Wanderer Matthew Spiranovic has been selected in the Socceroos squad to face Ecuador in London on 5 March.
NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic has been selected in Ange Postecoglou-s Socceroos squad to face Ecuador in London on 5 March.
The clash with Ecuador at The Den in London is the last match before Australia must name a provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup in mid-May and Postecoglou believes Spiranovic can stake a claim for the World Cup.
The squad is reflective of Postecoglou-s belief that he will select players showing strong club form with his recent scouting trip to Europe and the Middle East solidifying his belief that the next Golden Generation of players is ready to take the step into the National team in Brazil.
“The squad to face Ecuador represents the first steps in what I believe is the building of the next golden generation for Australian football acknowledging there is a need to balance experimentation and experience to achieve this,” Postecoglou said.
“The Ecuador match gives this group of players an opportunity to stake a claim for the World Cup. They have been rewarded for playing consistent and strong football and shows that age and limited international experience are not barriers to opportunity.
Spiranovic will depart from Australia following this weekend-s Hyundai A-League match against Newcastle Jets.
While the World Cup and beyond is a strong focal point for Postecoglou the Socceroos Head Coach also stressed the importance of the Ecuador match.
“Ecuador is a very important game for us,” Postecoglou said. “It-s the last game (before World Cup squad selection) and it-s a quality opponent. Ecuador made the World Cup and it will be a tough challenge for us.
“We started our journey against Costa Rica and we want to build on that. It was a solid performance and the players backing up from that game would already have had a taste of what we are trying to achieve. For the new ones it-s about getting as much information as possible.
“We-ve done a lot of work in between the Costa Rica game and now with analysis of our own performance and analysis of our opponents and they-ll get a lot of information in those two or three days and I-m certainly looking for a strong performance against Ecuador so we continue to build on the positive feeling we had after the Costa Rica game.”
The 23-man Socceroos squad to face Ecuador at The Den on Wednesday 5 March is:
Oliver BOZANIC (FC Luzern, SWITZERLAND) Tim CAHILL (New York Red Bulls, USA) Jason DAVIDSON (SC Heracles Almelo, NETHERLANDS) Ivan FRANJIC (Brisbane Roar FC, AUSTRALIA) Curtis GOOD (Dundee United FC, SCOTLAND) Ben HALLORAN (Fortuna Dusseldorf, GERMANY) Chris HERD (Aston Villa FC, ENGLAND) James HOLLAND (FK Austria Vienna, AUSTRIA) Mile JEDINAK (Crystal Palace FC, ENGLAND) Brad JONES (GK) (Liverpool FC, ENGLAND) Mitchell LANGERAK (GK) (B.V. Borussia 09 Dortmund, GERMANY) Matthew LECKIE (FSV Frankfurt 1899, GERMANY) Massimo LUONGO (Swindon Town FC, ENGLAND) Ryan MCGOWAN (Shandong Luneng Taishan FC, CHINA) Matthew MCKAY (Brisbane Roar FC, AUSTRALIA) Mark MILLIGAN (Melbourne Victory FC, AUSTRALIA) Tommy OAR (FC Utrecht, HOLLAND) Tommy ROGIC (Melbourne Victory FC, AUSTRALIA) Matt RYAN (GK) (Club Brugge KV, BELGIUM) Adam SAROTA (FC Utrecht, HOLLAND) Matthew SPIRANOVIC (Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA) Dario VIDOSIC (FC Sion, SWITZERLAND) Luke WILKSHIRE (FK Dinamo Moscow, RUSSIA)
MATCH DETAILS Socceroos v Ecuador The Den, London Wednesday 5 March 2014 8pm kick off (7.00am AEDT)
The Socceroos v Ecuador match will be broadcast LIVE and Exclusive on FOX Sports 3 with a 30-minute pre-game show starting at 6.30am (AEDT) ahead of the 7.00am kick off.
