May 11 will mark the day when the speculation ends and Pim Verbeek picks his preliminary 27-man squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; June 1 the day when four of those players learn that they have just missed the cut for the final group.
Until then, players will be chased down for their thoughts on their own chances of being taken along by the Dutchman, the fringe members who haven’t enjoyed quite as much game time for their club sides as they might have liked no doubt eager to voice their confidence through media outlets. The reality of the situation is that there are only a handful of spots up for grabs with Verbeek likely to go with a tried and trusted formula that has rarely changed in his national team camps during a conservative but successful reign.
Goal.com though is willing to put itself in the firing line and attempt to predict the Dutchman’s 23-man squad; though whether he decides to fulfil the predictions of this weekly column is quite another matter.
Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer (Fulham, England), Michael Petkovic (Sivasspor, Turkey), Adam Federici (Reading, England)
Overlooked: Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United, Australia)
Two of these three spots will most definitely be taken by No.1 Mark Schwarzer (for obvious reasons) and rising star Adam Federici, who has starred for reading this season and established himself as one of the finest goalkeepers in the Championship and perhaps, England. That leaves one spot open for contention and it will be a three-way battle between veteran Michael Petkovic of Sivasspor, Brad Jones of Middlesbrough and Eugene Galekovic of Adelaide United.
The case for the latter is a strong one, more so than that of Jones who has recently worked his way back into the Borough first team and who endured a disastrous debut for the national team in a friendly back in 2007, which will count against him. Petkovic though, will have the edge because of his experience. To take Galekovic – who is untested on the biggest stage with the Socceroos and isn’t exposed weekly to European football – would represent a gamble, as it might just be he who has to deputize for Schwarzer in case of an emergency in South Africa. Expect Galekovic to receive a consolation in the form of a call-up to the train-on squad.
Defenders: Lucas Neill (Galatasaray, Turkey), Jade North (Tromso, Norway), Mark Milligan (JEF United, Japan), Craig Moore (Clubless), Simon Colosimo (Melbourne Heart, Australia), Scott Chipperfield (Basel, Switzerland)
Overlooked: Matthew Spiranovic (Urawa Red Diamonds, Japan), Sasa Ognenovski (Seongnam Ilhwa, Korea Republic), Dean Heffernan (Huddersfield Town, England), Eddie Bosnar (Shimizu S-Pulse, Japan)
source: goal.com
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