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| Australian Coach Holger Osieck and Captain Lucas Neill Photo: Getty Images |
Socceroos coach Holger Osieck and Captain Lucas Neill has declared
that there is something to play for in tomorrow night’s dead-rubber World Cup Qualifier
against Saudi Arabia.
Osieck stated there is something for his side to play for
and that is for themselves and the fans.
“First and foremost we have to play for ourselves. We are
all professionals and every game we go into is a challenge for us, we are on a platform
where everybody is watching us and we have an obligation towards the public and
there are no games which are meaningless,” the German coach said.”
The former Blackburn
and West Ham captain dismissed that they game will be treated like a practice
game.
“No there is no such thing as a practice match. Every time
we play we are always playing for our places so this game is no different. Why
would we want to come play a game, an international and not win?”
Neill agreed with his coach by saying that his side is
already preparing for The 2014 World Cup in Brazil and that the players need to
play for themselves to make the squad.
“We are playing for a
bigger prize now which is going to Brazil and we have to prepare now and we
have to accept the coach’s tactics and methods and we have to put them in practice
so he picks us for the next game and the next one next one which are the
important ones as far as us getting to Brazil.”
Osieck also will expect a great performance and will react
to complacency if there is any in tomorrow’s clash.
“I expect from my boys a great performance in every game we
play and coming to the term qualifying, all the boys have to qualify for the
next round to be part of the Socceroos and they have to accept it and if I see
any complacency here then there is going to be a reaction.”
Neill and the Socceroos are going out to win the game but
they also understand Saudi Arabia have to win Wednesday’s encounter to qualify
for the next round.
“This is a game we want to win and we know they have to win,
so we find ourselves in a game of putting them under pressure and we know that they
will feel that and the country will feel that and we have to take advantage of
that,” Neill said about the pressure for Saudi Arabia.
The 33-year-old Australian captain also believes the gap
between teams in Asian is smaller than ever before so this qualifying campaign will
be Australia’s most satisfying.
“If we are going to get to Brazil this will be the most satisfying
qualifying campaign of the seven years thus far because the games are tougher, the
teams we are playing against are improving all the time which is why we can’t
get complacent and we have to keep improving ourselves and we have to keep the
momentum.”
Piece also here
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