Socceroos captain Lucas Neill has dodged claims he abused his home-town crowd after a 1-0 win against Costa Rica on Tuesday night.
Neill reportedly exchanged angry words with a section of the crowd at Allianz Stadium in Sydney.
But the 35-year-old refused to be drawn on the controversy post-game.
Asked what happened, Neill bluntly told reporters: “Next question.”
Neill’s outburst was criticised by soccer commentator Mark Bosnich, who suggested it was not a good look – regardless of what frustrated the skipper.
“I don’t think you should react like that,” Bosnich told Fox Sports.
“People come and pay their money, they can basically do whatever they want, except they can’t do anything illegal. But they can shout and scream whatever they like, that’s their right.”
Neill was a solid performer as he became the longest-serving Socceroo captain.
The win was his 61st match in charge, surpassing the 60-game mark of 1970s captain Peter Wilson.
Neill said it was a “spirited team performance” which delivered new coach Ange Postecoglou a first-up victory.
“We have worked very hard in training this week trying to absorb Ange’s philosophy and I thought in large parts of the game tonight, we executed that plan,” he said.
“There is always room for improvement but I think we have set a very good standard now and we have to build on that.”
Postecoglou praised the performance of Neill, who had faced calls to quit as captain for the past month.
“If nothing else, we can stop talking about Lucas Neill,” Postecoglou told reporters.
“To be fair to Lucas, he’s handled this really well – I would have probably spat the dummy much earlier.”
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
MB, a stadium isn't a theatre or a cathedral. Ppl shout, scream, boo etc at players from both sides. Sure racist slurs have no place in stadiums but booing, please. I think Oz is a PC enough country and we don't need more rules. What's next? No singing as it bothers the other team? If I remember well booing the Jordanians or Omani who were diving or faking injury was ok but now booing an aussie should be banned? hmmm, not quite right.
Mary byrne
Guest
I am disappointed that David Gallop and the announcers are not backing Lucas Neill It's unacceptable to tolerate fans abusing players they should escorted from the stadium like the young teenage girl Who had abused a footballer calling him a monkey It's unacceptable for.officials not to back our players Ange would never come down to that level.
langou
Roar Guru
The A-League had to scrap mid week games due to terrible crowds. 20,000 was a really healthy crowd
Titus
Guest
Really should have held this one in The Sporting Capital of the World(TM), they love soccer down then when the football season is in rest and would easily have drawn 80 000 to the MCG.
Souwalker
Guest
Spot on SlickAs
nachos supreme
Guest
to be fair, he's been pretty available given his lack of clubs :) Don't agree with booing the national team or it's captain. But he is still, in my view past it.
Catnap
Guest
Victory vs Wellington had 25thousand if played in melbourne would have had at least 35thousand!!!!
Punter
Guest
I think there are 3 issues. 1. You should never boo a player wearing your team colors or your nations colors, especially one who is your captain & even after a change of coach, who promises changes have picked him as captain we should respect that. 2. Lucas should not have reacted, did not hear the boos until after he reacted, so the boos prior seemed to be only a small minority, in every forms of life, you have to deal with small minority that do not conform. 3. Reason for booing is Lucas's poor form, aging body & slowness of foot. Now having watched the great Ronaldo do what he did to Sweden this morning & have seen this guy do the same to some of the best & fastest defenders, I shutter to think what the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar & Ribery (well the last 2 we have already seen glimpses) will do to a very slow moving Lucas Neill at the world cup.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I remember when Aus played France at Parc de Princes, home of PSG. the French crowd booed a Marseille player every time he touched the ball. i hope that never happens here.
AZ_RBB
Guest
hahahahha! i thought i heard one of our chants during the game. i thought i was just hearing things haha. funnily enough, the most common jersey (aside from the Socceroos) i saw last night were Man United jerseys. i reckon i counted about a dozen or so. really don't get why you would wear that. not even the right colour or even a vague connection.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I was pretty happy with the crowd figure. The timing of the game was less than ideal. Also, lets not forget the booing came from a very small portion of the crowd and I didn't notice any negativity towards Lucas around where I was.
Michael
Guest
Agree AVictory, i think the last the Socceroos came to Perth was against Indonesia some years ago' would of got easily 30k at Subi last night.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I agree, it was sickening to see the Australian crowd booing Michael Clarke. It's just wrong. I like what Neill said on radio this morning. He was asked if he regretting what he said to the crowd and his response was "Not at all. I'm an Australian playing in Australia for Australia in front of an Australian crowd and that's just not acceptable" or something to that point. And I totally agree with him. And in fact, that should go double for the captain. Both Neill and Clarke have earned the right to some respect from the crowd but for some reason both of them cop a lot of flack from certain people in their own country.
AVictory
Guest
I think if there is one thing that last night has proved, is that Sydney and it's fickle, entitled fans DID NOT deserve to host this game. Anywhere else in Australia would have been a better choice, especially Perth and Adelaide. They would have gotten more fans and they would not have booed anyone in our national team. Disgraceful
Australian Rules
Guest
I think it's a disgrace. The same happened to Michael Clarke at the GABBA during the last Ashes series...the English players simply couldn't believe it. Queenslanders will tell of Wally Lewis getting booed by Sydney fans when he was Kangaroos captain. It's a pathetic attitude and it shouldn't happen. Bang away all you like on forums, but at the game, Australian players should not be getting booed by Australian fans (especially the captain and especially at home). And given we're months away from a World Cup, playing in Sydney for Ange's first game in charge, the crowd of 20,165 was ordinary to say the least.
Titus
Guest
Apparently there were fans in the home-end wearing WSW jersies and trying to start RBB chants, what a shambles.
AZ_RBB
Guest
is it true that the capo of Terrace Australis decided to wear a wallabies jersey last night? hahah on the other hand, loved the noise and fanfare the Costa Rican fans were making last night.
AZ_RBB
Guest
he still cops it every time he makes a comment about the A League.
Titus
Guest
Have to agree with this, at certain times a team deserves a bit of a wind up but picking out individuals on your team and booing them is never on in my opinion.
SlickAs
Guest
And BTW, this Steve Larkin guy is part of the mob. This is the 5th or 6th cynical article about Lucas Neill or his captaincy or his selection in a week. How does this guy get to be a guru? His articles should definitely be on the right of the page. How old are you Steve? Seriously?