Sports / Soccer |
Australia will conquer Asia(Agencies)Updated: 2007-05-11 08:47 SYDNEY - Influential defender and prospective Australian captain Lucas Neill says he expects his team to go through this year's Asian Cup unbeaten. The West Ham United defender, one of Australia's stars in last year's World Cup in Germany, said the Socceroos had the squad of players to take July's Asian Cup in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam by storm. "From a player point of view, I expect us to go there and be undefeated," Neill told a teleconference from England Thursday.
"Enough of us have played on the big stage now that we won't be intimidated by the teams that we're going to play against." Neill believes Australia can beat any team in Asia on their day and their biggest danger is complacency. "If we don't approach every game with the perfect preparation, with the perfect mentality, then we're going to come unstuck. "The obvious (strong) teams around us -- like Japan and South Korea who, with World Cup experience, will definitely be strong teams -- we'll need to be at our very best, on and off the pitch, mentally and physically, to overcome them. "We can't be complacent and we need to approach each game professionally, make sure we get through our group and not make any silly mistakes in the late stages, because I want to go over there to win." Australia's group contains Iraq, Oman and co-hosts Thailand, with the top two teams going through to the quarter-finals. The final takes place in Jakarta on July 29. |
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