A-League leads to World Cup
Too young, too quick, too slow, too fragile, whatever the reason, whatever your code I'm sure you've heard the criticism of the A-League.
But with the Socceroos heading to the FIFA 2010 World Cup few fans would expect to see the squad without a pack of A-League players.
Yes that's right the A-League will be sending a host of players to the World Cup,to one if not the greatest stage in World Sport.
Who would bet against Craig Moore, Chris Coyne, Jason Culina or Mile Sterjovski making the squad.
Add in Jacob Burns, possibly a New Zealand led Shane Smeltz, Costa Rica's Carlos Hernandez at the tournament as well, and who knows how many more local boys will make the grade, maybe it's time for the critics to actually acknowledge what the game is achieving, and the quality going around.
If New Zealand and Costa Rica make the World Cup there maybe as many as 10-15 A-League players heading to South Africa.
Add in Robbie Fowler, Archie Thompson, Charlie Miller and a host of others who have played in International teams, a heap of further Socceroos to return in Season 6 and the signs for A-League growth in quality are clearly increasing.
And while the quality of the league continues to improve it will be our young players, our first Youth League graduates, now starting to stake their claims at their respective A-League clubs who will benefit the most.
1 comment:
Don't forget Chris Coyne as well Eamonn, I would say he is a strong bet for the squad too
You can even go further, it's no longer a case of "Euroroos" and "Aussieroos" as we now have a substantial amount of fairly potent players who would form an "Asianroos" contingent playing in the Asian leagues, eg Milligan in CSL, Jade North in K League and of course Josh Kennedy in J League
Having higher calibre players in A League and Asian leagues should be good for ACQ where we can't get European players back, as in "Local" squads we can now get Josh Kennedy alongside Archie Thomposn which is reasonable upfront, as well as Moore and Milligan/Coyne at the back, in midfield we would be able to have Culina and Sterjovksi in the midfield, so we can expect an end to the really obvious distinction between the "substandard" A League absed squad and the premier Euroroos squad and it would begin to look more honestly like an actual second string rather than a 4th string with massive numbers being used
NUFCMVFC
Post a Comment