'Special moment' for Burgess to start in major tournament for Socceroos

Cameron Burgess was given his first start at an Asian Cup for the Subway Socceroos, while also recording a first clean sheet, in the 1-0 win over Syria.

The start was also his first in a major tournament for his country and it was a proud moment in his career.

“First game in the Asian Cup, another one ticked off for the Socceroos, which is nice and a special moment for me,” he said.

“Good to have my family there to watch the game as well which is which is nice and yeah a step in the right direction.”

In the match, Burgess won all his aerial duals, performing well in the backline that kept a sixth clean sheet in a row for Australia.

Tweet: https://twitter.com/IpswichTown/status/1747977001212764590

“I think that for the whole team it is something we can be proud of, I think it’s something that we take pride in and something that we focus on, it's a big message for us and something we really think is a big strength,” he said.

“It's tournament football, good to get a clean sheet and good to get another win.”

Whilst the Socceroos secured progression out of the group with the win, Burgess said the team had to battle hard against Syria.

“You've just got to find a way to win the game, it's not always going to be easy, especially when the team's set up like that,” he said.

“It means sometimes you can't score four and five goals; you have to just stick with it, and I think we've shown that as a team. In both games so far, we just stay calm and stick to the process.”

That process continues as well with the final group stage game against Uzbekistan fast approaching, and Burgess explained attention has already switched to them.

“We'll have a look at them and what their strengths are and what they'll try and do,” he said.

“Both teams are looking to get top spot so should be an exciting game and hopefully we can go and take all three points.”

He also touched on the team goal for this tournament and how important building confidence is in the effort to achieve that goal.

“We're here to win every game we're not here to take it easy in any games so we're going to go into that one with full confidence and hopefully go and take three points, top the group and take the confidence into the next few games,” he said.

And to finish, Burgess said how much fun he is having in camp with his teammates. Seems the vibe in camp is high, would we expect anything else?

“I love being around these boys, it's a great group to be involved in,” he said.

“The boys are always up to something, there's always stuff going on around camp and it's a good place to be.”

SUBWAY SOCCEROOS AFC ASIAN CUP QATAR 2023™ FIXTURES (GROUP B):

Every AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 match will be live on Paramount+