Kewell captain for Ghana match

PIM Verbeek today handed Harry Kewell the captaincy of the Socceroos for the match against Ghana on Friday night at the Sydney Football Stadium and is confident his star player will last the full 90 minutes.

PIM Verbeek today handed Harry Kewell the captaincy of the Socceroos for the match against Ghana on Friday night at the Sydney Football Stadium and is confident his star player will last the full 90 minutes.

In a huge vote of confidence, Verbeek had no hesitation in naming Kewell his captain after impressing since arriving in camp on Tuesday morning. Verbeek also said that this did not mean he will be captain for the qualifiers, when more of the senior players will arrive in camp.

"Harry will be the captain, no doubt about it; for this game," Verbeek said to the waiting media. "No guarantee for the next games of course, but again he has made the same impression as he did against Singapore.

"He-s there; he-s ready; he-s doing very well for the group; he has the experience. I think he likes the responsibility."

Kewell, was lively at training this morning, in a fairly intense session, where Verbeek gave some hints as to his preferred line-up for the friendly international against the No.14 ranked nation in the world.

"I think he can play 90 minutes,” the Dutchmen said confidently. “It's up to him but I think it would be very good for him to play 90 minutes.

“But again we take no risk with those players. If it-s necessary to save him for the last 10-15 minutes then we will do that.”

While not naming his starting eleven, Verbeek gave some clues in a 30-minute training game where he had Kewell lined up in an three-pronged attacking formation which also included Newcastle Jets Joel Griffiths and Derby County-s Mile Sterjovski.

In defence he started with Nuremberg pair of Matt Spiranovic and Michael Beauchamp in the heart of defence, with Jade North and Nikolai Topor-Stanley either side, although later in the session he changed that around.

The biggest headache for Verbeek is in midfield, where experienced campaigner Jason Culina may now perhaps be in line for a starting berth, after the player earlier in the week declared he was a likely non-starter.

Culina has been out with a thigh injury for a month, but after buzzing around in the training game, Verbeek may look at starting him to add some experience in the middle of the park.

“I still have one day more, but I think I know what I-m going to do,” Verbeek said, when asked if had decided on a line-up.

On Culina though, "I think maybe he change his mind. When he started the camp, we knew he didn-t play for four weeks and you have to be very careful.

“He's a player who doesn't need games because he's coming into the team and immediately knows what he has to do.

"Maybe the team needs him and maybe he's really ready, mentally also ready to play the game.

“It wasn-t the plan to start him, but maybe I will change my mind.”

Verbeek was also at pains to say the result against Ghana is not particularly relevant and while he will be going out to win the game, he will be looking at what the players can do against a quality opponent.

“ (I-m) not at all worried about the result. Of course we like to win, we are going to play to win the game, because that-s why you play and train. But for me it-s more to see the players.

“Some of the players have to show themselves in a very tough game, because we all know Ghana is one of the best teams in Africa. It-s an interesting game and we want to show the fans that we can do a job against big teams like this.”

Verbeek also indicated that while Mark Schwarzer has yet to arrive in the country (arrives Thursday morning), he will leave the decision to Mark if he plays or not. Schwarzer has stayed in Europe to finalise contract negotiations with an unnamed club.