Postecoglou hails 'outstanding' Jedinak

Published on: 15 November 2017

Sydney: Australian coach Ange Postecoglou has heaped praise on his captain Mile Jedinak after the experienced midfielder played a pivotal role in guiding Australia to the FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia with a 3-1 win over Honduras in the Intercontinental Play-off at Stadium Australia on Wednesday.

Jedinak only returned to the Socceroos squad for the previous round of play-offs against Syria after being sidelined from national team duty since June with a groin injury.

But the Aston Villa midfielder proved his worth to the team with two impressive displays across the two legs and it was fitting that it was he who scored to take Australia to the FIFA World Cup 2018.

“I think he’s been an outstanding captain, an outstanding leader on and off-the-park and it was great to see him out there tonight,” Postecoglou said after becoming the first Australian coach to qualify the national team for the FIFA World Cup.

“He’s obviously missed the end bit of our campaign, but it was right that he was out there today because the early part of the qualifying that was a real grind for us, and it was the likes of him, and Timmy (Cahill) and Millsy (Mark Milligan) that steered them through it.

“When we started four years ago we literally started almost from zero in terms of experience.

"It was really important to me that the players who did stay on, the experienced players like Mile, like Timmy, like Mark Milligan, they had to be not just good players but good characters and they had to buy in to what I was trying to do, and right from day one Mile stood up.”

Looking drained after an exhausting qualification campaign that is now the longest of any nation to ever qualify for the FIFA World Cup, Postecoglou spoke of the burden of being an Australian coach trying to qualify the nation for the world’s biggest tournament.

"When you’re coaching your own national team there’s an extra layer of burden of responsibility there because you kind of know what it means to the nation and to these players and the staff and management,” he said

“Everyone’s worked awfully hard over the last two and a half years. It’s been 22 long games and you just want them to get rewarded for it. Just seeing them in the dressing room now it’s overwhelming.”

As for the match itself, while the first half was a scrappy affair Postecoglou said he simply reminded the team at half time to remain true to their beliefs, confident the result would follow.

“At half time it was just a reinforcement of making sure we be the team we want to be and if we keep persisting in our football and keep asking them questions then eventually they’ll wilt because that’s the nature of the way we play the game,” he said.

“And the beauty of it is once we got the first goal their only thought was let's go get a second, and when they got a second it was let's go get a third. There was never any trying just to hold on to what we have.”

 

Photos: Lagardère Sports

Source: the-afc.com

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