August International Game at Loftus Road...QPR's International Defender Advocates Foreign Coach For His Country

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Australia play South Africa at Loftus Road, Tuesday 19 August (Maybe Nick Ward will be returning?)

Football Federation Australia - South Africa and The Netherlands to face Qantas Socceroos Monday, 7 July 2008
The road to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is being mapped out at Football Federation Australia (FFA) with the announcement today of two prestigious international matches in August and September to kick-off the next stage of the World Cup qualifying campaign as well as qualifiers for the 2011 Asian Cup, courtesy of FOXTEL.
The Qantas Socceroos will meet the 2010 World Cup hosts, South Africa, in London on 19 August and the Netherlands in Eindhoven on 6 September.
“It’s all part of the road that leads to the door of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,” said FFA CEO, Ben Buckley.
“We said we would leave no stone unturned in doing everything we can off the park to help Australia qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and the same goes for the 2011 Asian Cup.
“Coach Pim Verbeek sees these two international matches as important opportunities to get the squad together and to work with the players in a match environment.”
As hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa is the only team guaranteed of a berth at the tournament.
“With many of South Africa’s first team players also based in England and elsewhere in Europe, meeting them in London is an efficient and valuable opportunity for both of us,” Buckley said.
The teams last met in 2005 in Durban with a 1-1 draw, but previously met in London in 2004 with Australia winning 1-0.
The Netherlands game will be played four days before Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan on 10 September.
“It’s important that we go into the Uzbekistan game with as much preparation as possible, and playing a team which is ranked 5th in the world and made the quarter finals of Euro 2008 will give us just what we need at that time,” Buckley said.
It is also a warm-up match for the Dutch team which is set to meet Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier on 10 September, and will be the first game with new coach Bert van Marwijk in charge.
Australia has only met the Netherlands once before – in a warm-up match prior to the 2006 FIFA World Cup resulting in a 1-1 draw in a highly competitive workout for both teams.
Australia v South Africa will take place on Tuesday 19 August at Loftus Road, the home ground of Queens Park Rangers, with the kick-off time to be confirmed. Netherlands v Australia will take place at Philips Stadium, Eindhoven, on Saturday 6 September with kick-off time of 8.45pm local.
These two games bring the Qantas Socceroos’ confirmed match schedule over the next 12 months to 12 matches including two Asian Cup qualifiers.
“It’s a busy schedule,” Buckley said. “But it’s also precisely why we wanted to be part of the Asian Football Confederation.
“We have regular, high quality competitive matches with real meaning and real context that fans want to see.”
Buckley said that more competitive matches for the Qantas Socceroos will lead to improved standards and greater growth and development in the game in Australia.
As with all matches in the Qantas Socceroos’ road to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the South African and Netherlands matches will both be shown live and exclusive on FOX Sports. Football Federation, Australia


Goal.com - QPR's Rehman: Foreign Coach Can Help Pakistan
A British-based Pakistani footballer Zeeshan 'Zesh' Rehman has stressed that only foreign coaches could lift the graph of the country’s football, saying it is right time to take decision in the right direction and hire the services of foreign coach.
The Queens Park Rangers star believes that the Pakistani FA have to make the right decision.
“There is an abundance of talent in Pakistan but how to nourish and trim it is a big problem impeding the upward movement of the global sport in the country. I see that only good foreign coaches would be able to put Pakistanís football on right track,” the central defender Zeeshan Rehman told The News through an email interview.....
The tall, lanky, Zeeshan, who is plays for Queens Park Rangers, a famous club striving for getting promotion to the English Premier League, is also keen to see a solid league structure in Pakistan, saying, without a proper league system Pakistan would not be able to produce good footballers. Zeeshan, who unfortunately missed the SAFF Championship in early May because of acute dehydration, said since he joined the Pakistan squad almost three years he has been seeing an improvement in the team’s performance....
Zesh, who has also played from clubs like Fulham, Brighton, Norwitch City, said: “I chose to play for Pakistan because I was looking for a realistic chance of long international career. Also, Pakistan is the country where my parents have born and it is a land having a lot of potential because of it’s huge population. I see a bright future for myself as footballer and for Pakistan as a strong football side.”
“I am currently playing for Queens Park Rangers in the championship in England. It is a very ambitious club seeking promotion to the premier league. I am entering my third season for the club and have played 50 games for it in the last two seasons,” Zeeshan concluded. Goal.com