Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak knows exactly what it takes to reach an Asian Cup final and has no doubt Australia will be title contenders come January.
After an impressive first-half showing from the Socceroos in Osaka on Tuesday they were ultimately outplayed by Asian Cup champions Japan, who won 2-1 to assert themselves as tournament favourites.
Jedinak is one of a handful of current Socceroos who was part of the side which reached the Asian Cup final in 2011 only to heartbreakingly go down 1-0 to Japan in extra-time.
The Socceroos kick off next year’s edition on home soil against Kuwait on January 9 before their other group games against Oman, who Australia have struggled against in the past, and a strong South Korea.
Should they progress past the group phase, they’ll then face either Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea or China in the quarters with the likes of Asia’s top-ranked team Iran, Japan and Iraq looming beyond that.
But Jedinak remains certain Australia will still be standing come the tournament final.
“No doubt about it,” he said.
“I know this side and we’ve been working on a way of playing for a while now. The manager’s come in and implemented a style and new players have come in and adapted straight away.
“We’ve got work to do, no doubt about it, and we’ll have our work cut out for us like we did four years ago but these are challenges that you need to be up for.
“These experiences when we come here and play in some tough conditions that just makes us stronger going into January.
“We’ve come here and shown what we can do against Asia’s best.
“We didn’t fall too short, it was a good account of ourselves. If we keep doing that we believe we can mix it with anybody.”
Midfielder Matt McKay was also part of that 2011 squad, playing a part in all of Australia’s games at the tournament.
He says then coach Holger Osieck implemented a very different style to mentor Ange Postecoglou but says there isn’t much separating the current crop from the 2011 side in terms of quality.
“We are close but we play different to how we did in 2011,” he said.
“There’s work to be done, but I think the squad has got the ingredients.
“Everyone will write that we have only won two games (under Postecoglou), but I think we have got the team that will go close on home soil.”
Jedinak said is was unfair to compare the current squad of relatively young and inexperienced Socceroos to the 2011 side, which featured the likes of Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill and Brett Emerton.
But remains confident there’s still enough time to whip them into shape.
“I think there’s a lot of positives we can take from tonight,” he said.
“It would have been great to get a result to reward that positively. It wasn’t meant to be but maybe we have to learn the hard way.
“So we take all that on board and we get it right for January.”
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