Former Meadow Park, Hume City and Green Gully player Aziz Behich is up for the fight that is coming for his spot in the Socceroos’ side ahead of the Asian Cup.
The 33-year-old is facing threats for his left-back spot from youngster Jordan Bos who started in the position in the Socceroos’ 2-0 warm-up win over Bahrain last weekend.
“We’ve got a lot of competition which is healthy for the squad because at the end of the day we all obviously have the same goal which is to lift the trophy at the end of [the tournament],” Behich said from Doha ahead of Australia’s cup opener on Saturday night.
“[Bos] is a great boy, he’s a good lad as well off the pitch but for me personally it’s just about training hard and I’ve shown what I can do when I have the opportunity to represent the country so that’s my goal.
“For me it’s just about working hard day in, day out and the rest is sometimes out of your hands.
“When it comes to a major tournament everyone is going to be needed, we’ve got games coming in rapidly, you only get a few days to recover, there could be suspensions, injuries, which I hope not, but it’s the nature of the game.”
Behich and Socceroos’ captain and goalkeeper Matt Ryan are just the two squad members who were a part of the 2015 Asian Cup championship winning team.
“Me and Matty were lucky enough to touch that trophy in 2015 on home soil… and we have another opportunity to do that again,” Behich said.
“It’s a feeling you can’t explain to people, to win silverware but to win it for your country is just special.
“These opportunities don’t come around very often, not just the tournament but playing for your national team.
“Our expectation has always been the same, we go into every game to win.”
The Socceroos will kick off their campaign against India on Saturday.
