Tough Year Ahead for the Olyroos

Australia's Olypmic hopefuls face a stern test having been drawn with Iran and Saudi Arabia in Group D of the 2008 Beijing Games' second qualifying round. Only the top two teams in the group will progress to the third and final round of qualifying, which places competitors in another four-team group that -- assuming they get this far -- the Australian U-23s must top if they are to make it to Beijing. It would be highly beneficial to avoid regional powerhouses Japan and the Korea Republic during the final stage, but, as we have learned recently, teams such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, etc, can all prove tricky opponents.

Before they even get to the first really difficult stage, the Olyroos must first defeat Chinese Taipei (or, for the politically incorrect, Taiwan) in a home-and-away preliminary scheduled for early February next year. Both these encounters should be relatively easy for the Olyroos, who ought to win by several goals overall. If we concede more than a couple, or fail to score at least half-a-dozen, our expectations for making it all the way to the Olympics ought to be lowered.

In the second round, Iran and Saudi Arabia loom as big threats standing in the way of qualification. The Olyroos recently played out a 0-0 draw with Iran, so we know they are no easy beats. Both countries have comparatively strong youth systems, with Iran in particular capable of unearthing a gem talent or two every so often. I'm not sure if they'll be involved in the U-23 qualifying tournament, but age eligible players Hossein Kaebi (a pacy right-sided wing-back contracted to Al-Emarat in the UAE) and Mehrzad Madanchi (a left-sided attacking midfielder for Persepolis) are fully capped internationals with World Cup experience under their belts. Kaebi alone has earned more than 50 caps already. Either Jordan or Kyrgyzstan will round out the group, neither of whom are as weak as Chinese Taipei.

In order for the Olyroos to remain competitive throughout the year-long qualifying campaign, it will be necessary to field the strongest possible team. How A-League matches, the limited availability of overseas-based players, and other international commitments interfere with the schedule is still a bit of an unknown factor. The two matches against Chinese Taipei are due to be played just before the domestic Preliminary Final and Grand Final. If, for the sake of argument, Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide were involved in these matches, Adrian Leijer, Spase Dilevski, Kristian Sarkies, Vince Lia and Dez Giraldi could all find themselves playing four huge matches several thousand kilometres apart in the space of two weeks. Similar clashes will arise if the Olyroos make it through to the third and final stage, which might coincide with the start of the next Hyundai A-League season.

Gaining the services of Nick Ward, Neil Kilkenny, James Wesolowski, possibly David Williams and Kaz Patafta, is another challenge confronting Olympic coach Graham Arnold. The second round of qualifying is played out from late February to early June, a pretty awful period of the year for national team managers seeking friendly acquiescence regarding international call-ups from their domestic league counterparts. Ward, especially, is already a central component of the Queens Park Rangers midfield set-up. Arnold can only hope QPR are not involved in a relegation battle (unfortunately, they probably will be).

All of this is why nobody claimed qualifying for major tournaments through Asia was going to be easy.