Australian football coach Ange Postecoglou has announced his Socceroos squad of 30 for this year’s World Cup in Brazil.
Among the many youngsters picked to take on the likes of Spain, the Netherlands and Chile later this year are veterans Tim Cahill, Mark Bresciano, Luke Wilkshire, Josh Kennedy and Mark Milligan from the heroic 2006 team that pushed football in Australia to new heights after a solid performance in Germany.
Six months into his tenure as national coach, Postecoglou has selected a squad with an average age of 25 tournament, with a number of players in just their early 20s.
Expected to join the final team are 21 year olds Ben Holloran, playing well for Fortuna Duesseldorf in Germany’s second division, and defender Bailey Wright, who has played a strong role for Preston North End’s fight to join England’s second division.
“We needed to change the direction of our national team. This wasn’t going to be an adjustment, this was a meaningful change and we needed to regenerate the team,” Postecoglou said.
“You know the footballing public deserves to dream about its national team and want the best for its national team.”
“We’ll have the whole nation watching in the middle of the night. I’m not going to tell them to get up and not feel great about it.
“And then our responsibility as I said is to excite them when they watch. To give them maybe that glimpse of a future and who knows maybe take them on a little bit of a wild ride through here when the unexpected happens.”
Postecoglou’s decision to build around youth led to the recent retirements of familiar faces Harry Kewell, Brett Holman and Lucas Neill.
Socceroos 30-man squad for Brazil 2014
Goalkeepers: Mark Birighitti (Newcastle Jets), Eugene Galekovic (Adelaide United), Mitch Langerak (Borussia Dortmund), Mat Ryan (Club Brugge)
Defenders: Josh Brillante (Newcastle Jets), Jason Davison (Heracles Almelo), Ivan Franjic (Brisbane Roar), Curtis Good (Dundee United), Ryan McGowan (Shandong), Matthew Spiranovic (Western Sydney Wanderers), Alex Wilkinson (Jeonbuk), Luke Wilkshire (Dynamo Moscow), Bailey Wright (Preston North End)
Midfielders: Oliver Bozanic (Luzern), Mark Bresciano (Al Gharafa), Ben Halloran (Fortuna Dusseldorf), James Holland (Austria Vienna), Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace), Massimo Luongo (Swindon Town), Matt McKay (Brisbane Roar), Mark Milligan (Melbourne Victory), Tommy Oar (Utrecht) , Tom Rogic (Melbourne Victory), Adam Sarota (Utrecht), Dario Vidosic (FC Sion)
Forwards: Tim Cahill (New York Red Bulls), Josh Kennedy (Nagoya Grampus), Mathew Leckie (FSV Frankfurt), Adam Taggart (Newcastle Jets), James Troisi (Melbourne Victory)
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Photo: Matt King/Getty Images
