Qantas Young Socceroos Squad for FIFA U-20 World Cup Colombia 2011:

Matthew ACTON (gk) - Brisbane Roar
Mustafa AMINI - Central Coast Mariners
Terry ANTONIS - Sydney FC
Jake BARKER-DAISH - Gold Coast United
Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk) - Adelaide United
Kerem BULUT - Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic
Kofi DANNING - Brisbane Roar
Matthew FLETCHER - Uncontracted
Petar FRANJIC - Melbourne Victory
Sam GALLAGHER - Central Coast Mariners
Rhyan GRANT - Sydney FC
Brendan HAMILL - Melbourne Heart
Bernie IBINI-ISEI - Central Coast Mariners
Ben KANTAROVSKI - Newcastle Jets
Mathew LECKIE - Borussia Monchengladbach, Germany
Dylan McGOWAN - Gold Coast United
Tommy OAR - FC Utrecht, Netherlands
Dimitrios PETRATOS - Sydney FC
Trent SAINSBURY - Central Coast Mariners
Lawrence THOMAS (gk) - uncontracted
Marc WARREN - Sheffield United, UK
notable misses:
Bradden Inman - Newcastle United FC(ENG) (might turn out for scotland?)
Steve Lustica - Hajduk Split(CRO) (declined a berth - I don't know why)
Brent McGrath - Brondby(DAN) ( declined a berth - I don't know why, 442Ozforum-rumour is his agent is a Mr Mandic - now where have I heard that name before?)
summary points:
*FFA technical director Han Berger revealed: “Through the selection process, we were disappointed to learn that two players, Brent McGrath and Steven Lustica, declined our invitation for selection, as they both made themselves unavailable.
“I am sure that the players who have been selected will seize the opportunity to do themselves and Australia proud on the world stage.”
*The 21-player squad includes 16 who were part of the Young Socceroos that were runners up to DPR Korea at the AFC U19 Championships last year.
*Another five of those members, Tommy Oar, Kofi Danning, Ben Kantarovski, Rhyan Grant and Sam Gallagher, were also part of the Australian squad that competed at the U20 World Cup in Egypt in 2009.
*The A-League is home for 15 of the players with four from overseas clubs and two players, former Sunderland striker Matthew Fletcher and former Sheffield United goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas, currently uncontracted.



source:http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/209066,pair-snub-world-cup-callup.aspx

Considering the timing of the u/20 World Cup (29 July and 20 August 2011), both McGrath and Lustica might think they would be disadvantaged at their club sides if they bog off to Colombia for a month, which always sems strange to us fans, most of whom would die for the chance to represent our country, but I supose the club side pays the wage and at their age they might be thinking they'll have plenty of chances to play for Australia later down the track, once they've 'made it' in Europe. A risky course to plot, ask Craig Johnston if he has any regrets about not playing for his country - he'll talk your ear off:(

As for potential line ups: looks prettty good to me.

4-4-2 - (Midfield Diamond)
--------------- Birighitti
Franjic - Hamill -- McGowan - Gallagher
---------------- Kanta
Leckie ---------------------- Oar
--------------- Amini
---------- Bulut -- Danning

But we play a 4-3-3 in junior ranks, or at least we are supposed to.....
Front 3 should be Leckie - Bulut - Oar like we played at the U19 AFC champs.

Well the Draw for Phase 3 of the Asian qualifiers for Brazil2014 was made this morning in Rio and Australia were grouped together with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand. We need to finish top of this group to progress to the next phase (4)
FWIW I've included the FIFA July 2011 Rankings after each country.

Group A
1 China (73)
2 Jordan(91)
3 Iraq (108)
4 Singapore (131)

Group B
2 Kuwait(95)
3 UAE(109)
4 Lebanon(159)

Group C
1 Japan (16)
2 Uzbekistan (83)
3 Syria(104)
4 Korea DPR (115)

Group D
1 Australia (23)
2 Saudi Arabia(92)
3 Oman (107)
4 Thailand (119)

Group E
1 Iran (54)
2 Qatar (90)
3 Bahrain (100)
4 Indonesia (137)

Preliminary AFC schedule. venues TBA of course.
MD1
2 September 2011
Australia v Thailand

MD2
6 September 2011
Saudi Arabia v Australia

MD3
11 October 2011
Australia v Oman

MD4
11 November 2011
Oman v Australia

MD5
15 November 2011
Thailand v Australia

MD6
29 February 2012
Australia v Saudi Arabia

My analysis...not the most difficult group we could have got, that would have been: Saudi, Iraq and DPR Korea IMO.
KSA will be the toughest game for the Socceroos(any away trip to the ME [inc Oman] usually is, but there are no easy games in international football, (excepting Oceania perhaps) If we're good enough(which I think we are) we'll qualify. This is a very 'doable' task for Holger Osieck and the Socceroos.
Japan's group is the trickiest IMO. Uzbekistan is a footballing nation on the rise and could make things difficult for the Samurai Blue. And North Korea made it to South Africa 2010 so they are no mugs either.

Will be doing Thailand away!

Cheaper than doing a Socceroos home game. $500 return

what happens on tour stays on tour;)

FFA announce that the first Home game of the Socceroos WC2014 journey will be held at Brisbane's Lang Park..with a special ticket deal for Brisbane fans. I'll be travelling up, looks like a great idea to use the Socceroos to get people to give the HAL a go. If Roar continue playing like last year, those that buy the special tickets shouldn't be disappointed:)

THE QANTAS Socceroos will kick off their campaign on the road to the Brazil 2014 World Cup with the game against Thailand in Brisbane with a great ticket package deal for Roar fans.
The opening match of the third round of Asia's World Cup qualifiers will see the Socceroos play Thailand at Suncorp Stadium on Friday, September 2, 8.00pm kick off.

And in a new move, fans will be able to buy cut-price tickets for the Socceroos game that will also give them tickets to the first three Roar games...with prices starting at just $22.50 a match for adults.

source:
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/211139,t ... -roar.aspx

So what did we think of that "performance"?

As far as tone can be assessed, I'm going to guess you're referring to the Thailand game. That and you wrote it on Monday of course. goes to show the dangers of jumping to conclusions for sure!
Game one: First half, 'roos one dimensional and flat. Not muchmovement for the midfielders to pick out players in good positions. This led to too many long balls to Jesus. This played into thehands of the War Elephant defenders as the Thais were very well drilled and defended up the field. We failed to break them down because we were too busy looking for long diagonal balls onto Jesus's/Timmy's head. In one word=poor.
2nd half, much better. played it more on the deck and McKay was able to get involved more, ultimately being responsible for the turnovers that lead to our two goals. A win is a win, it was ugly, but that is the worst I've seen them play in 12months, I suppose a poor performance was due.

This morning's game:
Holger got it right by dragging Timmy and pairing Holman alongside/just behind Jesus. the midfield hustled(respect due in that heat!) and delivered good balls to our forward line. Saudi keeper probably should have stopped Jesus opening goal,but unlike the Thailand game we looked dangerous going forward most of the game. The presure was on the Green Falcons and they wilted. Zullo played a blinder and except for his clumsy challenge that lead to the KSA pen, was MoTM for me. Wilkshires cross for Jeus's first goal was perfect example of quanlity versus the quantity of crosses/long balls in the Thailand game. The Saudi defence crumbled under pressure gifting us a penalty when all they had to do was defend solidly from a corner and attack like crazy for the last 20 minutes to try to equalize. The Socceroos and Holger looked to have taken on board the criticisms(much self generated to be fair) of the Brisbane game and this morning was a much more polished performance. Jesus, despite his height is a much better player when the ball is delivered to his feet. I think this has been recognised and 2 wins from 2 games is a brilliant start to qualification towards our third WC in a row. A measure of Thailands ability is drawn from the fact hey won Group D's other game his morning 3-0 over Oman in Bangkok. They are now second in Group D:

Australia 6 points
Thailand 3
Saudi Arabia 1
Oman 1
Next up Tuesday October 11th at Home to Oman, venue tba but rumours abound that it will be in Sydney.

Roos' next home game in Melbourne has been shifted to a Wednesday 9.30pm kick-off. :facepalm: thanks to FIFA and its policy of ensuring final round/group games all kick-off at the same instant. That works for games played in the same country, but games played across several time zones are a tad more problematic. Pity the Omani and Thai players who are forced to play at 2.30pm in Oman. FIFA's managed to get the worst of both worlds. Three cheers for thoughtless bureaucracy

Group D
Australia v Saudi Arabia: 2130hrs
Oman v Thailand: 1430hrs

^ Should be only 23-25c.

But I think had FFA read the rules they would have probably put the game in Brisbane.

Lang Park confirmed for the WCQ against Japan in June.

They could get 90k to that fixture in Melbourne. Smooth move foregoing revenue right now. It's not like we could have done with another $2m.