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Socceroo captain Lucas Neill is not considering retirement in the wake of the two humbling defeats to Brazil and France, and has questioned whether young players have the required desire and passion to play for Australia.
In a press conference in London before the national team takes on Canada, Neill gave a passionate defence of himself and his team.
The 35-year old responded to criticism from former Socceroo Mark Bosnich that he should retire and answered questions on the sacking of coach Holger Osieck and the morale of the squad at the moment.
“Retirement is not a word that has been on my agenda,” he said.
“When I was young, I had to fight cat and dog to get an opportunity, to even get exposure to get selected for a Socceroos team. Once in there I had to bide my time. I had to wait, fight like crazy to get an opportunity against very experienced people and some very good players in good leagues all over the world. Nobody gives you a chance for free. Nobody gives you an opportunity to play for Australia. You’ve got to earn it.”
“It’s not the older guys, who’ve been there a long time. I have as much passion for this game now as I ever had when I was 17.
“My question to the younger guys who want to play for Australia, who dream for playing for Australia – Do you dream for playing for Australia? And if you do, show me the hunger, show me the desire for being in the Socceroos, if you want to represent the Socceroos. Because I think that’s where we are lacking now. Our attitude towards our national team.”
In front a small media pack Neill denied that he was angry in his responses, describing it as “passion”.
“I am a proud person and I am disappointed we’ve lost two games in a row 6-0, 6-0,” he said.
“That’s embarrassing. There’s no excuse for that. And as a leading person in this team, we need to put that right because we have such a prize to play for in 9, 10 months’ time.”
Asked how the Socceroos can turn their terrible form around, Neill said it starts with hard work.
“We have to work very, very hard on the training ground,” he said.
“We have to come together as a team. We have to create a positive environment. And get the confidence going. And we have to be prepared tactically and technically to take on Brazil and France, whoever we play next, and at the moment we’re not.”
A number of newer players are in contention to play against Canada, but several have some injury concerns.
“We still need to find out the players that are available to play,” Neill said.
“We’ve got a few clouds hanging over people. But whoever goes out there has to wear the shirt with the kind of pride that its been worn with for a number of years. We have to go out today very quickly at training and work on a tactical plan to try and take on Canada. And we have to start the game well because if we conceded a goal early to Canada the obvious reaction from everybody will be ‘oh now we’ve just gone goal down’. So we have to be resilient. We have to find confidence quickly.”
Asked if expectations on the Socceroos were too high, considering few are currently playing in Europe’s elite leagues, Neill said it was “the nature of the beast”
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“You become a victim of your own success. We’ve set a certain standard and if we don’t reach it then, people have a right to be upset.”
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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