A New Era
A game with a lot on the line and a coach who has not long been in the role. Tony Popovic is the man in charge of the Australian Socceroos, and he was joined by men’s star Craig Goodwin before the big game against China tonight.
It is being called a new era of Australian men’s soccer with the departure of coach Graham Arnold and the appointment of coach Tony Popovic, a move which has no one more excited than the players themselves.
“Yeah, look, obviously we're excited to get the chance to work with the new coaches as well. But at the same time, you know, there's just so much focus on the job at hand. We know that we've had a poor two first games, but it's a, let's say, a clean slate, eight games to go.
“And we still want to qualify directly. So our focus is solely on learning the new way of playing and obviously trying to lift the standards again, back to where we know we can be,” Goodwin suggests.
Tony was appointed as head coach of the Socceroos only a few weeks ago but remains confident that the players understand and feel comfortable with the new, dynamic style of play.
“Yeah, there's some things that are out of our control, but I don't want to use that as an excuse.
“We feel we have had enough time to show the players how we'd like to play and I'm sure the players have seen it, they're comfortable with it and they'll show some good signs of that tomorrow night,” Tony said when prompted.
It has been a long while since the Socceroos have played in Adelaide and they are looking forward to it, but will look to remain disciplined.
“Yeah, of course, I think any time we get the chance to play in Australia and have our home fans, you know, it's a privilege for us and especially for a lot of us boys. I think there's seven in the squad that are from South Australia. I think it's all of our first times in playing for the national team in front of our home state.
“But yeah, we're really excited. But again, at the same time, we can't be too caught up in the aura of being able to play in Adelaide. It's another game for Australia and we have to perform at our absolute best and focus the job at hand,” Goodwin went on to say.
The crowd will be a reduced one, down to about 41,000 due to AFC tournament regulations, but is expected to be a sell-out. The game is set to start at 7:40pm against China.