San Pedro Sula: After a frustrating 0-0 draw against Honduras, in which Australia spurned a number of chances, coach Ange Postecoglou has vowed to “go hard” in the return leg at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Wednesday.
While pleased with the scoreless draw and the way his team played in testing conditions, Postecoglou was left to lament the chances they left on the pitch.
“I thought it was fantastic, considering everything, and obviously the home crowd behind them,” Postecoglou said.
“As I said to the boys at half time, they could actually hear my instructions that’s how dominant I thought we were. We’re just not getting our rewards, it’s probably the one thing still missing from our game.
“Our general play is good, we work hard, we’re just missing that clinical edge, but overall I couldn’t be happier. It takes an enormous amount of courage to come here and play the opposition and create chances on a pitch like that away from home.”
With the advantage of playing the all-important second leg at home, Postecoglou said Australia would look to inject fresh legs into the squad, with the likes of Mathew Leckie, Mark Milligan (both suspended) and Robbie Kruse (injured) all missing from the squad for the first leg.
“They were spent at the end as well,” he said. “We’ve got some fresh legs coming in as well, we’ve got some boys back in Australia that will be ready to go and some boys we didn’t use tonight that will be ready to go.”
And he threw down the gauntlet to Honduras, vowing to hit them with everything they’ve got to ensure they book their ticket to Russia 2018
“We’ll go hard, we’ll put the pedal down and go as hard as we can for 90 or 120 minutes and they’re going to have to keep up with us,” he said.
One of Australia’s best performers on Friday night in San Pedro Sula was returning captain Mile Jedinak (pictured above, left), playing his first match for Australia since June after being sidelined with injury, who was over the moon to be back playing for Australia in such an important game.
“I can’t express how proud I am tonight and what a relief it was to get back in time for this game,” the experienced midfielder said.
“It means the world to me. The job isn’t don’t yet but I have no doubt that we’ll be right to go Wednesday.”
Photos: AFC
Source: the-afc.com