By John Sinnott

Australian coach Frank Farina sees Wednesday's international friendly against England as the start of his country's 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.

The last time Australia qualified for the World Cup was in 1974 - when the tournament was staged in West Germany.

The Socceroos' last two qualifying campaigns have seen Australia tumble at the last hurdle, first against Iran and then against Uruguay.

"For us it's our first real hit out in 14 months," Farina told this website ahead of the game at Upton Park. "This is our start to the 2006 World Cup campaign.

"For me the most important thing about the game is to find out where we.

"Hopefully we will perform well against arguably one of the best teams in the world."

Farina attributes Australia's defeat against Uruguay to the South American's superior mental preparation thanks to that continent's intensive series of qualifiers.

"We had two games in four years. Uruguay's went through 18 games, where in every match they were under pressure.

"We hope to get a lot more games like this one against England and along the way with other qualifiers we hope to prepare the players in an even better way.

Uruguay proved stronger mentally than Australia

"Although this is a friendly it will have a mental and physical element in terms of the demands of players.

"If you don't experience games where players are put under pressure then you can't prepare them."

Farina is in an unusual position as an international coach in that he is so distant in a geographical sense from most of his players.

He has a talented squad at his disposal, but almost all of them play in Europe.

That means Farina has to make the occasional trips to this continent during the year to check on their progress.

"It is very difficult," admitted Farina. "Obviously a lot of the South American countries have many players based in Europe.

Australia last reached the World Cup in 1974

"But Australia is in a unique situation. I'm not going to say my job is harder than anyone else. You just have do your best and try and get through it."

Before turning to coaching Farina played for the Socceroos and he maintains that modern players still remain committed to international football, despite the demands of club football.

"I think the passion is still exactly the same. The demands in terms of club football have increased dramatically since I was playing.

"Players are playing three games a week and the money involved in the game has increased.

"With that you have increased pressures on all fronts be it on managers or players.

"When you have the financial situation in club football, you can't blame the clubs for putting so much demands and expectation on players.

"International and club managers both have their own jobs and you expect to get what we you want, but sometimes the two will clash."