Australia will see its top soccer players in action on home soil for the first time in almost three years with the confirmation of a two game series against 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Turkey.

The Australian Soccer Association (ASA) announced the matches were scheduled for Sydney's Aussie Stadium on May 21 and Melbourne's Telstra Dome three days later.

Australia last played a significant home game back in November 2001 when the Socceroos beat Uruguay 1-0 in the first leg of the World Cup play-off qualifier in Melbourne.

Since then, the Socceroos played a number of Confederations Cup matches in New Zealand in 2002 plus three fixtures in Europe last year against England, the Republic of Ireland and Jamaica.

Turkey, whose world ranking of nine is 76 places above Australia, was the surprise packet of the last World Cup, reaching the semi-finals.

While it failed to qualify for this year's Euro 2004 tournament after finishing second to England in its group and losing a play-off to Latvia, Turkey remains ranked ahead of other European powerhouses Germany and Italy.

"We expect near to capacity crowds and expect the Australian public to come out and support the Socceroos as they begin their journey to (the World Cup in) Germany in 2006," ASA chief executive John O'Neill said.

He was confident all of the Socceroos' overseas based stars would be available for the matches as he said they had been given early notice of the fixtures.

"It was something like three months ago the players were told that these games against Turkey were on the schedule, so there's been a lot of warning,' O'Neill said.

"We are visiting London next week to principally see the game between South Africa and the Socceroos and will take the opportunity to address the team on issues of match scheduling including these two matches."

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