Kewell issues warning

Socceroos star Harry Kewell has warned his teammates and fans not to get too far ahead of themselves and start thinking that Australia is already qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals to be held in South Africa.

Socceroos star Harry Kewell has warned his teammates and fans not to get too far ahead of themselves and start thinking that Australia is already qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals to be held in South Africa.

With Australia firmly in the box seat at the top of the group standings, going into the second half of the final qualification round, a win against Uzbekistan on Wednesday night, could see Australia be the first team to qualify for the finals, if other results go the teams way, starting with tonight-s matches in Japan and Uzbekistan respectively.

But asked if he could already taste a second World Cup finals appearance, he issued a warning that we haven-t qualified for anything and not to think too far ahead, as it could have dire consequences, starting with next Wednesday.

“I don-t want to jump too far ahead,” Kewell said at the official launch of the Australian Football Awards in Parramatta today.

“One game at a time; it-s always been like that for me. There is no point thinking three or four games ahead, because you think that, there are one or two games you usually lose.

“A lot of people are talking that we are already qualified; we haven-t qualified for anything yet. It can still go very wrong; very sour and the teams that we are playing in the next four games are very good teams, especially the next one (Uzbekistan) on Wednesday.

“We-ve got a lot of respect for them. I think if everyone can recall the game over there; yes we won 1-0 nil, but they had a lot of possession; had a lot of good chances and it was our defence that stopped them.

“It-s important for us to work together as a team and the trainer has got us focusing early on, that it-s not going to be easy and that we will accept the challenge.”

The former Leeds United and Liverpool star has no doubts that Uzbekistan will pose a threat to Australia at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

“They are a very talented team; they-re very technical,” he said. “They play very good football.

“The only thing they probably do lack is a bit of belief, but that only comes from experience and they have nothing to lose and they are going to go out there and play some good football.

“I think you will be surprised but they will put us under pressure; it-s going to be a tough game.”

Kewell-s move to Galatasaray in Turkey raised a lot of eyebrows, but the move appears to have paid off and he-s been in the best form of recent years and not being dogged by injury after injury, like he was in his time at Liverpool.

“I-m doing alright; I-m just enjoying my football,” he replied, what he puts his good season with Galatasaray down to. “Obviously I have been up and down the last few years, my career has gone from good to bad, but hopefully it-s coming back up again.

“I am not really worried about what people think now, I-m just out there enjoying my football.”

Asked how he was a different player, from 2006 till now, Kewell obviously hoped that people thought he was a better player.

“I don-t know,” he said a little pensively. “For myself, hopefully I-m better, maybe I-m not, but it (my game) is something I work on everyday, because I have a lot of time to do that at my new club.

“I enjoy working hard and hopefully now people can see a different side to how I play and hopefully that excites people.”

Depending on the fitness of several players, Kewell might once again find himself playing up front, but when asked if he was hoping to improve his goalscoring record with the Socceroos, Kewell was quick to defend his record, which is almost a goal every three games.

“At the end of the day, it-s not all about who scores the goals,” he said. “I would like to see the statistics on the assists.

“Don-t get me wrong, everyone likes to score goals, but it-s not all about me scoring goals or the next person scoring goals; it-s a team effort and it doesn-t matter who scores.

“You look at Bahrain, we didn-t play well but we stuck together and we got the result,” he added.

Tickets are still available for the match against Uzbekistan. To purchase your tickets, go to www.ticketek.com.au or phone on 132 849 or they can be purchased from all Ticketek outlets.

*ANZ Stadium referred to original name of Stadium Australia, due to rules of Asian Football Confederation.