SYDNEY: Long-serving former Australia captain Lucas Neill will not be part of the squad for the World Cup finals due to lack of playing time, coach Ange Postecoglou said yesterday.
The 36-year-old former Millwall, Blackburn and West Ham defender joined Watford in England’s second tier in February but managed only a few minutes on the pitch before being loaned to Championship strugglers Doncaster in late March.
“In the end I just had to make a decision not so much about the recent history but the last six months in terms of form and fitness,” Postecoglou said of Neill.
“There just wasn’t enough evidence there for me to say he’d be able to hold up in a World Cup.
“It was both a combination of the lack of regular football and the little niggles he got that made the decision for me.”
Under former coach Holger Osieck and Neill, Australia booked their ticket to Brazil after a stuttering last phase of Asian qualifying but were heavily criticised for their stodgy play.
With German Osieck sacked in October following back-to-back 6-0 friendly defeats to Brazil and France, his replacement Postecoglou has been tasked with rejuvenating a demoralised team in time for the finals, which start on June 12.
“I had a conversation with Lucas regarding the World Cup squad and obviously before I announced the 30-man squad next week I thought it was important for me to speak to him directly,” Postecoglou said.
“I informed him that he hasn’t made the 30, from my perspective paying due respect to the fact that he’s been the captain for six years and the captain of the World Cup campaign so far.
“It was difficult, he’s worked damn hard to get himself ready and available; he’s shown an enormous determination to go to this World Cup.
“You can see why he’s played for his country as many times as he has and why he was a leader, he’s gone down fighting.”
The 96-cap Neill, a veteran of Australia’s 2006 and 2010 World Cup finals campaigns, had been without a team since leaving J-League side Omiya Ardija in November, finally signing for Watford before his loan spell at Doncaster.
Australia’s fourth trip to the World Cup finals will be extremely challenging, having being grouped with Spain and the Netherlands, who fought out the 2010 final, as well as Chile.
No World Cup dream till after group phase: Prandelli
MILAN: Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said he does not expect his players to harbour big World Cup dreams until they make it out of a “particularly tough” group phase in Brazil.
Prandelli, speaking to Raisport, steered Italy through a largely successful qualifying campaign to claim their World Cup ticket with two games to spare.
Italy will open their campaign against England in Manaus before hosting Costa Rica in Recife and then hosting Uruguay in Natal.
The Azzurri handler indicated that it will only be time to start dreaming of any kind of success if Italy progress from Group D and into the second round.
“We know we’re in a particularly tough group, our first objective is to qualify from it and then we’ll see,” said Prandelli. “Only once we have qualified from our group can we start to harbour any real ambition.”
Prandelli said he had already decided on most of the 23 players he would take to Brazil, and added the squad “will be composed of three goalkeepers, seven defenders, eight midfielders and five strikers.
“In my head, I already have 18 or 19 players for sure. The others will be evaluated during our preparation phase.”
Italy, who won the last of their four World Cup titles in 2006 but crashed out at the first round in 2010, are set to spend several days at their Coverciano training camp near Florence in a fortnight.
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