THE Socceroos declared they have no issue playing their historic Asian Cup semi-final on Tuesday night at a reduced Hunter Stadium.
The Australian team flew into Williamtown Airport on Friday afternoon to begin preparations for their first match in Newcastle since 1995.
Since the Socceroos lost 1-0 to South Korea last Saturday night, which dictated they would play their semi-final at Hunter Stadium, the merits of hosting the game at the Broadmeadow venue have been hotly debated.
Due to Asian Confederation Football rules, tickets cannot be sold for non-seated sections of host venues.
This subsequently reduced Hunter Stadium’s capacity from 33,000 to 23,000 for the game.
Some critics have called for the semi-final to be moved to Sydney’s Stadium Australia, which has a capacity of 83,000, but Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou said his side were happy to be playing in Newcastle.
“We’re excited to have qualified for the semi-final and looking forward to feeling the support of the people of Newcastle on Tuesday night and in the lead-up to the game,’’ Postecoglou said.
“The Newcastle region has a long and rich football history and it’s great that the Socceroos will play such an important match in front of what is a football-mad public.
“A lot has been made of the location of the match but as far as I’m concerned the Socceroos represent all Australians, so to have a game in Newcastle is great for football in the area and allows more people to see this team play in their own yard”.
They were sentiments echoed by in-form midfielder Massimo Luongo, whose star has risen during the Asian Cup.
‘‘I don’t think anyone is too bothered about it [not being in Sydney or Melbourne],’’ Luongo said.
‘‘If we get a full stadium, 23,000 or whatever, it will be nice. It’s a nice compact stadium and the fans are right behind us.
‘‘We’re from all over the place in Australia.
‘‘As long as the fans are behind us it doesn’t matter where we play”.
Meanwhile, soccer fans who miss out on the hottest tickets in town will likely get the next best thing when a free public broadcast arrangement is finalised.
Under Asian Cup broadcast rules, the big screen ‘Livesite’ at Honeysuckle has been unable to broadcast any of the games played in Newcastle because match tickets haven’t sold out.
If Tuesday’s Socceroos match sells out as expected, Newcastle council and the local organising committee will be free to broadcast the match live at the Honeysuckle ‘fan zone’.
The council’s manager of tourism and economic development services Jan Ross said on Friday that about 1000 final seats will go on sale early on Saturday. The last-minute tickets for the historic match are expected to sell quickly.
‘‘We’ve spoke to the tournament organisers today and there will be no problem with the live broadcast once the stadium is a sell-out,’’ she said. ‘‘I think we’ll able to make that call around lunchtime on Saturday.’’
source: theherald.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 