Socceroos Head Coach Ange Postecoglou announces his 23-man squad for the clash with Ecuador and hands four uncapped players the chance to stake their claim for Brazil.
Massimo Luongo is one of four uncapped players named in the Socceroos squad to face Ecuador. Image (c) Getty.
To be played at The Den in London on March 5, the match will be the last time the Socceroos play before the provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup is announced in May.
Along with the four uncapped players, the Socceroos squad also includes five plying their trade in the Hyundai A-League and three players brought back into the squad after missing the 1-0 win over Costa Rica last November.
Curtis Good (Dundee United), Chris Herd (Aston Villa), Massimo Luongo (Swindon Town) and Ben Halloran (Fortuna Dusseldorf) will all have the opportunity to make their Socceroo debut, while Luke Wilkshire, Adam Sarota and Brad Jones will feature under Postecoglou for the first time.
Mark Milligan (Melbourne Victory), Tom Rogic (Melbourne Victory), Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar), Ivan Franjic (Brisbane Roar) and Matthew Spiranovic (Western Sydney Wanderers) will all depart from Australia following this weekend’s Hyundai A-League matches.
Postecoglou stressed the importance of the Ecuador match.
“Ecuador is a very important game for us,” Postecoglou said. “It’s the last game (before World Cup squad selection) and it’s a quality opponent. Ecuador made the World Cup and it will be a tough challenge for us.
“We started our journey against Costa Rica and we want to build on that. It was a solid performance and the players backing up from that game would already have had a taste of what we are trying to achieve. For the new ones it’s about getting as much information as possible.
“We’ve done a lot of work in between the Costa Rica game and now with analysis of our own performance and analysis of our opponents and they’ll get a lot of information in those two or three days and I’m certainly looking for a strong performance against Ecuador so we continue to build on the positive feeling we had after the Costa Rica game.”
MATCH DETAILS:
Socceroos v Ecuador
The Den, London
Wednesday 5 March 2014
8pm kick off (7.00am AEDT)
Socceroos squad
Oliver BOZANIC (FC Luzern, SWITZERLAND), Tim CAHILL (New York Red Bulls, USA), Jason DAVIDSON (SC Heracles Almelo, NETHERLANDS), Ivan FRANJIC (Brisbane Roar FC, AUSTRALIA), Curtis GOOD (Dundee United FC, SCOTLAND), Ben HALLORAN (Fortuna Dusseldorf, GERMANY), Chris HERD (Aston Villa FC, ENGLAND), James HOLLAND (FK Austria Vienna, AUSTRIA), Mile JEDINAK (Crystal Palace FC, ENGLAND), Brad JONES (Liverpool FC, ENGLAND), Mitchell LANGERAK (B.V. Borussia 09 Dortmund, GERMANY), Mathew LECKIE (FSV Frankfurt 1899, GERMANY), Massimo LUONGO (Swindon Town FC, ENGLAND), Ryan MCGOWAN (Shandong LunengTaishan FC, CHINA), Matthew MCKAY (Brisbane Roar FC, AUSTRALIA), Mark MILLIGAN (Melbourne Victory FC, AUSTRALIA), Tommy OAR (FC Utrecht, HOLLAND), Tommy ROGIC (Melbourne Victory FC, AUSTRALIA), Matt RYAN (Club Brugge KV, BELGIUM), Adam SAROTA (FC Utrecht, HOLLAND), Matthew SPIRANOVIC (Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA), Dario VIDOSIC (FC Sion, SWITZERLAND), Luke WILKSHIRE (FK Dinamo Moscow, RUSSIA).
