Goodwin glad to provide impact from the bench against Indonesia

A goal and an assist rounded out an emphatic return to the Australia squad for Craig Goodwin.

He came on in the 87th minute of the match against Indonesia on Sunday, making his efforts even more impressive.

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Goodwin didn’t feature in the previous two outings at the tournament due to injury, but speaking after the Round of 16 win, he said he was glad to be back.

“I’m really happy, I missed the last couple of games with a couple of knocks, so it's really nice to be back in the frame and helping out the team,” he said.

“I think the boys did a really good job over the course of that game and just lucky enough to come on and the ball to fell to me in the right place, so really happy.”

With his impact off the bench, many may think that Goodwin’s skills and experience could make him a very useful super sub.

Head coach Graham Arnold suggested this might be in the plans going forward.

He said: “I know there's people back in Australia asking for or wanting to see an impact player off the bench and maybe that's a good role for Craig Goodwin as well.”

Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1751741527964172636

But Goodwin said he really wants to start every game; however he is willing to fill any role asked of him.

“Of course, I want to start, I want to always want to start games, that's what every player is striving for, you never sit there and say, I want to be on the bench,” he said.

“If that's the role that I have to do for now, because Jordy Bos has come in and he's done really well, whatever Arnie does and whatever role he puts on me that's what I'll do to the best of my abilities.

“But of course, I want to start every game and that competition is what's going to get the best out of us players as well because we'll go away to the training track and be pushing ourselves and we'll get better performances from that.”

Goodwin has been in strong form this season for Al Wehda in the Saudi Pro League, and he feels the experience he has facing top level opposition is helping him for the Socceroos.

He said: “There's a lot of top-quality players in that competition so it's definitely improving my game and testing me and it's nice to be able to put some of that into today's game, and hopefully in the next match as well.”

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