Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou has named a 30 man squad ahead of a busy June schedule of at least five matches for the Socceroos.
It all begins with the most important match of all, the Socceroos’ crucial World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia on June 8th, followed by a friendly against Brazil in Melbourne on June 13th and the Confederations Cup tournament in Russia in the second half of June.

Postecoglou will trim the squad to 23 on the 31st May, telling Socceroos.com.au ” The 23 I pick , I have to be confident can contribute when called upon.”
For the provisional squad, the coach has continued his practise of naming a fresh face. Following Adelaide United’s teen Riley McGree, who is again named, is new face Ajdin Hrustic. The Dutch based attacker may be a surprise inclusion, and although he is highly unlikely to feature in the match against the Saudis, Postecoglou is keen to secure him as a future Socceroo given that he is also eligible for selection for Bosnia Herzegovina. Postecoglou said of the player, “Ajden’s been on our radar for a while and this year’s been a bit of a breakthrough in Holland. He did very well in the U23 camp with Josep ( Gombau) and since then has come on regularly as a sub ( for Groningen) and shown some qualities. I’ve known him a long time actually, coached him as an 11-12 year old. Technically very good.”

In the short term though, as far as the Socceroos World Cup qualification is concerned, Postecoglou will have available his three most creative midfield talents, in Aaron Mooy, Tom Rogic and Massimo Luongo who were all missing from the Socceroos 2-0 win over the UAE in late March.
Whilst the midfield is where Postecoglou appears to have the most quality and depth, he’s named two recent A-League players who are about to embark on European careers, as additions to his attack and defence. Former Roar striker Jamie Maclaren comes in to the squad along with former Adelaide United, and now Portuguese bound, central defender Dylan McGowan, who joins his brother Ryan in defence.

Postecoglou said of McGowan’s selection, “With our defensive position at the moment, Spiranovic was ruled out due to injury. From that perspective, let’s bring in one who we’ve been monitoring for a while. With his move to Europe next year, he might develop very quickly and benefit from being in that environment for a while.”

The preparation taken by both teams going into the upcoming World Cup qualifier is an indication of how important this match is in determining which team qualifies for the automatic qualifying spots of a top two finish.

The Socceroos will assemble in Adelaide on June 2nd giving Postecoglou almost a week to prepare his squad for the tough match against what is likely to be a well organised Saudi team which itself has been preparing intensively for this match with a two week camp in Frankfurt. Dutch coach Bert Van Marwijk will also bring his team to Adelaide early to help acclimatize and prepare for the match.

Postecoglou said “With most of the players’ season coming to an end in the last week or two we will have a lot of players in early, which gives us a good opportunity to do make sure we are ready for the Saudi Arabia game.

“We’ll be together for the best part of a month and previously we have been able to work towards some great outcomes when we have had an extended period together like the World Cup and Asian Cup.

Postecoglou says, “We’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years for those games ( the last three World Cup qualifiers). We kind of knew that the final three games in qualification were the key ones starting with Saudi at home. I think we’re in good shape. The work we’ve done over the last couple of years, the players that we’ve exposed to international football and the experiences they’ve had, I’ve got no doubt we’ll be up for the contest. Hopefully we’ll start June off with a really strong performance and the right result, to carry us through for the rest of June.

The Socceroos 30 man squad is:

GOALKEEPERS
Mat Ryan (Genk, Belgium), Mitchell Langerak (Stuttgart, Germany), Danny Vukovic (Sydney FC), Mark Birighitti (Swansea).

DEFENDERS
Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC), Milos Degenek (Yokohama, Japan), Trent Sainsbury (Inter Milan, Italy), Bailey Wright (Bristol City, England), Brad Smith (Bournemouth, England), Aziz Behich (Bursaspor, Turkey), Alex Gersbach (Rosenborg, Norway), Dylan McGowan (Pacos de Ferreira, POR), Ryan McGowan (Guizhou Zhicheng, CHI).

MIDFIELDERS
Mile Jedinak (Aston Villa, England), Mark Milligan (Baniyas, UAE), Jackson Irvine (Burton, England), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield, England), James Jeggo (Sturm Graz), Mustafa Amini (AGF, Denmark), Riley McGree (Adelaide), Massimo Luongo (QPR, England), Tom Rogic (Celtic).

ATTACKERS
Tim Cahill (Melbourne City), Tomi Juric (FC Luzern, Switzerland), Mathew Leckie (FC Ingolstadt, Germany), Robbie Kruse (Uncontracted), James Troisi (Melbourne Victory), Craig Goodwin (Sparta Rotterdam, Netherlands), Jamie Maclaren (Darmstadt, GER), Ajdin Hrustic (Groningen, Netherlands).