Enter The African Lion

It is always exciting when quality sides agree to tour here in Australia, recent indications are that Cameroon will make the trip to our shores for a friendly on Friday May 23. It apparently will be played at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. This match of course will act as a warm up match for both teams ahead of World Cup Qualifying matches (Australia will host Iraq at home on June 1st while Cameroon meet Cape Verde Islands at home on May 30th).

The timing of the match will also coincide with the FIFA Congress being held in Sydney in May and will allow the FFA to showcase our ability to stage world class events here in Australia. With that in mind I am expecting FFA to go all out in terms of marketing for the event to ensure a bumper crowd at the match.

There is one major issue however that may impact the quality of the match. The European season pretty much finishes in Mid May and with both countries having a full plate of World Cup qualifying matches in June they are going to want to rest some of their older and more experienced players. These are of course the players that are also the major drawcards. Pim Verbeek has already hinted at this and I also expect Cameroon to allow several players some time off.

For Australia I would be expecting Emerton and Cahill to be just about certain non starters. You would also have to place question marks over Neill, Culina, Grella, MacDonald as all could do with a short break. Cameroon will almost certainly rest Eto’o (that’s if Barcelona are not in the Champions League Final, which case he won’t be coming anyway) and one or two others.

This of course should be seen as a positive (though I am sure the media will take the negative approach when players start dropping out) as the purpose of friendly’s is not to win at all costs but rather to try new systems and players. Hopefully Pim takes advantage of this and make some long term strategic moves. Such as

Cap Matthew Spiranovic
Currently playing for Nurnberg in the German Bundesliga, Spiranovic is currently eligible to play for either Australia or Croatia. Although he has reaffirmed his commitment and desire to play for Australia, the country of his birth, it is important for us to lock him in. The question mark at the centre back position for the Socceroos is still unresolved and it would be a disaster to lose such a talent through lack of action.

Take a close look at Richard Porta
Posta currently holds eligibility for both Argentina and Australia. Pim made it clear that looking to cap Richard Porta for the Qatar match was out of the question and I agree totally with him. However the Cameroon match would seem a prefect time to approach him to get a feel if he is at all interested in playing for Australia and to get him out here to take a closer look.

Take a close look at Rhys Williams
Williams currently holds dual eligibility for Wales and Australia, he is a current member of the Welsh Under 21 team. There is no indication that Williams wants to play for Australia but I hope we haven’t ignored him. At the very least we should be approaching him to assess whether he is interested in playing for Australia.

Start Adrian Leijer
With a full season of training and reserves football behind him at Fulham, Leijer should be blooded with a full game in defence. A key defender in the Olyroos he did well when he was brought on in the Singapore match. Instead of playing Beauchamp, North or Kisnorbo lets go with the youngster and see how he stands up.

Start Bruce Djite
If the China demonstrated one thing is our lack of depth in the Centre Forward position. Viduka, Kennedy and that is it. We need to bring Djite along and means we need to throw him in as a starter and allow him to develop. If Australia lost Josh Kennedy for the long term tomorrow we would be in real strife we need to mitigate that risk now.



There is no doubt that Pim will use this match as preparation for the June Qualifiers but I hope he doesn’t also lose sight of the long term view. Australia needs to plan now for not only 2010 but beyond and blooding/developing new players is critical. Too often in the past Australia has approach every friendly with a win at all costs and it does nothing for the long term health of the Socceroos.