Sydney FC striker Alex Brosque spoke of his excitement at his selection for the Socceroos, but vowed to keep focus on his side’s crucial match against North Queensland Fury on Wednesday evening. (7.30 kick off).
Sydney FC striker Alex Brosque spoke of his excitement at his selection for the Socceroos, but vowed to keep focus on his side-s crucial match against North Queensland Fury on Wednesday evening. (7.30 kick off).
Brosque, one of six A-League players selected for Helger Osieck-s 19-man squad to face Paraguay, missed out on the last two squads due to injury and the birth of his daughter.
“I-m very excited and surprised. I didn-t expect the call-up at all. I thought that before I would even be in contention I would have to play at least a couple of games so I-m very surprised to be included,” Brosque said.
“It-s a big shock, but I-m glad to have the chance to come in and hopefully do well enough to impress the coach. I-m looking forward to it but obviously the main focus is on tomorrow night against North Queensland.”
The Sky Blues hitman, who made his return from injury in the 1-1 draw with Gold Coast on Saturday, praised the new national coach and hopes his call-up acts as inspiration to other players in the A-League.
“It-s a good thing that A-League players have been selected, and it lifts everybody-s game,”.
“Brosque saidHe [Osieck] is happy to give the players an opportunity and he-ll be watching as often as possible. The league has copped a bit of criticism in the last few years so it-s really encouraging to know that the national coach is giving the players a chance.
“He has come in with an open mind and has said he will pick players on performances. Now it-s very much up to the players to string some good performances together and get in contention for the squad. If they-re good enough, then they will play.”
While a call-up to Qatar is in the back of his mind, Brosque maintained that the A-League was his top priority at the moment.
“I-m just coming back from injury so the main thing is to do my bit to turn the situation around here and get a couple of wins,” Brosque said.
“I felt good on Sunday, but I had a couple of chances that I felt I could have done better with. It could have been a very long week of training considering the performance that we put in on Sunday and not getting the win, so it-s good that we can get back on the field quickly and make amends.
“We said we wanted at least seven points from the three home games; we-ve got one so we-re looking for two wins on the trot. Mentally everybody is ready to go and I think we can do it,” he said.”
