I'm a little disappointed too. Thought we would push up around 80,000 for this one but it doesn't look like it.

The weather is horrible in Melbourne today, so that might keep some people away that were contemplating going.

If we got 70-75k I'd be satisfied. The game really is at the wrong time, right in the middle of AFL finals which, for the first time in a while, is dominated by Victorian teams.

Melbourne in September has blinkers on (even moreso than normal), the AFL literally dominates everything especially when you have Geelong, Collingwood, Kangaroos and Hawthorn still involved in finals.

Still I'll go along and watch, hoping to see some good performances from one of our boys and hope we don't get smashed by too much.

But don't forget tonight is a celebration, it's Graham Arnold's last game in charge!!!

EDIT: Given the smaller than expected numbers and the weather, in hindsight this game would have been perfect for the Telstra Dome!! Although 10,000 tickets more than TD capacity have been sold!

Agree with the above - and in addition, I think some fans are getting a bit more sophisticated in choosing what to attend - prefering a full-on WC qualifier to a half paced friendly, even if it is Argentina (remembe the Australia v Greece rubbish performance last year). Neither team (moreso Australia) has a full strength team for this very reason, and it won't be played at full pace - but hopefully will be a lot better than the Greek friendly - at least the Argies are far superior to that lot.

I think sockah fans have always been discriminating about which matches we attend. WCQs have always been the priority and friendlies have typically been only of interest to the local community of the visiting side.

The important thing to note is that friendlies are now drawing big crowds when they usually only drew scepticism. From memory the Iran WCQ in 1997 was the first time sockah pulled a 60k+ and a huge national tv audience. It was a watershed moment for the game.

Now we can get 60k+ for a friendly between a second string side and non World Cup team (Uruguay in Sydney this year) and 70k+ for a friendly against a top side. We don't even need the 'stars' of the team to turn up. It looks that the sockah fanbase's priority is supporting the green and gold regardless of circumstances.

Times have really changed.

Good Point

I think A-League/Socceroos/State League matches, I think that point typifies the country as a whole who support soccer.

How do you reckon we will go against Nigeria soon?

Here is the squad
SOCCEROOS SQUAD
Michael Beauchamp (Nurnberg, Germany), Tim Cahill (Everton, England), Nick Carle (Genclerbirligi, Turkey), David Carney (Sheffield United, England), Scott Chipperfield (Basel, Switzerland), Nathan Coe (Copenhagen, Denmark), Brett Emerton (Blackburn, England), Adam Federici (Reading, England), Josh Kennedy (Nurnberg, Germany), Harry Kewell (Liverpool, England), Patrick Kisnorbo (Leicester City, England), Scott McDonald (Celtic, Scotland), Lucas Neill (West Ham, England), Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough, England), Mile Sterjovski (Genclerbirligi, Turkey), Michael Thwaite (Wisla Krakow, Poland), Carl Valeri (Grosseto, Italy), James Wesolowski (Leicester City, England), Luke Wilkshire (Twente, Netherlands)

No idea - but I will probably go and watch it

They are ranked about 30 spots above us and are the #1 team in Africa, if we can come away with a draw that would probably be a good result.

However we have to start to realise that anything less than a win isn't good enough if we want to improve as a country. The sooner we adopt this attitude the better.

If we have our strongest team from that squad, i'd say anything less than a win would be a disappointment. Interesting to note they're all overseas based players. I would like to see the A-League represented at least with a couple of players for all friendlies. A few names missing though, where's Viduka, Breciano? And who's Adam Federici?

As long as we play Viduka, finally in a good position, then it will be fine. Personally I have more interest in how Uzbekistan are going these days...

I think they're all overseas based players because they didn't want to disrupt the A-League by sending a few players over the Europe for a friendly.

Given the A-League doesn't allow for International games you'd have all the complaining again about robbing the competition if you were to take players across, especially given a fair whack are already missing with the Olyroos.

On the flip side, when we play at home I would rather see A-League players included than fringe players like Federici, Coe, Wesolowski.

Viduka, Bresciano and Grella are all out injured, although Dukes may return this weekend for Newcastle but has missed the last 3 weeks with injury so I can understand him not being selected. Bresciano picked up an injury the weekend before last IIRC, not sure what happened to Vinnie.

Adam Federici is a goalkeeper for Reading, although like most of our GK's is only a back up. Nathan Coe was back up at PSV for 3 years and is now at FC Copenhagen, I can only assume as their #1 keeper. He is young (23), so it's good to see him given a chance. We really need to find out #2 behind Schwarzer. At the moment the list includes Coe, Federici, Jones, Bolton, Theoklitos, Covic but not have grabbed it with both hands (especially Jones ).

It'll be a big night for Australian Football on the 17th. The Olyroos have their crucial qualifier against Iraq in Gosford (to be replayed by SBS at 10pm that night) and then a few hours later the Socceroos take on Nigeria in London. A big Saturday night in front of the box watching the future and the present of Australian Football on show!!

no spiranovic!

Good news that the Olyroos game is going to be on tellie.

Dukes is injured.

No idea about Bresc

Good squad though nevertheless....Good to see Weso get a call-up - Hope he gets some game time!

Agree with Dibo about Spira we need to call him up!.

CARN YOU ROOS!

He's injured.