Squad Reports Up

As the start of the Pre-Season Cup approaches, it's about time the HAL teams close in on their final squads for the 2006-07 regular season. Only Melbourne has assembled a full complement of players so far, but incoming transfers are thick and fast at the moment. To help keep up, I've compiled at-a-glance squad lists for each team.

Who's looking strong?

NB: I'll shift these over to the right sidebar once they fall out of the recent posts and keep them updated through the season (so we can stay on top of all the inevitable short-term injury replacement signings).

Sydney: Squad Report

Out: Bingley, Laurie, Packer, Salazar, Yorke

In: Brockie, Brosque, Zadkovich

Required for a full squad: Who knows?

GKs:

Clint Bolton
Justin Pasfield

DEFs:

Alvin Ceccoli
Iain Fyfe
Mark Milligan
Wade Oostendorp (U-20)
Mark Rudan
Jacob Timpano

MIDs:

Jeremy Brockie (U-20)
David Carney
Steve Corica
Terry McFlynn
Ufuk Talay
Ruben Zadkovich (U-20)

FWDs:

Alex Brosque
Adam Casey
Robbie Middleby
Sasho Petrovski
David Zdrilic

Short-Term Signings:

Matthew Bingley (Defender)
Tallan Martin (Striker)
Jonas Salley (Midfielder)
Joel Thiessen (Midfielder)
Nikolas Tsattalios (Midfielder)
Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Defender)

"Guest" Players:

Benito Carbone (Striker)

Queensland: Squad Report

Out: Baird, Brosque, Brownlie, Carro, Dodd, Gava, Higgins, Moon, Richter, J. Simpson, T. Simpson, Shin, Tollenaere

In: Lynch, Milicic, Ognenovski, Packer, Reddy, Vidosic, Wedau

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

Head coach Miron Bleiberg resigned mid-season. Frank Farina signed for two and a half years as his replacement.

GKs:

Liam Reddy
Tom Willis

DEFs:

Remo Buess
Spase Dilevski
Chad Gibson
Ben Griffin (U-20)
Josh McCloughan
Stuart McLaren
Sasa Ognenovski

MIDs:

Andrew Packer
Seo Hyuk-soo
Matt McKay
Massimo Murdocca
Marcus Wedau

FWDs:

Simon Lynch
Ante Milicic
Damian Mori
Reinaldo
Dario Vidosic (U-20)
Zhang Yuning

Short-Term Signings:

Steve Fitzsimmons (Midfielder)
Chris Grossman (Midfielder)
Robbie Kruse (Striker)
Griffin McMaster (Goalkeeper)
Carl Recchia (Midfielder)
Tim Smits (Striker)
Tando Velaphi (Goalkeeper)

Perth: Squad Report

Out: Caceres, Celeski, Deane, Fa'arodo, Horsley, Ishida, Jovanic, Mc Mahon Jr, Miller, More, Teggart, Ward, Vasilevski

In: Bertos, Christie, Glavas, Lazaridis, Magdic, Robertson, Saric, Townsend, Vrteski, Webster

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

GKs:

Jason Petkovic
Alex Vrteski (U-20)

DEFs:

Jamie Coyne
Jamie Harnwell
Ante Kovacevic
David Tarka
Ryan Townsend

MIDs:

Leo Bertos
Jeremy Christie
Simon Colosimo
Stan Lazaridis (Marquee)
Josip Magdic
David Micevski (U-20)
Mark Robertson
Adrian Webster

FWDs:

Bobby Despotovski
Luka Glavas
Mimi Saric
Naum Sekulovski
Stuart Young

Short-Term Signings:

Andrew Crews (Goalkeeper)
Mark Lee (Midfielder)
Andy Petterson (Goalkeeper)
Paul Pezos (Defender)
Tyler Simpson (Defender)
Tommi Tomich (Goalkeeper)

New Zealand: Squad Report

Out: Bright, Brockie, Bull, Caravella, Christie, Collet, Fitzsimmons, Hay, Imaya, Maguire, Moss, Rose, Tambouras, Tinkler, Yeo, Zhang (phew!)

In: Buari, Bunce, Carbon, Casey, Duruz, Gemmill, Johnson, Kovacevic, Paston, Richter, Rodrigues, Salley, Turnbull, White

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

Contract of manager Paul Nevin terminated mid-season. Interim replacement is Barry Simmonds.

GKs:

Danny Milosevic
Mark Paston
Michael Turnbull

DEFs:

Darren Bazeley
Che Bunce
Matt Carbon
Gregory Duruz
Neil Emblen
Sime Kovacevic (U-20)
Frank van Eijs

MIDs:

Scot Gemmill (Marquee)
Noah Hickey
Richard Johnson
Jonas Salley
Michael White (U-20)

FWDs:

Malik Buari
Adam Casey (U-20)
Sean Devine
Jonathan Richter
Dani Rodrigues

Short-Term Signings:

Campbell Banks (Striker)
Nick Crossley (Goalkeeper)
Dean Gordon (Defender)
Fernando De Moraes (Midfielder)
Jeff Fleming (Midfielder)
Gao Lelei (Striker)
Li Yan (Midfielder)
Alen Marcina (Striker)
Hamza Mohammed (Midfielder)
Ivan Necevski (Goalkeeper)
Steven O'Dor (Defender)
Franco Parisi (Striker)
Tim Smits (Striker)
John Tambouras (Defender)
Dustin Wells (Midfielder)

Newcastle: Squad Report

Out: Bates, Corbo, Johnson, Kohler, Milicic, Parisi, Petterson, Picken, Reddy, Studman, Zelic

In: D'Apuzzo, Faria, Griffiths, Kennedy, Necevski, Okon, Old, Ozbey, Rodríguez

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

Head coach Nick Theodorakopoulos sacked after seven regular season matches. Assistant Gary Van Egmond promoted as caretaker.

GKs:

Ante Covic
Ben Kennedy (U-20)
Ivan Necevski

DEFs:

Craig Deans - injured (season)
Andrew Durante
Steve Eagleton
Labinot Haliti
Jade North

MIDs:

Nick Carle
Adam D'Apuzzo (U-20)
Tarek Elrich (U-20)
Stuart Musialik
Paul Okon
Milton Fabián Suárez Rodríguez
Matt Thompson
Jobe Wheelhouse

FWDs:

Mark Bridge
Vaughan Coveny
Tony Faria
Joel Griffiths
Tolgay Ozbey (U-20)

Short-Term Signings:

Tim Brown (Midfielder)
Troy Hearfield (Striker)
Paul Kohler (Defender)
Steven Old (Defender)
Tando Velaphi (Goalkeeper)
Shane Webb (Defender)

Melbourne: Squad Report

Out: Diaco, Kitzbichler, Recchia, Tadrosse, Vlahos

In: Alessandro, Brebner, Caceres, Claudinho, Fred, Vargas

Required for a full squad: 1 player

GKs:

Eugene Galekovic
Michael Theoklitos

DEFs:

Mark Byrnes
Geoffrey Claeys
Adrian Leijer (U-20)
Daniel Piorkowski
Simon Storey
Rodrigo Vargas

MIDs:

Alessandro
Grant Brebner
Adrian Caceres
Michael Ferrante
Fred
Vince Lia
Kevin Muscat
Steven Pantelidis
Kristian Sarkies (U-20)

FWDs:

Daniel Allsopp
Claudinho
James Robinson
Archie Thompson (Marquee)

Short-Term Signings:

Peter Gavalas (Goalkeeper)
Antun Kovacic (Defender)
Leigh Broxham (Midfielder)

Central Coast: Squad Report

Out: Beauchamp, Carle, Heffernan, Woodruffe

In: McMaster, Porter, Tomasevic, Vidmar

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

GKs:

John Crawley - injured (December)
Danny Vukovic

DEFs:

Nigel Boogaard (U-20)
Andrew Clark
Paul O'Grady
Wayne O'Sullivan
Vuko Tomasevic
Tony Vidmar (Marquee)
Alex Wilkinson

MIDs:

Damien Brown
Andre Gumprecht
Jamie McMaster
Matthew Osman
Brad Porter (U-20)
Noel Spencer

FWDs:

John Hutchinson
Adam Kwasnik
Nick Mrdja
Stewart Petrie
Tom Pondeljak

Short-Term Signings:

Oliver Bozanic (Midfielder)
James Holland (Striker)
Mile Jedinak (Midfielder)
Damian Mori (Striker)
Matt Simon (Striker)
Matthew Trott (Goalkeeper)

Adelaide: Squad Report

Out: Brain, Bugeja, Hatzis, Matricciani

In: Burns, Giraldi, Owens, Petta

Required for a full squad: Squad complete

GKs:

Robert Bajic
Daniel Beltrame

DEFs:

Richie Alagich
Robert Cornthwaite
Aaron Goulding
Kristian Rees
Michael Valkanis
Adam Van Dommele

MIDs:

Ross Aloisi
Angelo Costanzo
Diego
Travis Dodd
Matthew Kemp
Greg Owens
Lucas Pantelis - injured (season)
Bobby Petta
Carl Veart

FWDs:

Nathan Burns (U-20)
Dez Giraldi (U-20)
Fernando
Shengqing Qu (Marquee)

Short-Term Signings:

Bruce Djite (Striker)
Ben Moore (Goalkeeper)
Jason Spagnuolo (Midfielder)

"Guest" Players:

Romário (Striker)

Melbourne Complete Squad

Melbourne Victory have become the first A-League team to sign a full complement of twenty players for the forthcoming season, a feat that a few other clubs may not necessarily care to accomplish in order to remain under the salary cap or remain flexible throughout the year. Funnily enough, Melbourne were the only team to journey through last season without a full squad, leaving one vacancy for unforeseen circumstances.

'Alessandro' Viana da Silva (pictured), a left-sided wingback from Brazilian side Internacional, and all-purpose defender Roddy Vargas from local team Green Gully Cavaliers are the new players. Following the logic that three young Brazilians are better than two, Alessandro joins fellow countrymen Fred and Claudinho, who may have glossed over any queries about the weather. Apparently he's fast and can whip in a dangerous cross, qualities Melbourne lacked at times in the previous season. Vargas can play anywhere across the backline, but may find himself deployed on the right side of defence if Kevin Muscat shifts into a central role in midfield -- early pre-season matches have suggested as much.

As ever from the marketing team at Melbourne, the hype surrounding the shape of the squad is just a touch over-zealous:

Alessandro, a 23 year old attacking left back, will link up with fellow Brazilians Fred and Claudinho in the most cosmopolitan squad ever assembled in Australian domestic football history. Victory also boasts former Belgian international, Geoffrey Claeys, Scottish midfielder Grant Brebner and Argentinian-born Adrian Caceras.

With all due respect and tongue firmly in cheek, I've played for university teams that fielded more 'cosmopolitan' line-ups than Victory's sparse tri-continent effort, with players in the squad hailing from Spain, Argentina, Canada, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Scotland, Sweden, Ghana, England, New Zealand, Iraq, Australia and the United States! Football is indeed a global language.

In all fairness, Victory management has every right to feel upbeat about its recruitment during the off-season break. The general consensus is that the squad is a big improvement from last year, when there were some strugglers who were a bit too green for the big show and other experienced players who failed to live up to killer expectations. It might be argued that every team in the A-League has improved their squad from last season, but Adelaide, Newcastle and Perth will have to prove that on the pitch if they are to utterly convince me. In removing the clutter and bringing in six new players, Victory have done enough to suggest a promising season ahead.

Newcastle Struggling to Field a Team

With at least five players carrying injuries, new striker Tolgay Ozbey unavailable to play due to his commitment to play in the NSW state league grand final, the imminent departure of Ned Zelic, and the late arrival of Paul Okon to the club, Newcastle may not be able to put a full complement of eleven players on the park and three substitutes on the bench when they take on New Zealand this Sunday in the opening round of the Pre-Season Tournament.

Whether or not a handful emergency injury replacements can be signed in time remains to be seen.

Newcastle is still three players short of a full 20-player squad. Fortunately for them, so is New Zealand.

Ten Days to Pre-Season Cup

The round robin Pre-Season Cup tournament kicks off next Saturday (July 15) with last year's winners the Central Coast Mariners hosting Perth Glory, the team they topped 1-0 to win the inaugural trophy in 2005. (The tournament is still without an official name. Perhaps the FFA are hoping/waiting to sell naming rights to a major sponsor?)

This year, the FFA is touring the event across several regional areas, including the Gold Coast (Queensland vs Sydney), Wollongong (Sydney vs Perth) and Canberra (Sydney vs Newcastle), places that may accommodate their own A-League teams in the near future. Obviously, fan interest in all regional matches will be closely monitored by the FFA.

Group A comprises Adelaide, Melbourne, Central Coast, and Perth, while Group B contains New Zealand, Newcastle, Queensland and Sydney.

Inclusive of finals to decide all eight finishing positions, each team will play a total of six matches -- something of a short-term antidote to the low number of regular season games offered in the A-League.

The action is set to heat up in the fourth 'bonus round' of the Cup, which offers extra points to teams that manage to score at least two goals, regardless of whether they win or lose the match. Two goals earns the side one bonus point, while three goals earns two extra points and four or more goals gains three bonus points. Theoretically, a big winner in the bonus round could earn six points and vault from last place in the group to first. (New Zealand and Perth are the most disadvantaged teams during the bonus round, given that each is required to travel thousands of miles to Adelaide and Wollongong respectively.)

It's very unlikely that the tournament will provide an accurate guide to the season proper. All of the teams are still building towards the mid-August start of the league, with a large number of playing squad and coaching openings yet to be determined. Triallists are likely to be mobilised in abundance, especially at Perth where up to five more players need to be signed before the start of the regular season. Some contracted players won't be available either. Dwight Yorke hasn't returned to Sydney just yet, while injuries will keep the likes of Simon Colosimo, Daniel Piorkowski, Jacob Timpano, Dario Vidosic and John Crawley sidelined.

While Sydney, Central Coast and Adelaide will clearly be striving to add to their collections of silverware, last season's strugglers may approach the tournament not to win it but to measure their off-season progress and answer some pertinent questions. Has pre-season training adequately prepared the squad? How will new signings perform under pressure against A-League opposition? What areas still need to be improved in relation to other teams? For the New Zealand Knights, the big question will be to what extent they have bridged the gap with their Australian-based rivals?