Ange names his first Socceroos squad and Mark Schwarzer retires from international football!

Usually a squad announcement for a friendly is not very exciting and a lot of fans don't even pay much attention to it. However, this morning's Socceroos squad announcement was one of the most anticipated in recent times. Following our back to back 6-nil losses, the sacking of Holger Oesick and the appointment of Ange Postecoglou, everyone's attention and discussion turned to who would be called up to the national side. The big question on everyone's mind was who would get axed of the "golden generation" players and what new names would we see on the team sheet. One player from the "golden generation", Mark Schwarzer, answered the question before the squad was even named by announcing his retirement from international football in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

This is the squad named by Ange Postecoglou for the friendly against Costa Rica:

Oliver BOZANIC, Mark BRESCIANO, Tim CAHILL, Jason DAVIDSON, Ivan FRANJIC, James HOLLAND, Mile JEDINAK, Josh KENNEDY, Robbie KRUSE, Mitchell LANGERAK (gk), Matthew LECKIE, Ryan McGOWAN, Matthew McKAY, Mark MILLIGAN, Lucas NEILL, Tommy OAR, Tom ROGIC, Mat RYAN (gk), Dario VIDOSIC, Rhys WILLIAMS, Alex WILKINSON, Michael ZULLO

Looking at the list I can say I'm very pleased with the selection. As expected some of the "oldies" are still there to add experience to the squad but it's refreshing to see mostly young faces in the squad. The most exciting part of the squad will be a completely revamped back line after the omissions of Wilkshire, Carney and Ogenovski. While the retirement of Mark Schwarzer will have Mat Ryan and Mitch Langerak fighting it out for the number one spot. Up front we will see very creative and exciting players from the likes of Rogic, Oar and Vidosic but I can see the squad still being spearheaded by the power of Cahill.

It's very interesting to not only note the names called up but the type of players that Ange has chosen. It looks like the Socceroos will be playing the same style of football that made Ange so successful at Brisbane and Melbourne, this means no holds barred, fearless football. Formation wise we'll likely see that familiar 4-3-3 preferred by Postecoglou, which includes attacking overlapping fullbacks (hence the callups of Franjic, Davidson and Zullo), a strong holding midfielder (Jedinak), creative players in between the lines (Oar, Rogic) and a powerful striker to lead the line (Cahill). I would love to see a starting lineup of Ryan, Franjic, Williams, McGowan, Davidson, Jedinak, Milligan, Rogic, Oar, Kruse and Cahill.

On a final note I would like to say thanks to Mark Schwarzer for all the great memories and amazing saves, he will certainly go down as one of the all time Socceroo legends. He ends his international career with 109 caps (most capped Socceroo) and two appearances in the World Cup and the Asian Cup. He was named Australian Footballer of the Year in 2009 and 2010. Everyone remembers the penalty taken by John Aloisi that sent us to the 2006 World Cup but never forget that he would never have had the chance to do that if it wasn't for Schwarzer's two amazing penalty saves that night. You can relive that amazing penalty shootout here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5p6VOAGF8. I hope that Mark's retirement leads the way for other older Socceroos to announce their retirement and pave the way for the younger generation to take over, I'm looking at you Lucas Neill.

The Socceroos vs Costa Rica match is on Tuesday 19 November at Allianz Stadium, Sydney. Kick off is at 7:30 pm, get your tickets now!