Bullish Socceroos ready to carve their own place in history with a place at fourth straight World Cup
THE Socceroos are quietly confident they can create the right kind of history on Wednesday night, qualifying for a fourth consecutive World Cup at the expense of Honduras.
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THE Socceroos are quietly confident they can create the right kind of history on Wednesday night, qualifying for a fourth consecutive World Cup at the expense of Honduras.
With ticket sales pointing to a full house at ANZ Stadium for the second leg, Ange Postecoglou’s side believes it can use the goalless draw in Saturday’s opening game as a springboard to securing a place at Russia 2018.
Postecoglou has been bolstered by Mathew Leckie declaring himself fit to play, with teammate Robbie Kruse racing to join him after days of intensive physio in Melbourne.
The capacity for the game will be around 76,000 thanks to FIFA regulations that block out parts of the stadium behind the goals and players’ benches, and less than 10,000 tickets remain on sale.
“It’s the biggest game for us in a long time and we’re really hopeful the Sydney public turn out to back us in droves,” said Kruse.
“We’ll be giving everything to get the right result, with a full house on a good surface, I believe we can really click and get to Russia.”
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The squad of players that faced Honduras on Saturday touched down in Sydney on Sunday lunchtime, returning almost 24 hours ahead of their opponents thanks to the $900,000 charter flight that left soon after the final whistle in San Pedro Sula.
The whole squad expects to be fit given 80 hours of recuperation from landing in Sydney, a total contrast from Honduras’s lengthy trip on scheduled flights via LA, including many players in economy class. As well as Leckie and hopefully Kruse, Postecoglou will also have Mark Milligan available after suspension.
These exclusive pictures (below) reveal the secret training sessions at AAMI Park the trio undertook over the weekend, led by Melbourne Victory and former Socceroos conditioning guru Anthony Crea, monitored by national team physio Nino La Scala.
Milligan, who could slot into midfield or defence at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday, said the mini-camp was flawless and the fresh legs could be telling.
“It’s a strength of ours not just now, but previously too. This is a bit different with the three of us in Australia,’’ Milligan said.
“There might only be a few of us but it feels like that camp atmosphere now.
“It’s good that even though we didn’t travel, the setup and information we’re still getting from the national team, from (sports scientist) Craig Duncan, from (physio) Les (Gelis), from the boss (Postecoglou), on what we need to be doing and what he wants.
“That just sums up the way that we’ve setup and the atmosphere we’ve created in the system.’’
Postecoglou said that all three could play a role.
“I think that’s going to be an enormous asset for us,’’ Postecoglou said. “The beauty of having Millsy, Lecks, Krusey there are three very important players for us.
“It will be really handy for us as we saw with the Syria game, knowing we’ve got some fresh, important bodies for the second leg.”
Originally published as Bullish Socceroos ready to carve their own place in history with a place at fourth straight World Cup