Lucas Neill believes he has the backing of the Socceroos squad to remain captain but says the proof will be in how the players perform against Canada in London.
Australia takes on 106th-ranked Canada on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning AEDT) at Craven Cottage, just four days after coach Holger Osieck was sacked following successive 6-0 defeats to Brazil and France.
Neill has been forced to defend his place in the team after Mark Bosnich said he was a big part of the problem and should quit.
The 35-year-old thinks he has the support of the entire playing group and hasn’t heard any dissent.
“But I suppose evidence will be shown on Tuesday when I ask the team to come out and show the kind of spirit we need,” Neill told reporters in London.
“Let’s see if we get the reaction that I’m looking for and Australia needs.”
Caretaker coach Aurelio Vidmar has a host of injury concerns to contend with.
It appears likely young and inexperienced players including Mathew Leckie, Oliver Bozanic and Jason Davidson could start the match.
In good news, Dario Vidosic and Sasa Ognenovski trained on Monday – only Tim Cahill missed the session – and are possible inclusions.
“We still need to find out which players 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 it’s been worn with for a number of years.”
The captain said it was crucial Australia, ranked 53, made a good start at Craven Cottage.
“If we concede a goal early to Canada the obvious reaction from everybody will be ‘Oh no we’ve just gone a goal down’.
“So we have to be resilient. We have to show the kind of spirit that Australia has become famous for and we have to find confidence quickly to be able to get a passing game going.”
Striker Josh Kennedy believes the Canada match is a chance to prove team spirit remains alive and well.
It’s also an opportunity to impress whoever will lead the team into next year’s World Cup.
“As far as a new coach coming in, it doesn’t matter if you are young or old, experienced or not, everybody will want to put their best foot forward and make a good impression because everybody wants to go to Brazil,” Kennedy told reporters.
“Tomorrow could be the start of things.”
Kennedy echoed Neill’s comments regarding the team’s injury woes.
“It’s a game where we probably make three or four substitutions and that will be it,” he said.
Some commentators have suggested the Australian public expects too much from the current crop of Socceroos.
Neill doesn’t agree.
“It’s the nature of the beast – you become a victim of your own success,” he said.
“But we’ve set a standard and if we don’t reach it people have a right to be upset.”
Clayts
Guest
In fact his first couple of games for the Roos were brilliant, best on ground performances if I recall correctly
Clayts
Guest
Totally agree. With Neill saying what he did, he just drove a huge wedge in the side. Who out of the younger players would want to play for him now?
Alex
Guest
Agree
fadida
Guest
I agree, as I always do when you make this point chopper. Distances between our lines our huge, leading to lack of support when in possession and huge spaces on the counter when we lose it. All because the coach repeatedly selects an old and immobile back 4
CmonJets
Guest
Agree cui, Lucas is quite a good captain and his on field leadership is not in question, we got thinking at work that if LN is dropped who would you be happy with a captain....not as easy as it first sounds considering the inevitable changes on the cards......Milligan? Jedi? Schwartz if he is there? Who would you pick?
baanskis
Guest
+1
Panto
Guest
For an objective view why not use FIFA 14 rankings - they are ratified by international professional scouts after all (i know this because i have friends working for EA in Canada)
Panto
Guest
+1
Panto
Guest
Bozanic, Miligan, Mooy, Bresciano, Valeri just to name a few....
Chopper
Guest
I have stated many times in the past Neil's negative impact on the whole team ON THE PITCH. Because of the lack of speed he possesses Neil plays the whole Socceroo backline far too deep,and this allows him time to recover in a defensive mindset, however it stretches the line between our attack and defence and therefore exposes our midfield to more pressure and a larger area to compete in. In other words no midfielder, no matter how energetic or resilient they are, could possibly cope with the amount of work required to keep players such as Neil (in the manner to which they think they should be) within the team. Qantas, Neil was the recipient of his own misplaced tactics against France. I was in Germany in 2006 and was enthralled by the whole squad and their passion and ability. It has long since been overtaken by other sporting achievements and should be laid to rest so that the new generation can move forward. My thanks o Neil, Swartzer and co but please move on.
Atti Abonyi
Guest
Lucas Neill believes he has the backing of the Socceroos squad to remain captain but says the proof will be in how the players perform against Canada in London. This is an absolutely farcical comment indeed. The performance and the proof are not against sides like Canada, they are against the likes of France and Brazil, and you Lucas were cut to shreds, maybe that is Holger Osieck's fault also. “But I suppose evidence will be shown on Tuesday when I ask the team to come out and show the kind of spirit we need,” Neill told reporters in London. “Let’s see if we get the reaction that I’m looking for and Australia needs.” Again what type of joke are these comments? "Evidence will be shown"? "Kind of spirit we need". This is the best spin I have ever heard. The evidence is that we haven't got the depth of talent or pool of players required to compete decently at world level. Holger Osieck has taken the blame for the inept & disastrous situation we find our junior teams in and the blowtorch needs to be applied in that area, but the FFA won't do it nor will the "football media" or "analysts" apply the blowtorch in the appropriate places, until we do so the failures will continue and you can sack as many coaches you like at the senior level, until the house has been brought into order improvement and success will not come. If we want to make the World Cup in 2026 then significant changes need to be made to our junior coaching structure because the "Hiddink factor" and "Dutch experiment" is a miserable failure. Having a pool of players with decent skill levels is the whole problem. A classic example is Kerem Bulut, 21 years old and now playing second division in Turkey, Golden Boot at u/20 world cup 2011. The Netherlands have never won a World Cup, yet we continue with a disaster, we made the quarter finals 6 times from 1985 to 2001 and runners up once, since 2001 nothing,and that goes for the u20 as well, since 1995 no results. Sack the Dutch, and put in place some Germans or Brazilians. Les Scheinflug is proof of what can be achieved with people that actually know something about football and how to coach, and I'll also include Frank Arok, Raul Blanco, Rale Rasic, Steve O'Connor. The next 8-10 years is going to be extremely difficult in Australian football and the chickens are going to come home to roost. The problem was not Holger Osieck, the problem was that he did not have options. Who is responsible for that? The FFA, the appointments they made, and the junior level coaches they appointed who have produced very little indeed. Yes indeed, "when it ain't broke you don't fix it", well it is broke and the junior level needs urgent fixing and a whole restructure, the methods they are using is producing little and no results to show for massive outlays of money. U17 2007 did not qualify, 2009 did not qualify, 2013 did not qualify, 2015 I'll be surprised if we qualify. This is disgraceful. Since 2005 at u20 level we have gone out the 1st round every time, 2007 we didn't qualify, we've played 12 matches at those World cups, 05, 09, 11,13 and haven't won a single game. The people that are writing about Holger Osieck haven't got a clue and are directing the criticism in the wrong areas.
fadida
Guest
Agree triffid
fadida
Guest
Well played Orly :)
King Kong
Guest
They can beat Canada easily? What are the rankings of Oman, Iraq and Jordan? Socceroos struggled.
King Kong
Guest
The debate between the majority of fans and some stubborn conservatives is based on the theory/assumption that younger players will lose bigger than 2 times 0-6, 0-8 or more perhaps. Is the above assumption/theory true to experienced fans, coaches and soccer professionals? Have no interest in investigating the "true" answer to the above question. Then, what if younger players would lose more or less like the same as the last 2 matches (0-6 or 0-4)? When writing the above, the idea pops up in mind is: all those journalist and football professionals have been very political and sophisticated to the reality for a long time. To many coaches, not losing as big as 0-6 is something very easy to do. When Holger highly recommended the financially troubled Matthaeus (probably his old friend and comrade) to Sydney FC we can infer that Holger is a very relational person. He is a good man. Perhaps, Neill is having financial trouble too. However, Holger did not realized that in the world of business/professional football, "good man's job" is costly expensive. Even Gallop has a budget. Would Gallop be silly enough to write off a million in his budget to sack Holger without deep thinking?
The Auteur
Guest
Play for your country, not for your captain.
The Bear
Guest
amen to that ; )
The Bear
Guest
Without Bresciano you could forget qualifying directly as we did in the final two matches at home. Remember that before you cast Bresc into that lot. He still holds his own, and from his character you'd know he'd never over stay his welcome at the expense of his integrity and Country.
The Bear
Guest
He "was" but he isn't...so he should shut the hell up ; / btw Kruse was good enough...or did he only get good enough when he played in the Bundes?
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Mr Neill cant have it both ways he cant be blaming the younger players for everything and then ask them for their support of his leadership . If he has to ask then he doesnt have it