The Football Tragic

So then, we finally know the squad from which the eighteen players to face Kuwait will be chosen. And, folks, the news is not good.

Several players appear to have been chosen on little more than reputation, there are a number of surprising omissions, and the balance of the squad leaves much to be desired.

Let’s take a look at it, from back to front (as it were).

Clint Bolton and Danny Vukovic were clearly the outstanding goalkeepers of the A-League’s first season. No quibbles on that score.

Michael Valkanis enjoyed one fine run of form for Adelaide United, was picked for the squad to face Bahrain, and since then his form has clearly dipped. He was poor in the finals series, particularly against Sydney FC, and his inclusion ahead of the central defender who played majestically throughout the finals, Sydney’s Mark Rudan, beggars belief.

Iain Fyfe made a provisional Socceroo squad way back in mid-2005 after some fine pre-season efforts for Sydney FC. Has Graham Arnold actually seen any of Fyfe’s blunder-ridden performances since then, or has he just picked the young defender on the basis of past achievements?

Another one apparently picked on reputation is Jade North, who routinely appears in second-string Socceroo squads these days despite having done next to nothing to justify his reputation for quite some time.

I have never seen a squad with such an offensively-minded crop of midfield players. Every one of the eight midfielders is by inclination an attacker, with the exception of Newcastle’s Stuart Musialik; should he not be chosen to tidy up in front of the defence on August 16, the thought that Kevin Muscat or Iain Fyfe will be counted on at international level in midfield is not comforting.

Did Angelo Costanzo, so solid for Adelaide throughout last season, not come into consideration?

And does our new manager have something against right-sided players? Carney, Brosque, Dodd, Lazaridis and McKay are all best suited to the left. Who covers the right side, then? Spase Dilevski, maybe, but he is hardly a true winger.

Now we come to the forward line.

How can Mark Bridge, who failed even to make a good impression in the NSW state league, be picked ahead of the likes of Adam Kwasnik, who has been in such incisive form for the Central Coast Mariners in the pre-season? Not to mention Ante Milicic, still a finisher of class and poise, as he showed last year against Indonesia.

One final comment: I have mentioned earlier how disappointed I was at the lack of overseas-based players in the squad; with the start of the Italian season now to be delayed by two weeks, would it not be possible to secure the services of either Marco Bresciano or Vince Grella?

The current situation, in which we are obliged to rely on locally-based players, is, of course, far from ideal. But the squad picked by Graham Arnold is, in my opinion, even further from ideal.