Your First 11 V Brazil

Schwarzer
Neill
Popovic
Moore
Culina
Grella
Cahill
Emerton
Viduka
Aloisi
Kennedy

Posted from  Australia

1.Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough-England)
2.Lucas Neill (Blackburn Rovers-England)
3.Vince Grella (Parma-Italy)
4.Scott Chipperfield (FC Basel-Switzerland)
5.Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers-England)
6.Marco Bresciano (Parma-Italy)
7.Jason Cullina (PSV Eindhoven-Netherlands)
8.Josip Skoko (Wigan-England)/Luke Wilkshire(Bristol City-England)
9.Harry Kewell (Liverpool-England)
10.Joshua Kennedy (Nurnberg-Germany)
11.Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough-England)

Posted from  Australia

if moore and grella and aloisi are out i would give lazaridis a shot and perhaps give skoko or sterjovski a shot of the bench.
schwarzer
neil
popovic
lazaridis
kewell
kennedy
viduka
chipperfield
bresciano
emerton
wilkshire

sometimes there is something to be said if you have quality players on the bench give them a run, becuase they will fire to retain there spot.
i would bring cahill on perhaps later in the match perhaps have impact just after half time. brazil by then may be a little tired if australia runs them. i would give kennedy a starting shot because i think his height and mobility might give the brazilians a little scare in defence and it might free up viduka. but i would make wilkshire stay within a metre of ronaldhino at all time. if he is covered brazilians may lose alot of quick movement and watch kaka closly as well. if australia move the ball quickly and run and put alot of pressure on brazil i beleive it will make them vulnerable for late goals due to lack of fitness.

Posted from  Australia

forgot cullina in there somehwre. see australia does have some depth to there squad. definatly more then croatia. i have a feeling croatia are alot like serbia.

Posted from  Australia

Well that didn’t work too good on the computer anyway u know what actually the squad selection decision is basically based on I recogn the outcome of the Japan/Croatia game. If Japan wins!!!

1.Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough-England)
2.Lucas Neill (Blackburn Rovers-England)
3.Craig Moore(NewCastle Utd-England)
4.Scott Chipperfield (FC Basel-Switzerland)
5.Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers-England)
6.Marco Bresciano (Parma-Italy)
7.Jason Cullina (PSV Eindhoven-Netherlands)
8.Vince Grella (Parma-Italy)
9.Harry Kewell (Liverpool-England)
10.Tim Cahill (Everton - England)
11.Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough-England)

Otherwise

1.Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough-England)
2.Lucas Neill (Blackburn Rovers-England)
3.Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace-England)
4.Scott Chipperfield (FC Basel-Switzerland)
5.Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers-England)
6.Marco Bresciano (Parma-Italy)
7.Jason Cullina (PSV Eindhoven-Netherlands)
8.Vince Grella (Parma-Italy)
9.Harry Kewell (Liverpool-England)
10.John Aloisi (Alaves-Spain)
11.Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough-England)

Posted from  Australia

Why is Viduka an automatic choice? He hasn’t scored a goal for Australia for a very long time. Aloisi deserves to be the starting striker!

Posted from  Australia

He’s da captain that’s why and his form against Japan was good specially in the first half

Posted from  Australia

Viduka may not have scored but he gave Japan plenty of headaches, especially in the first half.
Aloisi has a yellow and it’s risky starting him if when we have other options.

I wouldn’t let Lazaridis anywhere near the XI!

Posted from  Australia

yeah Lazaridis was hopeless, Skoko was good when he played though might be an outside chance

Posted from  Australia

Aloisi has to play, at least one half if not the whole match. The guy hit the freekick that result in the throw-in from which the first goal was scored. He passed the ball to Cahill for the second, and he scored the third. What else does a player have to do to get in the side?

Posted from  Australia

A striker’s job is to score goals. If he can’t do that, he better sit on the bench.

It’s the attacking midfielders’ job to create all sort of problems for the opposition. A striker, especially if he’s a lone striker, is the one who has to score.

Posted from  Australia

‘have a feeling croatia are alot like serbia.’

Ha ha Troy lol mate…. looks like your starting to play with fire here lol.

Look, come next Friday and depending on what part of Australia your from, you guys will have a very exciting state of origin decider to talk about or the Collingwood v swans match (which i’ll be going to).

Troy, LiverpoolFC, just let this weekend pass PLEASE watch both group F matches because come Monday you guys are going to have a better understanding of the Croatian football squad which at the moment you both clearly do not have.

Posted from  Australia

I wouldn’t talk till that goals column for Croatia has at least a one in it. Australia has 3, Japan has 1(even if it wasn’t valid its there), so does Brazil, Croatia at the moment 0, ur stuck at the same level as Trinidad n Tobacco. We’ll see how u go against da Japanese caus I’m sure Zico has a special cpl of presents for da Croatian team when they arrive to play. Plane tickets back home to Croatia

Posted from  Australia

I agree with you about strikers needing to score DT but I guess my point is that the last 15 mins of that game against Japan was a very different environment to the first 75 mins. The whole team wore Japan down, which gave Cahill and Aloisi their opportunities. Viduka was a big part of that constant battering and I think he gets written off too easily.

Plus, the yellows for Cahill and Aloisi are a consideration when choosing the XI.

Tomislav - Jeez, we’re trying to have a discussion about the starting XI against Brazil here. Everything isn’t always about the Croatian squad!! Can’t you at least control your nationalistic fervour until after we play Brazil?? Cheers.

Posted from  Australia

Hey matilda I was just responding to Troys comments. I thought about the starting 11 and than decided that Guus knows best so better leave it to him.

Posted from  Australia

OK, OK I just can’t stand it when a normal discussion turns into a “my team/country is better than your team/country” bickerfest. I could see it starting and wanted to stop it before it got going!

Yes, Guus knows better than all of us and we can guess all we like but he’ll probably do something crazy we never anticipated…. like start every player on yellow!

Posted from  Australia

forget the yellow!
Go for Gold!

cmon Aussie

Posted from  Canada

I doubt that Hiddink will worry too much about the yellow cards when he picks his side. I mean, this game is a lot more important than people seem to think. At the least, it decides whether we need a win or just a draw against Croatia, which is a huge difference.

Ideally, we’d want to play three at the back against Brazil, with two wing backs and two defensive midfielders. That way, we have players up the ground to watch Ronaldinho, Kaka, Cafu and Roberto Carlos, and an extra player down back in case they get one through. Problem is, unless we want to play Popovic (who is totally unsuited to this kind of game) we probably have to pull Chipperfield down to defend, which would mean Lazaridis at wing-back.

I think its worth it. At least Lazaridis’ pace could make Cafu think twice about getting too far forward.

I expect Hiddink will build his strategy based on Australia’s superior match fitness, and get the midfield to play it around to themselves as much as possible, denying Brazil possession and forcing them to work hard early on. Brazil have utterly brilliant ball users, but they’re a little weak on ball winners, with the exception of Emerson.

Posted from  Australia

Everybody thinks that Japan will lose on one single performance from Croatia. Well we’ll see and I recogn Hiddink’s tactics will change depending on what happens in that game. Expect all guns blazing if Japan wins.

Posted from  Australia

Tim Cahill’s such a klick-@$$! I’m sure Australians will have a strong finish or better yet, win the cup!

Posted from  Philippines

Brazil is a good team, but i think that Australia has a good futbol, too.

yo presumo que Australia será el ganador

Australia 1 - Brazil 0

The Socceroos could play a similar game to the US today in terms of taking away the mid-field game by a strong mid-field defense. The US had several players at the ball breaking down the Italian mid-field and completely flustered the Italian teams game style.

I think Brasil have many weaknesses including over-confidence and full backs in their 30s that the Socceroos can exploit. I think a strong physical game that takes advantage of the Socceroos better conditioning and stamina will make the game competitive.

Posted from  United States

Australia WILL pull the upset tomorrow. Brazil is too overconfident, too much age across the team.

Get’em Aussie’s!

Posted from  United States

I think that the australian tenacity and aggression will null and void the brazillian brilliance therefore i think it will be a draw.

Posted from  Australia