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Asian Cup 2011: Lucas Neill Believes Australia Will Not Be Overconfident Against Japan
Australia defender and captain Luca Neill believes the Socceroos will not be overconfident going into the Asian Cup final against Japan.
27-Jan-2011 7:39:00 AM
By Rick D'Andrea
Australia captain Lucas Neill says the Socceroos will not be entering into the Asian Cup final against Japan in an overconfident mood after their 6-0 win against Uzbekistan.
The Galatasaray stopper believes there will not be any complacency from his team-mates, and are focused on winning the tournament for the first time.
"We won’t get carried away…the score line is irrelevant," the defender told The-AFC.com. "The fact that we won is important, but the players are going to have confidence now in front of goal and we know that if we can create one chance or a couple of chances then we've got a great opportunity for somebody putting the ball in the back of the net.
"At the other end, we've only let in one goal in five games so we are hard to break down too, so you can't ask for any more going into a final.
Neill acknowledges when the Central Asian side were reduced to 10 men, they began to fall apart.
"Once you score a few it kills the spirit and we were high in confidence and as a result it was good to see a lot of guys who don’t really score regularly get on the score sheet," he continued.
"It shows we have gotten goals for the team and it shows that if we do it right at the start - and we talked about that as well - we knew we could open them up. And we knew if we took the chances we’d kill the game and we did exactly that.
"It's hard to pick yourself up when the scoreline is 4-0 or 5-0 and keep going and we certainly didn't let up, and that’s a good thing. At the other end, we weren't going to give them anything either and as a defender that’s delightful for me," Neill concluded.
The Galatasaray stopper believes there will not be any complacency from his team-mates, and are focused on winning the tournament for the first time.
"We won’t get carried away…the score line is irrelevant," the defender told The-AFC.com. "The fact that we won is important, but the players are going to have confidence now in front of goal and we know that if we can create one chance or a couple of chances then we've got a great opportunity for somebody putting the ball in the back of the net.
"At the other end, we've only let in one goal in five games so we are hard to break down too, so you can't ask for any more going into a final.
Neill acknowledges when the Central Asian side were reduced to 10 men, they began to fall apart.
"Once you score a few it kills the spirit and we were high in confidence and as a result it was good to see a lot of guys who don’t really score regularly get on the score sheet," he continued.
"It shows we have gotten goals for the team and it shows that if we do it right at the start - and we talked about that as well - we knew we could open them up. And we knew if we took the chances we’d kill the game and we did exactly that.
"It's hard to pick yourself up when the scoreline is 4-0 or 5-0 and keep going and we certainly didn't let up, and that’s a good thing. At the other end, we weren't going to give them anything either and as a defender that’s delightful for me," Neill concluded.
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