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Australia permutations are perfect, says Postecoglou

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 24 Jun 2017

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Ange Postecoglou shrugged off the difficulty of the challenge facing his Australia team on Sunday and insisted having to beat Chile by two goals to guarantee Confederations Cup progress was “perfect”.

It appears a near impossible task for the Socceroos, against a team ranked fourth in the world and described by veteran midfielder Tim Cahill as “the best in the tournament”.

But Postecoglou believes the scenario of having to win plays nicely into his players’ hands.

He said: “It’s why we’re here, we wanted to be alive when the last game came around, we weren’t at the [2014] World Cup.

“We didn’t want this to be a dead rubber. We’ve made it hard for ourselves but nothing changes for us, we try to win every game we play, regardless of the opposition and the circumstances.

“On Sunday the approach is perfect for us, it just reinforces all the principles we’ve talked about over the past three years.

“It’s a great opportunity to play against one of the world’s great teams and a great opportunity to create something special.”

Chile beat Australia 3-1 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and Postecoglou thinks the two-time defending Copa America champions have improved over the intervening period, adding: “Chile are a very good team. They were at the World Cup and they’ve grown since then by winning the continental trophy.

“They’ve a very settled squad, their best players play at the highest level, they have all the attributes needed to be a top team.

“They’re also really committed to a certain style of game, that’s a really admirable way to go about things.

“I was excited when we got them in the draw. We want to emulate their feats. They were a small fish in their continent and we’re trying to change that as well.

“There’s no greater measure and were looking forward to it.”

Postecoglou demanded a fast start from his players and conceded there was no place for hesitancy given the permutations required to advance.

He said: “We’ll try to take the game to them from the start as we have to win, there’s no point in sitting back and waiting for a certain moment to kick in.

“If there’s a physical component late in the game it’ll only really get tested if we go hard at the start. Too often teams wait for their moment. We aren’t going to be a team that waits, we will try to match their intensity, their work rate and see where it takes us.”

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