csbowes wrote:Dogwatcher wrote:Sorry to keep going - but there are an awful lot of Australians playing OS that don't get a run for Australia as we play either our top side or our A League side. There's a middle tier, for example Djite and Burns, maybe we should be working them into the equation when we're selecting Asian Cup teams.
That is actually a good point. I think that's well worth looking into as you are right, there are plenty of players playing in the Championship and League 1 and second tier (or lower) European Leagues.
Couple of points on our loss here:
1. On the comments above, the game was not played on a FIFA sanctioned date, so it's very difficult (read IMPOSSIBLE) to get clubs in Europe who are paying these guys wages to release the players for an international. So Pim was virtually restricted to A-Leaguers only.
2. Let's not underestimate the quality of the Kuwaiti league, or any league in the middle east for that matter. They LOVE football over there. Not many of their players appear in the big time spotlights of the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga etc, but make no mistake - there are some very, very good players in that region, as Asia found out at the last Asian Cup.
Still, onwards and upwards, as has been noted, we're only a couple of good results away from certain qualification.
