Timpano ruled out of Sydney FC opener

Sydney FC defender Jacob Timpano has lost his race against time and has been ruled out of the opening match of the FIFA Club World Championships (CWC) on Monday night.

Timpano strained his groin in Sydney FC’s last A-League match against Melbourne Victory before it left for the CWC in Japan and has been unable to recover sufficiently for the first clash against the CONCACAF Champions from Costa Rica.

The Australian U20 defender has been strong in the heart of defence since forcing his way into the side 10 weeks ago and his withdrawal is a blow to Sydney FC’s chances of winning the opening game and progressing to a semi final clash with Liverpool.

Coach Pierre Littbarski made the tough call to rule out the Young Socceroo captain after training yesterday.

“Jacob is out,” Littbarski said to the waiting media.

“He has not recovered enough to play and we will need everyone to be 100 per cent if we are to beat (Deportivo) Saprissa. It is going to be a very fast game against a good side and if he had a small injury he would not have been effective.

“It is sad for Jacob to miss such a big game because he has been playing well for us but we still have six games in the A-League to think about and we want him to be fit for that. If we risk him in the first match and he gets injured again he will miss more games.”

Timpano was disappointed but philosophical about missing the biggest club match of his young career: “It is hard to miss out but I know that the (groin) injury is not quite right and I wouldn’t want to go out there if I wasn’t 100 per cent.

“This is a big game, which makes it hard to watch, but it also made the decision a bit easier because I know I wasn’t right. The medical staff worked really hard with me to get it right but it wasn’t to be.”

Timpano’s replacement will not be named by Littbarski until after today’s final training session on Toyota Stadium with Andrew Packer, Matthew Bingley and Mark Rudan all fighting for a place in the starting side.

Bingley has fully recovered from his calf strain and trained freely today while Packer and Rudan are also itching to be involved. Timpano’s Australian U20 team mate, Mark Milligan, may move from his traditional right fullback role into a central defensive position.

Sydney FC takes on Deportivo Saprissa at Toyota Stadium, Nagoya at 7:20pm (9:20pm Sydney time) on Monday night with Fox Sports showing the match LIVE, starting with a pre-match show at 9:00pm AEDT.

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