Aussies Abroad is Compiled by Damian Davies Aussies Abroad is Compiled by Damian Davies
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Welcome to another month of "Aussies Abroad". The countdown to Brazil is now under 100 days
and the squad announcement for the
Ecuador friendly clearly signals the intention to create a new generation of
Socceroos. As the manager says, all
about playing regular minutes, and thankfully we have a good number of players
doing just that. A little bit of
transfer movement predominately across the Asian leagues. Club football is getting interesting across
Europe as we enter the last few months of the season.
Transfers:- with the transfer
window being closed, a limited amount of movement with uncontracted players
being the movers. From a national team
perspective, centre-backs Lucas Neill and Sasa Ognenovski both found new clubs
as they make late runs for the WC squad.
Several former Hyundai A League players making the move to Thailand.
Additions/changes to player
database:
Mitchell Austin (3 Apr 1991) - loan return to Cambridge
United, England
Billy Celeski (14 Jul 1985) - transferred to Liaoning Whomin,
China
Christian Esposito (23 Jul 1990) - loan return to Novara,
Italy
Ndumba Makeche (4 Mar 1992) - transferred to Felda United,
Malaysia
Trent McClenahan (4 Feb 1985) - transferred to PTT Rayong,
Thailand
Lucas Neill (9 Mar 1978) - transferred to Watford FC, England
Erik Paartalu (3 May 1986) - transferred to Muang Thong,
Thailand
Mirjan Pavlovic (21 Apr 1989) - transferred to Pune FC, India
Danny Vukovic (27 Mar 1985) - loan to Vegalta Sendai, Japan
Daniell Zeleny (19 Oct 1988) - transferred to Churchill
Brothers, India
Removed from player database:
Scott Baginski (Kaya FC) - transferred to Lions, QSL
Mitchell Davidson (Kaya FC) - transferred to Fraser Park,
NSWPL
Antony Golec (Liaoning Whomin) - transferred to Western
Sydney Wanderers
Sasa Ognenovski (Umm Salal) - transferred to Sydney FC
Rocco Visconte (Suphaburi FC) - transferred to Croydon Kings,
SAFL
Club Level:-
England (Premiership) –
Crystal Palace captain Mile Jedinak continues to inspire his team as they fight
against relegation. Still yet to miss a
minute of this campaign, February saw ties against Manchester United and
Arsenal!! As a nominee for PFA Player of the Year, he will go very close. Brad
Jones (Liverpool) and Mark Schwarzer (Chelsea) remain on the bench for their respective
clubs.
England (Championship) – very
little game time for our Aussies at this level.
Scott McDonald and Shane Lowry
were both in and out of the Millwall line up.
Goalkeepers Alex Cisak (Burnley) and Adam Federici (Reading) continued
to warm the pine.
England (League One) –
interestingly one of the leagues where we have several Aussies performing very
strongly. Most appropriate to start with
Massimo Luongo at Swindon given he has been called up to the national team. He has scored 6 times from midfielder in a
break out season of nearly 3000 minutes.
The Preston North End connection of Neil Kilkenny and Bailey Wright have
helped their team charge up the table and must both be on the radar for Brazil. James Wesolowski continues to have possibly
his most productive season while Brad Inman got himself back on the scorers
sheet after a bit of a drought by the standards he has set this season.
Germany (Bundesliga) – not
much to report with Mitch Langerak continuing on the bench at Bayer Dortmund.
Germany (2. Bundesliga) -
attacking midfielder Mat Leckie has added a bit more scoring to his minutes
this season and looks like becoming an important part of the national
team. Ben Halloran was certainly hitting
his straps until a training injury has put him on the sidelines.
Netherlands (Eredivisie) – the
Utrecht boys (Oar and Sarota) both got national call ups after solid
performances in Holland. Tommy Oar scoring his first goal for the season. The
development of Jason Davidson has been impressive. From junior football in Japan, senior
football in Portugal and now a few seasons in Holland, the 22 year old has an
impressive CV.
Italy (Serie B) - Carl
Valeri has made his starting debut at Ternana but needs to cement that position
to advance his case for inclusion in the Socceroos squad.
Switzerland (Super League) -
Dario Vidosic (FC Sion) took his season tally to 5 as both he and Oliver
Bozanic (FC Luzern) continue to impress.
Scotland (Premier) – Dylan
McGowan continues to start each week for Hearts. Pleasingly Curtis Good has made the most of
his new opportunity at Dundee United.
Starting each week and having netted his debut goal for the club.
Cyprus (1. Division) -
winger Robert Stambolziev has now scored 5 times in his 21 appearances.
U.A.E (UFL) – Brett
Holman (Al Nasr) has certainly justified his recall to the Socceroos with
several goals of late including a brace in their last game.
India (I League) - our
Aussie boys continue to find themselves on that leagues scoring charts with
Sean Rooney two goals behind in the race for the Golden Boot at table topping
Bengaluru. Tolgey Ozbey scored in only
his second appearance for Dempo.
Hong Kong (HKFA 1st Division) - the
most notable Aussie performance this month was probably the brace scored by
former Melbourne Heart striker Dylan Macallister.
Malaysia (Super League) -
Mario Karlovic (Terengganu FA) returned from injury to help his team to top of
the league.
New Zealand (Premiership) -
Richie Cardozo continues to perform strongly in his second stint at Waitakere
United, three behind in the Golden Boot but quickly running out of games.
Injuries:- unfortunately
the injury list is quite extensive. Long
term injuries to Robbie Kruse and Rhys Williams have now seen Robbie declare
himself a non-starter for the World Cup.
While Rhys has yet to give up hope of a late charge to the national
squad. Brad Inman suffered a groin
injury recently but will hopefully not be out too long. Both Ben Halloren (hip)
and Trent Sainsbury (knee) have minor injuries but enough to keep them out of
the Ecuador game.
Club Competitions:-
Europe
(UEFA Champions League) – both Langerak (Dortmund) and
Schwarzer (Chelsea) sat on the bench as their teams recorded good away results.
(UEFA Europa League) – no Australians appeared in February
South America
(Copa Libertadores) - Richard Porta started Nacional's tie
that saw them proceed to the second round
(Asian Champions League) - both Sam Gallager (Hanoi T&T)
and Andrew Barisic (South China) were knocked out at the qualifying stage.
Several Aussies are now playing in the group stage - McGowan, Nicholls,
Wilkinson and Salley.
Reserves and Youth:-
The Aston Villa Strain brothers, Tom and Jordan continue to
excel. Cameron Burgess has progressed to the U21's at Fulham.Alex Grant plays
90 minutes each game for Stoke City and scores his share of goals. Young
striker Peter Skapetis seems to be cementing himself in the QPR U21 squad. Also in England, 15 yo Panos Armenakas has
made his debut for the Watford U18's. In Italy, the form of Chris Ikonomidis
has seen him called up to the senior squad.
International level:-
a fantastic squad has been selected for the Ecuador game. The opportunity to have several younger
players to audition for a place at Brazil in exciting to watch. Add in the comments from Ange about an
"open door", the next three months will be riveting with about 40
players being a genuine chance to get named in the provisional squad of 30 in
mid May.
Socceroo (capped) of the month – a
previous "winner" of this award, Mat
Ryan has remained in goal the entire season for Club Brugge. They have moved to second on the table with
his consistent performances. He is
arguably the number one keeper for the Socceroos despite only appearing 4 times
at national level.
Sept – Cahill, Oct - Vidosic,
Nov - Ryan, Dec - Jedinak, Jan - Jedinak
Under the radar (uncapped) - the performances of Bailey Wright have been super impressive this year at Preston North
End. The quality of his performances, his consistency, and a little scoring,
make him highly regarded. A Socceroos
call up can't be far away for this young talent.
Sept - Wilkinson, Oct -
Konstantinidis, Nov - Luongo, Dec - Mrcela, Jan - Giannou
Young player (U21) of the month
– having played at several clubs over the past few seasons, seems that 20
yo Alex Grant has settled in well at
Stoke City. Very dependable in defence,
he would have to be an outside chance of making the senior squad in the run
home.
Sept - Ikonomidis , Oct -
Ugarkovic, Nov - Ryan Williams, Dec - Cooper, Jan - B.Smith
