Australia stalwarts Brett Holman and Luke Wilkshire along with any other World Cup candidate will have to show some exceptional form if they’re to dislodge anyone in the current squad, coach Ange Postecoglou has warned.
Postecoglou began his reign as mentor with a 1-0 win over Costa Rica at Allianz Stadium on Tuesday, courtesy of a Tim Cahill goal.
The side largely delivered the attacking, possession-based game Postecoglou likes to play and dominated world No. 31 Costa Rica in most aspects of the match.
Postecoglou left out the likes of Socceroos regulars Holman and Wilkshire when naming his first squad, while indicating the likes of Harry Kewell and other A-League players still need to prove themselves.
Postecoglou has been impressed with his entire 22-man squad after putting it through its paces for a whole week and, with only seven months until Australia plays on football’s biggest stage – the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil – he says it will take something special to take any one of their spots.
“We’ve set a standard now and, moving forward, it’s going to be really competitive to get into this squad,” he said.
“The 22 guys who worked this week are going to be hard to dislodge.
“People outside this squad are going to have to show good form to get in here so that’s the kind of standard we’ve set.
“I want to make sure we’re not giving away caps or representative honours from now on. We want people to earn them and certainly the 22 who contributed this week earned their spot.”
Australia’s defence looked the most solid it has in a while on Tuesday.
Postecoglou put young gun goalkeeper Mat Ryan between the sticks with skipper Lucas Neill and Rhys Williams as the centre-backs, Ivan Franjic at right-back and Jason Davidson at left-back.
Dario Vidosic and Mathew Leckie started up front before Postecoglou brought on second-half substitutes Tom Rogic and Cahill, and both impressed in the opening stanza.
Crystal Palace skipper Mile Jedinak, Mark Milligan and Mark Bresciano were typically solid in midfield along with Robbie Kruse who was exceptional on the wide right.
Postecoglou feels he’s been able to lay a solid foundation before the Socceroos next get together in March for another international.
“It was a good starting point but we’ve got to build,” he said.
“When we get together in March, I’ve said to the players ‘we can’t drop below this standard now; we’ve got to get better’.”
Source: AAP
