SYDNEY (23 Dec 2014) – Australia head coach Ange Postecoglou has named his 23-player squad for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 which will kick off in January.
Amongst those included, Socceroos veteran Tim Cahill leads the way and is one of seven players who featured for Australia when finished as runners-up at the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar, and one of 16 players who featured at last summer’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Australia face Kuwait in the tournament’s opening match in Melbourne Rectangular on January 9, and having now finalised his selection, Postecoglou is confident his 23-man squad will deliver a positive outcome at next month’s continental extravaganza.
“It’s been almost six months in the making since the FIFA World Cup,” he said to afc.com
“We’ve had a series of games where there have been some pretty clear objectives, particularly in terms of broadening the pool and seeing whether we could get some better balance in the squad and more depth.
“In the end, I’m pretty pleased with the 23 we’ve ended up with, there’s a good combination of the core of the group that went to the FIFA World Cup, there’s some experience there, but also a sprinkling of guys who will enhance the squad we took to the FIFA World Cup.”
Australia will assemble in Melbourne for a pre-tournament training camp from December 27 December.
“We’ve made sure that from a long way out we were well managed in terms of the individual progress of the players,” Postecoglou said.
“From our perspective, we’re pretty comfortable with this group that they’ll all be available and, more importantly, capable of playing out the whole tournament.”
Goalkeepers: Mat Ryan (Club Brugge/BEL), Mitchell Langerak (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United)
Defenders: Matthew Spiranovic (Western Sydney Wanderers), Trent Sainsbury (Zwolle/NED), Alex Wilkinson (Jeonbuk Hyundai/KOR), Chris Herd (Aston Villa/ENG), Aziz Behich (Bursaspor/TUR), Jason Davidson (West Brom/ENG), Ivan Franjic (Torpedo Moskva/RUS)
Midfielders: Mark Milligan (Melbourne Victory), Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace/ENG), Mark Bresciano (Al Gharafa/QAT), Tommy Oar (FC Utrecht/NED), Massimo Luongo (Swindon Town/ENG), Terry Antonis (Sydney FC), James Troisi (Zulte Waregem/BEL), Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar)
Forwards: Tim Cahill (New York Red Bulls/USA), Mathew Leckie (FC Ingolstadt/GER), Robbie Kruse (Bayer Leverkusen/GER), Tomi Juric (Western Sydney Wanderers), Nathan Burns (Wellington Phoenix/NZL)