Meet the Socceroos in Melbourne tomorrow

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Socceroos to meet crowd at Fed Square

MELBURNIANS can pass on a good luck message to their favourite Socceroo at a public event in City Square tomorrow.

Players from the national squad will appear at the meet-and-greet, which will be the team’s final public appearance before it takes on New Zealand at the MCG on Monday, May 24.

The Socceroos’ opening World Cup clash is against Germany in Durban, South Africa, on June 13.

Wednesday’s event will also include displays of freestyle football, music and free Weetbix brekkies.

Junior fans are tipped to turn up in their hundreds, with Carlton Gardens Primary School already committed to sending a banner-bearing contingent.

Gold Coast United captain and star midfielder Jason Culina said the send-off would be a massive morale booster for the players.

Culina, who has spent most of his senior career in Europe, said he had fond memories of playing his junior soccer in Melbourne’s western suburbs with St Albans Dynamo and Melbourne Knights, before moving to Sydney where his father, Branco, landed a coaching role.

“I absolutely loved it in Melbourne,” he said.

“It was here in my junior years that I established friendships for life and enjoyed football the most.”

Culina said he was not concerned at the lack of Victorian talent coming through Australia’s junior soccer ranks, arguing the present New South Wales-dominated national youth sides were part of a cycle.

“The Victorians had their era 10 to 15 years ago and now its Sydney’s turn,” he said.

>> Catch the Socceroos at City Square off Swanston St, Melbourne, tomorrow from 8am-9.30am.