Former coach Pim Verbeek has warned Australia to expect a tough game when they travel to Honduras for the first leg of their World Cup qualifiers on 10 November.
“The Australians will find it very different to many of the places they’ve been,” Verbeek, who is currently coaching Oman’s national team, told Reuters.
”The closest comparison is to Uruguay when they went there in 2005, but it’s worse.
”It’s a long journey too, they’ll probably have to fly to Miami and then down to Honduras. Then they have to go back, so it’s going to be a tough challenge with no real time for preparation because the distances are so big.
“It’s going to be hard.”
The Socceroos enter the intercontinental World Cup playoff after narrowly winning Syria in an Asian playoff last week.
The second leg will be played at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium on 15 November.