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Queensland must cope with national duty: Bleiberg [Thu Sep 1st, 2005]
Queensland Roar coach Miron Bleiberg says his side will have to learn to live with players being away on international duties, following the A-League club's scintillating start to the competition.
Bleiberg has boldly predicted that up to six of his young troops could be knocking on the door of national selectors by the end of the season.
His prediction came after star striker Alex Brosque earned a call-up into the Australian squad for the World Cup qualifiers against the Solomon Islands.
Brosque, formerly with Dutch club Feyenoord, nailed a stunning left-foot strike against New Zealand to signal his arrival on the competition after several years in Europe.
The 22-year-old will rejoin the rest of the Roar squad in Adelaide after spending three days in camp under the watchful eye of new national coach Guus Hiddink.
Bleiberg said Brosque's absence at training had been a distraction for Queensland, but remained confident the Roar could make it two wins from as many matches.
"For sure it's a distraction because, it's like a kid in class, if you teach them something and he's not there then you have to repeat it all," Bleiberg said.
"So if you're working on a technical thing or you have a team meeting where you're analysing the last game, then he misses out on all this information.
"It doesn't do the team any good. But he'll meet up with us today and we'll have 48 hours to overcome this obstacle hopefully.
"Look at a club like Chelsea or Manchester United, sometimes when there are internationals on they have five players gone. So we have to learn to live with it.
"We're growing in stature and that's part of the price that we're paying."
Bleiberg said all the pressure leading into the match would be on Adelaide who secured a maiden victory over Newcastle last weekend.
United will be desperate to secure a win at Hindmarsh Stadium with a crowd of around 20,000 expected to turn out for the clash.
"The pressure is on Adelaide, not on us," he said. "It's Adelaide's first home game and the expectation on them will be even higher now, so we don't feel any additional pressure."
Bleiberg said vice-captain Josh McCloughan would take his place in the Roar's line-up despite sustaining a fractured hand against the Knights.
"He's got a fractured hand but we tested him on Tuesday and we played full-on so he should be okay," he said.
Adelaide's marquee signing, Qu Shengqing, looks set to again miss out on making his A-League debut, with coach John Kosmina unlikely to risk his star striker's dodgy calf.
AAP
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