Pim to stick with A-Leaguers

Australian coach Pim Verbeek will maintain the faith with his Hyundai A-League contingent for the Asian Cup qualification campaign despite the Socceroos 1-0 defeat by Kuwait in Canberra on Thursday.

Australian coach Pim Verbeek will maintain the faith with his Hyundai A-League contingent for the Asian Cup qualification campaign despite the Socceroos 1-0 defeat by Kuwait in Canberra on Thursday.

Verbeek admitted the team played well below its best against Kuwait, but believes this is a developing squad who can still do what is required to get Australia into the Asian Cup finals in 2011 in Qatar.

"If we had have played our best and Kuwait was much better than us then we probably should start to get worried. I'm disappointed. I think we are all disappointed. Everybody could have played better except Tom Pondeljak, we didn't use him enough" he said.

"The boys could have done much better and I have all the confidence when we play Oman home and away and Kuwait and we finish it off against Indonesia. Let's wait for the coming months and see how the players are going to pick it up. We have some quite young players."

Verbeek admitted that inexperience played its part in the loss with only two players having played more than five internationals. But he said he needed to show patience with the team as it develops.

"It's a great experience for them. They have to learn and the only way to learn is to make mistakes. Pity it's a qualification game. It's better they make mistakes in a friendly match and then you can work on it. Now we have two games played and only one point," he said.

Australia will have its European-based players available for the next match against Oman on November 14, but he won't consider bringing them in unless there is a change in circumstances.

"Not at this moment. I know it's a FIFA date, and it's six months away. We have to find out what we are going to do, I haven't thought about it," he said.

The Dutchman does not believe that the result is a justification of the reservations he expressed about the Hyundai A-League over the past couple of months.

"It would be easy for me to say that I was right. I think the players can do much better, they showed me on the training sessions, they showed me in the A-League they can be much better." he said.

"I have to admit I'm surprised by the reaction to what I have said. Sometimes I'm just honest. I still think they are good players they are talented players. They need experience, they need a bigger league and they need more international experience."

"If you want to improve, you have to know what you improve. That's not criticism, that just the facts," he said.