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Wednesday 26 September 2012

Asia Cup in Australia 2015? Is it more important than Brazil World Cup for Socceroos?

Right now everyone wants to qualify for the World  Cup - but really the focus for Australia should be on getting to the final of the Asia Cup in 2015.

The Asia Cup 2015 will be held in Australia just six months after the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

And Australia has a remarkable and rare opportunity to grow the game.  A fantastic international tournament to be held on home soil. And the AFL can't stop it...not in January.

They won't even be able to comment on how it destroys their season, their stadiums or games...did they even know it was coming! Were they asleep at the wheel - but that's for another "lemon" day.

Players from the EPL, Italy, Germany, Holland will grace our shores and will tweak the interest of the local populace. Plus there will be great atmosphere at the games - ex-pats  care about football far more than they do for Georgian Rugby 2003 for example.

And while the focus is to find a team capable of winning a game in the current World Cup qualifiers, how much better would our 2015 team be if they were playing NOW!.

Mark Bresciano - out, Tim Cahill out, Lucas Neill out, Brett Emerton out.

Let's just do it.

Australia needs to be brave - forego 2014, great if we qualify but why not really bite the bullet.

Football needs to grow and develop in Australia - surely just now the 2015 is more important than Brazil. Surely?

No guts no glory - in 2015 - and it starts now doesn't it. Or else we'll all be grumbling that Michael Zullo, or Jason Davidson isn't playing so well at left back or Chris Herd looks confused up against Kagawa in midfield or the Aussie speaking Ki via Brisbane; and why is Luke De Vere unsure of who he is playing alongside.

That Asian Cup team can only be ready if it starts now – but Tommy Oar, Adam Sarota, Ryan McGowan, Luke De Vere, Robbie Kruse, Brendan Hamill, Curtis Good, Matthew Luongo, Nikita Rukavystya, James Holland, James Troisi will only be apart of a quality team if they are in the team now, every game – or a few of them at least.

Leave it until August 2014 and we'd have four games, friendlies at that to build a team to compete against the current Japan and Korea sides which are preparing and playing World Cup qualifiers, they both got to the Olympic Semi-finals as well, right now.

Any chance of us preparing for 2015? Any chance of leaving a successful Aussie football performance legacy from the Asia Cup 2015. How long before we have such a tournament here again?

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