Socceroos embrace Cup auditions with end goal in sight
Anna Harrington |
Socceroos boss Tony Popovic doesn’t have to tell his players just how close they are to a prized World Cup berth.
It’s there for all to see.
Tuesday’s send-off match against World Cup debutants Curacao at AAMI Park is the last on home soil before an extended squad heads to North America.
“It’s a World Cup and anyone that’s here now feels they’re so close. They’re in the final camp before we go to the World Cup to prepare,” Popovic said.
“So you have to believe, as a player, you’re in the mix, and then they have to obviously try and perform to their maximum and really show that they deserve to be on that plane.
“But it’s not a message that we really have to reiterate. I think the message is clear by how we choose the players: every camp there are new players.
“Every window a new player is playing, or there’s a new debut, so the players can see for themselves that anything’s possible.
“And that should give them a lot of confidence and belief that they could be one of those players that go.”
Chasing a third World Cup berth, Milos Degenek only knows one way to pay Popovic back for his faith in him: doing everything he can to make sure the Socceroos win.
Degenek is firmly in the selection mix as one of Popovic’s versatile defensive options.
“These things are things you dream of,” Degenek told AAP.
“There’s moments in my life where I sit back and say, ‘well, I’ve been to one, I’ve been to two, and I could potentially go to three’ – and I think this third one is the cream of the crop.
“Because I’ve never felt more proud of the team than I have now, and I’ve never felt more love of a team and of the staff and of the players than what I have now.”
Popovic has hailed Degenek as a surprise success story, given he at one point never expected to call upon him amid an 18-month injury battle.
The defender re-emerged as a regular, and captained Australia for the first time against New Zealand.
“He’s very special to me, and he’s someone I don’t think there’s a way I could pay him back,” Degenek said.
“The only way I could pay him back is on the field – to do everything I can to win, to make him happy with my performance.
“He’s done something for me that no other coach with the national team has done. He’s given me the opportunity to be here. He’s given me the opportunity to wear the captain’s armband and to play regularly.
“It’s not respect, it’s not love, it’s something beyond that.
“Long after I finish my football career, he’s someone that I’ll always look up to and someone that I’m always going to call and I’m always going to ask for advice. It’s hard to put into words what someone like him has done for me.”
Determined to maintain his own high standards, Degenek, 31, gambled on leaving Backa Topola for Cypriot powerhouse APOEL Nicosia.
“It’s a big move purely based because I think the Cypriot League is a lot better than the Serbian league,” he said.
“Obviously I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and push myself to be even better, to be even more prepared for the World Cup, which is the end goal.”
On Tuesday night, Popovic wants his charges to build on a positive second half in Friday’s 1-0 win over Cameroon.
“It’s also exciting to play a different opponent, different style, a real footballing team, they want to play,” he said.
“So they’ll give us different challenges, and I want to see how we can overcome that.”
AAP