End Game Tactics

The group stage has come to an end and teams specifically Australia and Brazil had made changes to help boost their chances in the Finals. Coach Hiddink of Australia has put Liverpool winger Harry Kewell alongside Tim Cahill to form the fiercest attacking unit of the Socceroos. This is in anticipation of Croatia’s weaker defense due to banned Robert Kovac.

This is a good move and could help them get to the final 16 by strengthening their play that could exploit Croatia’s handicap. We should see the Socceroos score more goals in the tournament.

The team lineup of Australia and Croatia might end up like this:

Croatia: Pletikosa, Simic, Tudor, Tomas, Simunic, Srna, Nico Kovac, Babic, Kranjcar, Prso, Olic. Subs: Balaban, Bosnjak, Butina, Didulica, Klasnic, Ivan Leko, Jerko Leko, Modric, Seric, Tokic, Vranjes.

Australia: Kalac, Neill, Moore, Chipperfield, Emerton, Grella, Culina, Cahill, Sterjovski, Kewell, Viduka. Subs: Aloisi, Beauchamp, Bresciano, Covic, Kennedy, Lazaridis, Milligan, Popovic, Schwarzer, Skoko, Thompson, Wilkshire.

Brazil on the other hand rested Ronaldo, Emerson, Cafu and Roberto Carlos. I am not sure about Ronaldo because I would rather see him play to shed off some of those cholesterol level slowing down his body. Playing for Brazil’s starting lineup are Robinho, Juninho, Gilberto, Gilberto Silva and Cicinho. The final roster for Brazil – Japan game is:

Japan: Kawaguchi, Santos, Tsuboi, Kaji, Nakazawa, Hidetoshi Nakata, Ogasawara, Nakamura, Inamoto, Maki, Tamada. Subs: Doi, Endo, Fukunishi, Komano, Moniwa, Koji Nakata, Narazaki, Oguro, Ono, Takahara, Yanagisawa.

Brazil: Dida, Lucio, Juan, Cicinho, Gilberto, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Silva, Juninho, Ronaldo, Robinho. Subs: Adriano, Cafu, Carlos, Cris, Emerson, Fred, Julio Cesar, Luisao, Mineiro, Ricardinho, Rogerio, Ze Roberto.

[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup, Germany, FIFA World Cup 2006, Soccer, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Socceroos, Croatia, Diary[/tags]