Aussies Abroad | August Review

For those football-starved fans enduring a long off-season in Australia, we have some respite as the big European leagues returned to action in August.

For those football-starved fans enduring a long off-season in Australia, we have some respite as the big European leagues returned to action in August.

Plenty of player movements, so many Aussies trying to establish themselves at new clubs, an international friendly for the Qantas Socceroos and the next stage in WC2014 qualifying is nearly upon us and the Young Socceroos are playing a tournament in Asia.

Transfers: A good spread of destinations for our Aussies Abroad during the European off season.

Loan deals have also been reached as players search for first team football, and in the case of Nick Carle, to go chasing a Socceroos berth.

Numerous players have pulled the pin on their overseas adventures and have returned to Australia as they look for the next club deal, while some bigger names like Kewell, Coe and Grella are still yet to find clubs for the season. Given Kewell and Coe remain in Socceroos calculations, sorting out their playing future is critical.

Club Level: China (Super League): Several impressive contributions so far this season, none more so than Dino Djulbic (Guizhou Renhe) who has made 23 starts and not missed a minute of game time so far this season. Jonas Salley has played every minute in all but one game that he missed through suspension.

Conversely, Joel Griffiths is probably not seeing the minutes he would like, but when you are in same line-up as Didier Drogba and Christopher Anelka, life is good. Rostyn Griffiths has now made 15 appearances and seems to have cemented his spot in the starting XI at Guangzhou R&F. Daniel Mullen has also settled in at Dalian Aerbin.

Japan (J- League): A quiet month for our Aussies with Jade North and Josh Kennedy having long injury breaks. Alex Brosque continued up front for Shimuzu S-Pulse but hasn't scored a league goal since mid July.

Korea (K-League): August was a month of mixed fortunes for our Aussies in Korea. Eddy Bosnar has continued to be a standout with his trademark free kicks featuring on highlights reels. Robbie Cornthwaite (Chunnan Dragons) continues his break-out season, while Alex Wilkinson and Brendan Hamill are just establishing themselves. Luke DeVere was performing strongly until cut down by injury.

England (Premiership): Veteran Mark Schwarzer just keeps going in at Fulham - the Qantas Socceroos legend turns 40 in October, and it-s an amazing effort to be performing at such a high level for so long.

At the beginning of his career is Chris Herd, who-s been in and out of the Aston Villa squad because of injury. Not so for teammate Brett Holman who is developing a reputation for his tenacity.

Other Aussie goalkeepers in the Premier League are Adam Federici (Reading), who was shaky earlier but has fought back and Brad Jones who has been a regular on the pine at Liverpool.

England (Championship): Both Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace) and Rhys Williams (Middlesbrough) spent time wearing the captains armband during August. Australian highlights have not been that common in this league. The exception being a strong start for Massimo Luongo at Ipswich Town and steady games from Shane Lowry (Millwall) down back.

England (League One): The Aussie presence at this level is covered by Oldham, Preston North End and Portsmouth. Cisak has been the starting keeper, relegating Dean Bouzanis to the bench at Oldham. The two starting centre-backs at Preston North End are now Aussies Bailey Wright and Shane Cansdell-Sherriff. The youth brigade at Pompey has seen both Andy Higgins and Alex Grant make senior debuts.

Italy (Serie A) It-s early days, but great to see James Troisi (Atalanta) make his debut in the first game of the season.

Germany (Bundesliga): Robbie Kruse (Fortuna Dusseldorf) finds himself in the starting XI - quite a rapid rise to fame given he was in and out of the team last campaign. Would be fantastic to see an extended run and good game time.

Germany (2. Bundesliga): Matthew Leckie has continued on his strong pre-season with a solid start to his loan period at FSV Frankfurt but is currently on the sidelines with an injury - hopefully only a short break.

Netherlands (Eredivisie): In terms of the Australian interest, it-s all about young players, possibly headlined by Jason Davidson (Heracles), but also Adam Sarota and Tommy Oar at Utrecht. These guys are all seeing good minutes, under the age of 25, and being rewarded with exposure to the Qantas Socceroos.

Scotland (Premier League): All of a sudden, an important league in terms of Australian development. We know about Ryan McGowan at Hearts, who picked up where he left off last season. The influx of new talent is pleasantly surprising. Young midfielder Jackson Irvine (19) has just made his senior debut at Celtic after coming through the youth set-up. Dylan McGowan (Hearts) and 18-year-old keeper Alex Baird (Dundee) find themselves in the senior matchday squads.

Scotland (First division): It seems as though Marc Warren (Airdrie United) is making the most of his transfer north of the border, having made a handful of starts already.

Portugal (Primeira): Caleb Patterson-Sewell (Vitoria Setubal) has made his starting debut - unfortunately he conceded seven goals in the first two games and was then dropped to the bench. Hopefully he will bounce back quickly.

Ireland (Premier): Mark Griffin has now scored three is his last two starts for Dundalk.

Ireland (First Division): Dylan Mernagh (Waterford United) has now made over 20 appearances as his club remain in the race for promotion.

Iceland (1. Deild): Twenty-three year old Chris Ross (Vikingur Reykjavik) seems to have won the confidence of his manager having started the past four games.

USA (MLS): Tim Cahill is making his presence known at the NY Red Bulls. Having opened his scoring account and broken somebody's nose with a stray elbow, it-s certainly been an interesting start to his American adventure.