Stand-in skipper Tim Cahill says he’s not surprised by the Socceroos stunning Asian Cup start and has warned Korea Republic they won’t take their foot off the gas in Saturday’s Group A decider.
The Socceroos made it two big wins from two matches with a 4-0 drubbing of Oman in Sydney on Tuesday night in another eye-catching performance from Ange Postecoglou’s troops.
A first-half blitz had Australia up 3-0 at the break through goals too Matt McKay, Robbie Kruse and Mark Milligan before substitute Tomi Juric put the icing on the cake 20 minutes from time.
“It’s a very proud day and it’s great that the boys can reward themselves as well as the manager and the staff with a performance like that,” Cahill said.
“This is months and months of football and something I said months and months ago that this team does have goals and now the players believe in themselves.
“It’s really great to see. There’s still a lot of growth and depth in this team.
“A lot of people were questioning the changes but (Postecoglou) knows what he’s doing and best of all the players now it’s going to take 23 of us to win games.”
The Socceroos currently lead the group on goal difference ahead of Korea, with the two nations to fight for top spot in Brisbane on Saturday night.
While a draw is enough for Australia to finish first, Cahill says there’s no chance they will go conservative to get a result.
“I honestly think against Korea, just because we’ve already qualified for the quarter-finals we’re not going to rest,” Cahill declared.
“We want maximum points, we want to win games and we want to keep making an impact.
“We love the football and we love the style that we’re playing. They (Oman) couldn’t deal with the waves of pressure, they couldn’t deal with our fitness.
“That was supposed to be a tougher game than Kuwait but I can’t really see any negatives other than scoring more goals.”
Perhaps the only surprise of the 4-0 rout was that Cahill – Australia’s greatest-ever goal-scorer – didn’t get one himself.
Incredibly there has been eight different goal-scorers for Australia in the first two games.
Asked if he ever believed there could be so many different options in front of goal, Cahill said: “Yes because I really believe in these boys…and it should have been maybe 10 or 12.
“After the first game and everyone was talking about the goal we conceded and the difficulties the Oman game was going to be.
“It will be pleasing to see tomorrow what the analysis is going to be now.”
While excited and confident about what the rest of the tournament holds for the Socceroos, Cahill says it’s vital the team stays grounded.
“The main thing is we want to go for it and be disciplined. That’s what we’ve been drumming into the players,” he said.
“It’s about now being consistent. How do we drive them to be consistent…we’re going to make them as professional as possible.
“It’s been an amazing camp, an amazing pre-camp leading in whether we’ve been in Qatar, UAE or Japan, this is all part of the recipe of the way we played tonight.”
Tickets to the Socceroos' remaining Group A match are still available. Click here to get yours today.
