Chaos wrote:Thought Mcdonald, although has poor scoring form for the country was worth taking as back up for Kewell. Unusual decision only taking 3 "strikers".
In saying that though, there are others who can play make-shift forwards.
Chaos wrote:Thought Mcdonald, although has poor scoring form for the country was worth taking as back up for Kewell. Unusual decision only taking 3 "strikers".
In saying that though, there are others who can play make-shift forwards.
My 5 : Holland, Oar, Jones, Galekovic and Lowry.
One of Jones and Galekovic will have to go - need 3 keepers.
Lowry, Galekovic , Oar, Holland + whoever gets injured...
the decision is more puzzling seeing as harry is fooked. would have scotty mac over vidosic atm. we need to play 2 up front, scotty mac cant play there on his own
im more puzzled that he gave mcdonald this many chances up front on his own, was clear long ago that he can't play that lone man role at all. so once you factor in we def will play 1 up front theres utterly no point taking him. even cahill would perform better (i recall him doing this for a month or two at everton 2 season ago)
Hell, well spotted Bomber & others! 4 goalies and 3 strikers in the squad, and one of those (Kewell) whose groins could pop. Kennedy is slow and only for the high stuff. Nikita is speedy, but I'm worried his inexperience will have him running into brick walls. The tough-as-nails centre-backs of Germany, Ghana and Serbia might chew them up 'n' spit our forwards out.
Verbeek will never get it that the field is too wide for one striker and he is dreaming that a midfielder can always 'become' the 2nd forward coming from deep. His ultimate follies were when he played no forwards in China (4-6-0) and poor Cahill as the sole striker in Tokyo (4-5-1). And, you dickhead Aussie Pimmy, the Aussie public hated it when you played one striker in most of our home games where it is incumbent on the home team to attack. Good luck convincing the free spirits of Morocco Under 20s (where you are moving to in July) to play with one forward!
Someone should slap Pim in the face. His play is as bad as it is boring, we play like we did last night in South Africa, I dont see us scoring any goals let alone getting any points in our group. This ultra-defensive thing might work against these dropkick teams weve played, but we play a half decent side, (like South Korea last year) we will get slaughtered. However I hope they prove me wrong.
Paokara wrote:Someone should slap Pim in the face. His play is as bad as it is boring, we play like we did last night in South Africa, I dont see us scoring any goals let alone getting any points in our group. This ultra-defensive thing might work against these dropkick teams weve played, but we play a half decent side, (like South Korea last year) we will get slaughtered. However I hope they prove me wrong.
seemed to work ok against the Dutch and the Irish...
DOC wrote:i hope people realise that per mertasacker is taller than kennedy therefore his hieght is nullified
Grella was just practicing the tackle he'll give to big Per on Bertos
on a serious matter, height is not the only reason a player wins a header... Timmy Cahill's hardly tall, but look how many goals he scores with his head
DOC wrote:i hope people realise that per mertasacker is taller than kennedy therefore his hieght is nullified
Grella was just practicing the tackle he'll give to big Per on Bertos
on a serious matter, height is not the only reason a player wins a header... Timmy Cahill's hardly tall, but look how many goals he scores with his head
ballack was the same in his prime, but look at our first half, it was all long ball to little skippy up there against nelson who handles the worlds best, kennedy wouln't have got much change either..
klose is another one who has a great leap despite not being tall and could dominate moore as we did not win a defensive header in the first half...
but big per is there to get the long ball and it could be an easy shift for him if we play like last nights first half
DOC wrote:i hope people realise that per mertasacker is taller than kennedy therefore his hieght is nullified
Grella was just practicing the tackle he'll give to big Per on Bertos
on a serious matter, height is not the only reason a player wins a header... Timmy Cahill's hardly tall, but look how many goals he scores with his head
ballack was the same in his prime, but look at our first half, it was all long ball to little skippy up there against nelson who handles the worlds best, kennedy wouln't have got much change either..
klose is another one who has a great leap despite not being tall and could dominate moore as we did not win a defensive header in the first half...
but big per is there to get the long ball and it could be an easy shift for him if we play like last nights first half
mcdonald doesnt deserve to be picked!!! hes never scored a fucking goal for the country so how can anyone be suprised he got cut?? of course he was going to get cut! as for the rest of the squad, they wont even get a point in their group, germany ghana and serbia to make a mockery of us!! last world cup was a one off.. never happen again!
"In his life, a man can change wifes, political parties or religions but it cannot change his favourite football team." Eduardo Galleano
, Oar, Holland + whoever gets injured...
