Verbeek cuts three from World Cup squad
May 25, 2010


Australia coach Pim Verbeek has moved a step closer to naming his final squad for the World Cup by releasing three players from his preliminary squad.

Scott McDonald, Jade North and Nick Carle will not travel with the rest of the 28-man party which boards to plane to Australia's South African training base on Tuesday.

Verbeek made the decision following Monday's narrow 2-1 win against neighbours and fellow finalists New Zealand.

Verbeek has sought permission from Football Federation Australia to allow youngsters James Holland and Tommy Oar and fourth keeper Eugene Galekovic to travel with the team to South Africa but they will not be considered for World Cup selection unless another player is injured.

Australia's final 23-man squad will be on June 1 after a warm-up match against Denmark, the first of two friendlies in South Africa prior to their first World Cup group game against Germany in Durban on June 13.

The axing of McDonald has come as a major surprise, with the squad now containing just three front line strikers in Josh Kennedy, Harry Kewell and the little known Nikita Rukavytsya - who has just two caps - although Brett Holman - who scored the winning goal against New Zealand - can also play as a striker if needs be.

And with Kewell (groin) and Kennedy (back soreness) currently injured, the axing of McDonald leaves Verbeek with few options if that key pair do not recover in time to face Germany.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/790034/ce/uk/?cc=3436&ver=global

The beauty of a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 is that it can be easily re-configured as a 4-6-0.

Why not just play 10-0-0 then? #-o

HOORAY for going out of a World Cup without scoring a goal!

If Trinidad and Tobago can do it, why can't we

He can't play as a lone striker, can't hold up the ball and bring in the midfield,

Joffa - He obviously played him and gave him one last chance to score. If Macca had a shocking game but scored a goal he wouldn't have been cut. If he got 4 assists last night and had a blinder but didn't score, he wouldn't have gone.

His intelligence, awareness and vision is second to very very few in our National team. We will miss him in SA thats for sure.

I just hope we make the next WC under a different coach who can see the quality he possesses so Macca doesn't miss out playing in a WC

We already have done it once, would be nice not to do it again...
Has any team ever not scored at two world cups? Is it a record we want to have? Cause the way we played last night I think we are well on the way

I don't know about you but i actually thought Scotty had a fair crack last night , he certainly worked harder than Kennedy does. And he is the only striker we have playing in a decent league. And apart from all that he provides a decent experienced striking option.

I thought he had a good game. Took a while to get going but especially in the second half, every time he got the ball he held it up well and found an option. Made a couple of great runs and was involved in the build up to our first goal.

And how many goals did Kewell score at club level as a lone striker? I'll give you the answer: 0.

Yet people say he should start up front. It's ridiculous. We are criticising Macca for not being able to play the lone striker role - fair enough, we can't just hoof balls to him like we do with Kennedy - but Kewell is the same!! People always bring up the fact he has played up front in his career, but he has NEVER played as a lone striker (as far as I'm aware - I'm open to being proved wrong)



So, so wrong. He can, and he does. 80% of the balls he got last night he held up, let the midfield run on, and laid it back to somebody. He uses his body and holds it up better than JK does!!

Macca is exactly the kind of player you can bring on when chasing the game when down (as we almost certainly will be in at least one of our games at the WC) and switch to a 442.

Anyhow, it's all a lost cause. Either you can see that Macca would have contributed a lot in SA, or you can't, but either way, he's not going.

His record in qualification will mean very little unfortunately. Germany, Serbia and Ghana have ZERO need to assess Australia's line-up options - it's like going into war and advertising your battle plans.

Its obvious that the only way we can score is to pump the ball into the box and aim at Jesus/Tommy's head.

Macdonald was never gunna make it God he was given enough tries by Pim and he failed every time.

if our style of football doesnt suit him

People have to face it, we don't have the players to compete with the best internationally yet Pim was able to get good results against better teams.