Captain Maty Ryan says Socceroos must 'learn from these moments' after quarter final defeat

Kristian Bullock \\ Photo Credit: Aleksandar Jason/Socceroos 1706921469,1706926460

Subway Socceroos captain and goalkeeper Maty Ryan has seen it all in international football, with the captain now urging his players to learn from last night's defeat to Korea Republic and use it as future motivation.

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Catching up post-game with Channel 10, Maty Ryan spoke about his initial reaction to the loss, a classic tussle tightly contested between two of Asia's strongest outfits.

"It's painful, you know? It's hard to not get caught up in the emotions."

"Obviously, the way the game panned out, the chances were there, but we just couldn't get that extra goal to give us a little bit of a buffer.

"Moments, they decided games but we still had 120 minutes. Obviously how it's played now, there is 97-98 minutes in normal time, so there's plenty of moments we could have done better."

Having been Australia's custodian for three FIFA World Cups and now three AFC Asian Cups, Maty Ryan has experienced the highs and lows of major tournament football.

Overseeing such a youthful squad compared to the one that Ryan was introduced to over a decade ago, the goalkeeper knows there is more to come from this group and asks for his teammates to remember the teachings of this result.

"We've got to learn, that's all you can do in these moments. We spoke about how we're going to face adversity throughout, and it's about how we deal with it,"  

"A massive side of football and in life is how you deal with that adversity and how you use the lessons moving forward. 

"We've got to use that as motivation now to spur us on to bigger and better things, and it doesn't take away from your hurt now but I'm proud of the effort, we left it all out there as we always do but it wasn't enough tonight, unfortunately."

Having been immense all game, the shot-stopper, who had been recovering from a fractured cheekbone, made a crucial save in the 85th minute slapping the ball away from his opponent's feet, yet remained down after the heavy contact from his opposite number.

Selfless as the act was, it still made a number of people worry about whether the delay was due to his cheekbone having become re-injured. However, Ryan was quick to douse those claims.

"It's all good man. I was just trying to waste a bit of time in that moment. You know, game management," he continued. 

"He maybe caught me in the head a little bit, but I was just trying to manage the game, I was committed to my instincts and my intuition out there and didn't think about the face at all."