Socceroos Head Coach Ange Postecoglou today named Phoenix striker Nathan Burns in his 23-player squad for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 which will be held from 9 to 31 January.
The squad contains:
- 7 members of the Socceroos squad that were runners-up at the AFC Asian Cup 2011 Qatar (Burns, Cahill, Jedinak, Kruse, McKay, Oar & Spiranovic)
- 16 members of the Socceroos squad that went to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (Bresciano, Cahill, Davidson, Franjic, Galekovic, Jedinak, Langerak, Leckie, Luongo, McKay, Milligan, Oar, Ryan, Spiranovic, Troisi & Wilkinson)
- 7 players from the Hyundai A-League (Antonis, Burns, Galekovic, Juric, McKay, Milligan & Spiranovic)
The Socceroos face Kuwait in the opening match of the tournament at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne on Friday 9 January (kick off 8pm AEDT).
Having now finalised his selection, Postecoglou is confident his 23-man squad will deliver a positive outcome at next month’s tournament.
“It’s been almost six months in the making since the FIFA World Cup,” Postecoglou said.
“We’ve had a series of games where there have been some pretty clear objectives, particularly in terms of broadening the pool and seeing whether we could get some better balance in the squad and more depth.”
“In the end, I’m pretty pleased with the 23 we’ve ended up with, there’s a good combination of the core of the group that went to the FIFA World Cup, there’s some experience there, but also a sprinkling of guys who will enhance the squad we took to the FIFA World Cup.”
The Socceroos will assemble in Melbourne for a pre-tournament training camp from Saturday 27 December.
“We’ve made sure that from a long way out we were well managed in terms of the individual progress of the players,” Postecoglou said.
“From our perspective, we’re pretty comfortable with this group that they’ll all be available and, more importantly, capable of playing out the whole tournament.”
Tickets to all AFC Asian Cup matches, including the three Socceroo group stage games, are available by logging onto www.tickets.afcasiancup.com
Socceroos squad for AFC Asian Cup 2015 Australia
Name, Club, Country, A International Caps (Goals)
Terry ANTONIS, Sydney FC, Australia, 3 (0),
Aziz BEHICH, Bursaspor, Turkey, 7 (2)
Mark BRESCIANO, Al Gharafa, Qatar, 81 (13)
Nathan BURNS, Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand, 7 (0)
Tim CAHILL, New York Red Bulls, USA, 76 (36)
Jason DAVIDSON, West Bromwich Albion F.C., England, 13 (0)
Ivan FRANJIC, FK Torpedo Moskva, Russia, 12 (0)
Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), Adelaide United, Australia, 8 (0)
Chris HERD, Aston Villa, England, 3 (0)
Mile JEDINAK, Crystal Palace FC, England, 52 (6)
Tomi JURIC, Western Sydney Wanderers FC, Australia, 5 (1)
Robbie KRUSE, TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Germany, 32 (3)
Mitchell LANGERAK (gk), B.V. Borussia 09 Dortmund, Germany, 5 (0)
Mathew LECKIE, FC Ingolstadt 04, Germany, 16 (1)
Massimo LUONGO, Swindon Town FC, England, 5 (0)
Matt McKAY, Brisbane Roar FC, Australiam 50 (1)
Mark MILLIGAN, Melbourne Victory FC, Australia, 33 (2)
Tommy OAR, FC Utrecht, Netherlands, 20 (1)
Mat RYAN (gk), Club Brugge KV, Belgium, 13 (0)
Trent SAINSBURY, P.E.C. Zwolle, Netherlands, 4 (0)
Matthew SPIRANOVIC, Western Sydney Wanderers FC, Australia, 21 (0)
James TROISI, S.V. Zulte Waregem, Belgium, 16 (1)
Alex WILKINSON, Jeonbuk Hyundai FC, Korea Republic, 11 (0)
as at 23 December 2014
Note: Under the AFC Asian Cup competition rules, players injured up to the start of the tournament can be replaced but the new player must come from the original list submitted on 9 December.
SOCCEROOS AFC ASIAN CUP GROUP STAGE MATCHES
Australia v Kuwait
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
Friday 9 January 2015
8pm kick off (AEDT)
Australia v Oman
Stadium Australia
Tuesday 13 January
8pm kick off (AEDT)
Australia v Korea Republic
Brisbane Stadium
Saturday 17 January
7pm kick off (8pm AEDT)
