Hiddink Begins Organizing Australian National Football Team

Guus Hiddink (Netherlands), the new head coach of the Australian national football team that is seeking its first advance to the World Cup qualifiers in 32 years, began organizing the Australian team for the first time since taking office on July 22.

Hiddink, who leads both PSV Eindhoven and the Australian football team, announced on August 4 a list of 27 players invited to the Australian national football team’s training camp in Hoenderloo, the Netherlands. The training is scheduled to be held for five days starting August 14. The Australian team’s training in the Netherlands has been forecasted to some extent. Remaining on in the post of Eindhoven’s head coach, Hiddink has been expected to summon the Australian national team to the Netherlands for training.

The Football Federation of Australia (FFA) initially planned to have a friendly match with Colombia in London, but it cancelled the match in favor of Hiddink’s plan to hold a training camp, giving a boost to the coach.

The player list includes John Aloisi (Alavez), a striker playing in the Spanish Primera Liga, and Harry Kewell (Liverpool) of England’s Premier League.

On September 3 and 6, Australia will compete with the Solomon Islands in the final Oceania preliminary match for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. The team that wins this match will have a playoff with the fifth-place team from the Latin American preliminary matches in November, and the winner of the playoff will qualify for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. The only time Australia has advanced to the World Cup was in 1974.

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com