Verbeek: Roos are ready for stern test

IRISH football fans who complain about the renaming of Lansdowne Road should perhaps be grateful that they don’t have to get behind a team called the Aviva Green Boys.

Because, if you didn’t know any better, the preliminaries to yesterday’s pre-match press conference at Thomond Park might have led you to believe that Ireland will today be playing an outfit who go by the name of The Quantas Socceroos.

Still, if the introductory branding was a bit heavy-handed, Australia’s articulate Dutch coach Pim Verbeek ensured that the talk quickly turned to more traditional football matters, as he outlined the significance of this evening’s game for a nation who are already where Ireland would dearly love to be, having qualified for South Africa with a couple of matches to spare.

“The difference is that we are preparing for a World Cup and Ireland are preparing for qualification for the World Cup, so that should make it an interesting game,” said Verbeek who, curiously, admitted that he had only just learned upon arrival in Limerick that this was to be the first football match played at Thomond Park. “It’s a lovely stadium and we hope to make it a good game for the fans and a good test for Ireland ahead of their important qualifying games to come,” added the man who was Guus Hiddink’s assistant during South Korea’s memorable showing at the 2002 World Cup.

The opening of the A-League in Australia and the long distance required for their home-based players to travel means that Verbeek has restricted his squad for tonight’s game to exclusively European-based players. Not that that means they haven’t had to cover some distance to get to Limerick anyway, with the Aussies drawing their players from leagues in Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Germany and Russia as well as England and Scotland.

The Socceroos squad can boast a sprinkling of household names in this part of the world, including Everton’s Tim Cahill, Galatasaray’s Harry Kewell, Celtic’s Scott McDonald and Lucas Neill, the former Blackburn Rovers man whose failure thus far to find himself a new club has left Verbeek perplexed.

“I think he is a fantastic football player and, for us, he is the captain of the team,” said the coach. “But I’m not worried he is without a club now – it would be different if it was two months before the World Cup. But even without a club, he has been training hard and looks fit.”

By contrast, Verbeek thinks it’s vital that Mark Viduka – the former Newcastle striker who has recently had talks with Portsmouth – get his club future in order if he is to return to the international side after an absence of two years.

“First, he has to sign a contract,” he said. “Mark, of course, was very important for the team in the past but so far has not been in my selection because of injuries. Then I tried everything to get him in for the final qualifiers last June but he said he wanted to think about his career. But still, the door is always open, not only for Viduka but for every player. We have 10 months to go to the World Cup and if he can get back to the right level, Viduka is a fantastic player for selection.”

But as well as the established personnel, Verbeek is understandably keen now to give opportunities to fringe and young players to stake a claim, as he continues to shape his final squad for South Africa. From Australia’s point of view, that’s what this evening is all about – another step on the road to the biggest test of all.

“We did well in the qualifiers but we all know that the World Cup finals are a different matter,” said Pim Verbeek. “That’s why the players have all come here, to be part of a selection. They all want to be part of the Socceroos team that’s going to the World Cup.”