Aloisi keen to play

Socceroos striker John Aloisi believes he and Mark Viduka would make a good partnership up front, if he gets the nod for a starting spot against Japan in Monday’s opening World Cup Group F tie in Kaiserslautern.

Socceroos striker John Aloisi believes he and Mark Viduka would make a good partnership up front, if he gets the nod for a starting spot against Japan in Monday-s opening World Cup Group F tie in Kaiserslautern.

While they are arguably Australia-s two best strikers going around, they have rarely been played alongside one another, with first Frank Farina and now seemingly Guus Hiddink preferring to have the one striker supported by several wide attacking midfielders.

Unfortunately for Aloisi that has meant a lot of times coming off the bench, even though he has been a regular goal scorer in the tough Primera Liga in Spain. Both he and Viduka are considered too similar, but Aloisi believes they could make a good combination if they play together more.

"Good players can always play together, can-t they," Aloisi quipped to the media, prior to going into a closed training session. "The last time was against Argentina in the second half (2005 Confederations Cup) when Mark came in for the second half and I ended up scoring two goals, so I hope we do play together."

"I am sure if we had to play together, we could."

Aloisi is happy with his form in training and on the park and can now only rely on the coaching staff to decide which way they will go. He has looked very solid on the ball and his strength could worry the Japanese defence, which is seen as their weak link.

"You-ll have to ask the boss that," he responded when asked whether he had done enough to get a start against Japan. "I-ve been happy with the way I have been training; I was happy with my performance against Holland; the other night (against Liechtenstein) was not too bad, so I have been quite happy with how things have been going and hopefully I will get a bit of a run on Monday whether its from the start or not."

"We watched a little bit of Japan today against Germany, they looked very good. We haven-t really discussed how we are going to play against them and maybe today we-ll do some shape and we-ll see how we are going to play."

Aloisi also thinks that a few shots from distance might be on the cards, with the new lighter balls already producing two cracking goals in the opening game between Germany and Costa Rica. This might suit some of our players with the likes of Marco Bresciano, Jason Culina, Harry Kewell and Josip Skoko excellent long range shots at goal.