Tarka Earns First Senior Australia Cap

Qantas Socceroo coach Frank Farina has handed David Tarka his first international cap after finalising his side for the match against surprise-packets Vanuatu tonight at Hindmarsh Stadium.

Qantas Socceroo coach Frank Farina has handed David Tarka his first international cap after finalising his side for the match against surprise-packets Vanuatu tonight at Hindmarsh Stadium.   Out of the original side, named by Farina earlier in the day, goes Patrick Kisnorbo (rested), with Stan Lazaridis back onto the left side of defence.   Farina has also decided to give Mark Bresciano another game off so he can totally recover from the calf injury that he picked up against Turkey.   The Australian line-up is: Zeljko Kalac (gk); Jade North, Tony Vidmar, David Tarka, Stan Lazaridis, Brett Emerton, Vince Grella, Josip Skoko, Alex Brosque, David Zdrilic, John Aloisi   Tarka-s Qantas Under 23 teammate Alex Brosque also wins his first start, after coming off the bench on Wednesday afternoon for his first cap.   Joining Brosque in midfield is Brett Emerton, Vince Grella and Josip Skoko, while John Aloisi and David Zdrilic will lead the attack.   Vanuatu go into the match having produced one of the great upsets of international football with their 4-2 defeat of New Zealand yesterday - a result which has thrown the group standings wide open.   Australia have struggled to defeated Vanuatu on the two previous occasions the sides have met, a 2-0 win in Auckland in 2002 and a narrow 1-0 win courtesy of a Kevin Muscat penalty in 2000.   Victory against Vanuatu will assure Australia progresses to Stage 3 of the World Cup qualifying tournament where they play-off against the other top team from the tournament in September 2005. Prior to that the same two teams will met in October this year to decide the Oceania champion and with it the right to compete in the 2005 Confederations Cup.   Australia play Vanuatu at 8pm with Fiji playing the Solomon Islands in a key match-up in the early game at Hindmarsh Stadium at 5.30pm. New Zealand will take on Tahiti at the Marden Sports Complex at 2pm.