We'll be competitive says former captain

Former Australian captain Charlie Yankos believes Australia will be competitive against world ranked No.2 Argentina when they clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 11.

Former Australian captain Charlie Yankos believes Australia will be competitive against world ranked No.2 Argentina when they clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 11.

Yankos, who is best remembered for his outrageous goal against Argentina in 1988, believes despite the trials of the disappointing Asian Cup that Australia can bounce back and give the former world champions a real run for their money.

“I think the game is going to be a very close and competitive,” Yankos told www.footballaustralia.com.au “I think the Argentineans are going to be a lot more astute as they have played against Australia several times now; they know what we can do and they realize and are going to respect us.

“But they are not going to come here and think it-s a holiday; they are going to be very careful and cautious about their approach to the game.

“People always look at a team and say ‘you are only as good as your last game-, so I think the Australian players will realise they are going to have to come and produce. It doesn-t matter was the combination is, everyone is going to be competitive and hopefully they can put the past away and think of the future; planning for the future and put in a very competitive game.”

With World Cup qualifying matches looming large early next year, the need to blood new players to international football is a major talking point. Yankos however, doesn-t believe this is the game to do it.

“Even though you have World Cup qualifiers are coming up soon and you have to get a whole combination and get that all working, you have to do that gradually. You can-t just sort of make wholesale changes and you know this is not the game to do it, believe me.

“You have to put a player in at the right time and the coach will know that and there is a lot of pressure on the coach. So I think, a game of this nature, whilst you try to get new players and get them to come through, you can-t throw them at the deep end too early. You have to be very, very careful how you do that.

“I can remember Frank Arok blooding players in, he was very careful and cautious on how he was doing it, because you can throw a player in, who is very, very talented, you put him in and they have a bad game and that could ruin his whole career and I have seen that happen so many times. You don-t want that to happen. We have a lot of good talent and we just have to bleed them in as they say, gradually into the national team.

The tough defender, who made 86 appearances for Australia, has also welcomed the positive change that has happened to the game in the recent times, especially with the success of the Hyundai A-League.

“Absolutely fantastic,” is how Yankos responded when asked about his thoughts on the Hyundai A-League. “I was lucky enough to be involved in the task force and the implementation component of that as well. To think where it (the game) came from, to what-s happened now is absolutely fantastic.”

“The domestic game, had a lot of turmoil and it needed to have someone with the leadership of Frank Lowy to come in there, take it and run it as a business and not just for other agendas. We had to have our domestic competition kick-off well and it had to be developed so it could be marketed to the masses and I think it has really worked well.”