Lack of Stars Does Not Imply Darkness

There's been some concern about player unavailability for Australia's forthcoming Asian Cup campaign, which is set to kick off on February 22 next year - a non-FIFA international date. Seeded fourth, Australia could feasibly draw Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, all previous World Cup qualifiers. (Somehow I think we will manage to avoid Japan, one of our World Cup 2006 opponents in Group F.)

If it comes down to the crunch, Australia will have to assemble a team from (a) players based in lower-tier leagues overseas who manage to negotiate an international match release from their respective clubs, and (b) A-League teams not participating in the domestic finals series, which conflicts with the first Asian Cup tie.

The first category is difficult to speculate about. For example, Leicester's backup goalkeeper Paul Henderson may be able to gain a release, while starting eleven teammate Patrick Kisnorbo may be denied. Clubs nearer the top of the table will probably be less willing to allow their Australian players an international exit, especially if the match is played in East Asia as opposed to the Middle East. In any case, Graham Arnold may need to apply the pressure to certain club managers in order to force the issue on behalf of Australia, and that is sure to be interesting!

In the second category, we can safely include players from the languishing Knights, then probably also those from the the Roar, Victory and ... my guess is the Mariners.

In my opinion, we can bring together a pretty decent squad from these two broad categories. Purely for the sake of alleviating needless concern about the state of the national squad and its chances versus Asian opposition in February, here is a potential lineup for the match:

F: Paul Agostino - Archie Thompson
M: Alex Brosque - Paul Okon - Tom Pondeljak - Jacob Burns
D: Mark Byrnes - Michael Beauchamp - Chris Coyne - Paul Reid
GK: Danny Milosevic

Bench: Adam Griffiths, Chad Gibson, Adrian Leijer, Carl Valeri, Mark Robertson, Kaz Patafta, John Hutchinson, Joel Porter, Brett Holman, David Williams, Jess van Strattan

Not a bad effort. For an outfit like this, the best sides in Asia may still present extreme difficulty, so obviously we'd like to avoid drawing or running into them in the first round if possible. (Teams like Japan and South Korea will also be without their European-based stars, however.) Against a minnow football nation like Chinese Taipei, though, we will surely be in very safe hands even with a 'C-grade' team, which I am loathe to call any lineup featuring the likes of Thompson, Brosque and Pondeljak! If anything, the biggest problem will be finding a left fullback, with Sydney FC flyer Alvin Ceccoli certain to feature in the A-League finals. Aside from Byrnes, no better than a stopgap solution, perhaps the consistent but relatively unheralded Dean Heffernan may find himself in prime position for one of the most fortunate national call-ups of all time! (On evidence of the World Youth Championship, anything is a better solution than Trent McClenahan, currently with the MK Dons.)