Who's Playing Who?

Socceroos coach Holger Osieck has named a 50-man preliminary squad for January’s AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. He has included a variety of domestic and international players, with the only two notable exclusions being midfielders Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella. Both Bresciano and Grella have ‘taken a year off international football’ according to some sources, following a disappointing  World Cup in South Africa.

Included in the squad are some new names, many of whom are products of the A League, including Tommy Oar, Robbie Kruse, Adam Sarota, Luke DeVere, Mitch Langerak and Dario Vidosic. Stars Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer have all been in great form for their respective European clubs, and are fully committed for the whole tournament, despite previous concerns about their availability.

The final squad of 23 was initially to be submitted by December 16, but this has since been extended by the AFC, with the Australian squad to be confirmed on December 28. The tournament kicks off on January 7, 2011 in Doha, with Australia opening their campaign against India on January 10, before facing off against Korea Republic and Bahrain in their remaining pool games.

Preliminary Socceroos squad: Adam Federici, Bradley Jones, Eugene Galekovic, Mark Schwarzer,  Mitchell Langerak, Nathan Coe, Michael Theoklitos, Adrian Madaschi, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, David Carney, Jason Davidson, Luke Devere, Ersan Gulum, Jonathan Mckain, Lucas Neill, Luke Wilkshire, Michael Thwaite, Michael Beauchamp, Jade North, Sasa Ognenovski, Matthew Spiranovic, Matthew Thompson, Adam Sarota, Brett Emerton, Brett Holman, Carl Valeri, Christopher Herd, Harry Kewell, Jason Culina, Benjamin Kantarovski, Neil Kilkenny, Matthew McKay, Mile Jedinak, Aaron Mooy, Oliver Bozanic, Richard Garcia, Thomas Oar, Dario Vidosic, David Williams, Archie Thompson, Alex Brosque, Joel Griffiths, Joshua Kennedy, Brent McGrath, Nathan Burns, Nikita Rukavytsya, Robbie Kruse, Ryan Griffiths, Scott McDonald, Tim Cahill.