Van Marwijk to serve up more of same in Budapest

BEN MCKAY AUSTRALIA will treat their final tune-up before reaching Russia as a dress rehearsal for their World Cup opener with France and not a chance to see fresh faces.

Ever the pragmatist, Socceroos coach Bert van Marwijk says tomorrow morning’s (AEST) friendly with Hungary in Budapest will see more of the same from Australia.

“I will not change a lot because I cannot afford it,” he said.

By afford, van Marwijk is referring to time.

The clock has been ticking on van Marwijk’s tenure since he took the job earlier this year, and the final countdown has arrived.

A week out from the June 16 date with Les Bleus, van Marwijk should field a similar XI to the team to take on the French – and the one that demolished the Czech Republic 4-0 last week.

If there are inclusions, Mile Jedinak, Tomi Juric and Matt Jurman present the strongest cases.

Jedinak had only just arrived in camp before the Czech Republic clash and as skipper could run out in place of Massimo Luongo at the Groupama Arena.

Juric’s knee issue has cleared, while Jurman has impressed in training and is an obvious candidate for minutes in defence.

While the match will be an important guide as to how Australia are shaping up ahead of the imposing opener against France, van Marwijk suggested he would rather still be in Turkey training in the hot sun.

“I choose to have two friendly games. A lot of coun- tries have three or four, maybe five,” he said.

“When you have one game it costs you maybe four training sessions and I needed that time to try to teach them how I want to play.”

The 4-0 result in Austria last weekend has raised expectations both inside and outside the Socceroos camp.