AWs to lock in some November friendlies, in our popular disguise as the pseudo Socceroos?
Here's hoping. I see players have to be released for the World Cup by 14th November with WC itself running 21st November – 18th December.
Hopefully the AWs can pickup say 2 friendlies in Europe/Middle East pre WC starting. France in Paris & Denmark in Copenhagen? Tunisians could be more keen to face us, as they will definitely be targeting Socceroos as must win to have a chance to progress, and likely won't know much about football in our part of the world.
Group D (Socceroos group) kick off early on the 2nd day of the WC (22nd November), so we maybe lucky to just get one friendly about Nov 15th/16th? Or maybe a 2nd game for some WC team's 2nd string lineup, like AWs 2nd string played Oman only 5 days prior Costa Rica.
Having players available for the AWs could be tricky though, as could be a real mish mash of when various leagues pause for WC, or if they pause at all. Imagine League Two (Crocombe, Smith & Tzanev) for example will probably play through? Maybe same with others like the Danish 2nd tier (Stamenic, Just & McCowatt all play there for the moment). Though that league goes into a winter break around December anyway.
Do see that the final round of EPL prior the WC is weekend of Saturday, November 12.
Here's hoping. I see players have to be released for the World Cup by 14th November with WC itself running 21st November – 18th December.
Hopefully the AWs can pickup say 2 friendlies in Europe/Middle East pre WC starting. France in Paris & Denmark in Copenhagen? Tunisians could be more keen to face us, as they will definitely be targeting Socceroos as must win to have a chance to progress, and likely won't know much about football in our part of the world.
Group D (Socceroos group) kick off early on the 2nd day of the WC (22nd November), so we maybe lucky to just get one friendly about Nov 15th/16th? Or maybe a 2nd game for some WC team's 2nd string lineup, like AWs 2nd string played Oman only 5 days prior Costa Rica.
Having players available for the AWs could be tricky though, as could be a real mish mash of when various leagues pause for WC, or if they pause at all. Imagine League Two (Crocombe, Smith & Tzanev) for example will probably play through? Maybe same with others like the Danish 2nd tier (Stamenic, Just & McCowatt all play there for the moment). Though that league goes into a winter break around December anyway.
Do see that the final round of EPL prior the WC is weekend of Saturday, November 12.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2022/6/15/all-whites-vs-costa-rica-the-immediate-reaction
We should also be able to get some decent friendlies lined up around those fixtures. The tendency from teams ahead of World Cups is to try find warm-up opponents who are similar in style to those they’ll be facing in the real stuff. If you’ve drawn Ghana, maybe you play Nigeria. If you’ve drawn Poland, maybe you play Austria. If you’ve drawn Canada, maybe you play USA. And if, like France, Denmark, and Tunisia, you’ve drawn Australia... well New Zealand is close enough.
We should also be able to get some decent friendlies lined up around those fixtures. The tendency from teams ahead of World Cups is to try find warm-up opponents who are similar in style to those they’ll be facing in the real stuff. If you’ve drawn Ghana, maybe you play Nigeria. If you’ve drawn Poland, maybe you play Austria. If you’ve drawn Canada, maybe you play USA. And if, like France, Denmark, and Tunisia, you’ve drawn Australia... well New Zealand is close enough.