Huuuuuugene and Jamo for the Roos

Yep, Galekovic and Jamieson have been named in Verbeek's 23-man squad for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifier away to Kuwait on January 6. All of the English Premier League guys are unavailable, so there's an opportunity for some of the A-League boys to stake their claim leading up to the World Cup.

Eugene is probably the best keeper in the league (if not an actual God walking amongst men) and he has had another good season, so his inclusion is a no-brainer; Jamo hasn't reached any great heights this year but he had a brilliant previous season and Pim has seen enough to give him another shot in the green & gold.

Galekovic will be up against Fumbles Velaphi and High Five Vukovic for the 'keeper spot, ex-Red Matthew Kemp and highly-rated Plymouth Argyle young'un Shane Lowry will probably be Jamieson's main competition for the left back position. Also interesting from a Reds point of view is the inclusion of big bad bustling Bruce Djite in the squad, time for him to step up & stake a claim for a World Cup spot.

Oh and congrats to Tommy Oar, if he gets on the pitch he'll be the youngest Socceroo since Harry Kewell.

THE SQUAD

Alex Brosque, Jacob Burns, Nick Carle, Simon Colosimo, Jason Culina, Bruce Djite, Eugene Galekovic, Scott Jamieson, Mile Jedinak, Matthew Kemp, Shane Lowry, Matthew McKay, Craig Moore, Tommy Oar, Nikita Rukavytsya, Matthew Spiranovic, Mile Sterjovski, Archie Thompson, Matthew Thompson, Tando Velaphi, Dario Vidosic, Danny Vukovic, Luke Wilkshire

dontmentionthegrandfinal

In an effort to avoid thinking about the Grand Final, I've decided instead to focus on things of an international nature.

There's some interesting stuff going on at the moment with regards to the bids for the 2018/2022 World Cups. The FFA have announced the establishment of a FIFA World Cup Bid Team, chaired by Frank Lowy and led by Ben Buckley, as a business unit within its overall governance structure. Within a few months, there will be up to 15 staff working full time on the World Cup bid. An offshoot of this process is the formation of another bid team, headed by Rob Abernathy, working on Australia's submission to host the 2015 Asian Cup.

The A-League Head of Operations post, which was held by Abernathy, will be filled by the (now ex-) St Kilda Football Club CEO Archie Fraser. Despite his status in the world of eggpunching, Fraser is a round ball man at heart, having played professionally for Greenock Morton FC in Scotland (aye, the Pride of Clyde, the very same*) before moving to Australia in 1980 to play for the Queensland Premier League. Ben Buckley is obviously using his AFL connections well.

Meanwhile, our favourite national team coach Pim Verbeek has taken time out from sheeing the shexy girls at the coffee shop to pick a squad for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait, to be played in Canberra on March 5. There are plenty of Reds boys in there:

Danny Allsopp (Melbourne), Fabian Barbiero (Adelaide United), Billy Celeski (Melbourne), Shannon Cole (Sydney FC), Robert Cornthwaite (Adelaide United), Tarek Elrich (Newcastle), Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United), Dean Heffernan (Central Coast), Scott Jamieson (Adelaide United), Ben Kantarovski (Newcastle), Matthew McKay (Queensland), Craig Moore (Queensland), Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United), Mitch Nichols (Queensland), Tom Pondeljak (Melbourne), Paul Reid (Adelaide United), Matt Simon (Central Coast), Michael Theoklitos (Melbourne), Archie Thompson (Melbourne), Matthew Thompson (Newcastle), Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Newcastle), Rodrigo Vargas (Melbourne), Danny Vukovic (Central Coast), Michael Zullo (Queensland).

Making their first appearances in a 'Roos squad are Fabian Barbiero, Daniel Mullen, Queensland's Mitch Nicholls and Newcastle's impressive centre back, 17 year old Ben Kantarovski. I'm not going to try to predict a starting lineup, but we need to see more creativity out wide. Dodd was overlooked again for the squad - his form hasn't been great, but he's still the best pure right wing option in the A-League.

Anyway, I think that, on home turf, we will see a far better showing from the A-League Socceroos than was the case against Indonesia. Do it.

*Not that I'd ever heard of them, of course.

Indonesia 0-0 Australia

On Wednesday night Australia took their first tentative steps towards Asian Cup qualification, holding Indonesia to a nil-nil draw in Jakarta. This was no ordinary Socceroos lineup, though: Pim Verbeek used this match as an opportunity to see what the A-League players were capable of.

The short answer to this question is 'not much'. But there's a lot more to it than that. Yes, the game was slightly insipid (after a pretty good start, it must be said), but there were plenty of reasons for the lack of champagne football. Only a few of the squad members had been previously capped, with Craig Moore and Archie Thompson by far the most experienced players chosen. There was very little preparation time for the team - a couple of days at most for some of the players - and the oppressive humidity and bumpy tropical pitch was a far cry from what most would be used to. And, of course, it was an away game in front of a very large and hostile crowd.

The team chosen by Pim was quite conservative, as well - workhorses like Dean Heffernan and Matt Thompson started the match at the expense of more exciting, attack-minded players like Michael Zullo or Tarek Elrich. A couple of players who could also have provided some much-needed spark, Travis Dodd and Adrian Caceres, were not even chosen in the extended squad.

Three Reds players made it onto the pitch, and all gave a reasonably good account of themselves. Galekovic was solid and composed in goals, and Paul Reid provided plenty of energy, although I think he and Matt McKay may be slightly too similar in their style of play to be paired up in midfield. Scott Jamieson was rather more subdued than usual, preferring to sit back rather than sprinting up the left wing in attack. Whether that was nerves, the conditions, or Verbeek's instructions I'm not sure - but this game certainly wasn't indicative of what he's capable of as a footballer.

For their part, Indonesia seemed happy to park most of their players in their defensive half, launching counter-attacks whenever the opportunity arose. Papuan forward Boaz Solossa was a handful, but in general Indonesia struggled to break down a well-disciplined Australian defence, with the centre back pairing of Craig Moore and Rodrigo Vargas particularly solid. At the other end of the park, Indonesia defended in numbers and effectively prevented the midfield from creating much for Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp to work with.

The result could have been better, but any away point is a good one and there's certainly no need to write off the A-League players for future matches like this. The team's performance, with no preparation time, in unfamiliar conditions and on a horrible pitch, was still better than plenty of 'first string' Socceroos matches that I've seen (the last Asian Cup comes to mind). Australia really needs to make the most of its home games, though - I'm looking forward to a much better match when the Socceroos play Kuwait in Canberra on March 5.