Alex Brosque has declared he will be right to play against Jordan on Tuesday evening, despite suffering a seemingly troublesome injury towards the end of Thursday’s friendly win over Lebanon.
Alex Brosque has declared he will be right to play against Jordan on Tuesday evening, despite suffering a seemingly troublesome injury towards the end of Thursday-s friendly win over Lebanon.
The 28-year-old led the line for the Qantas Socceroos with distinction in Beirut and will be key again in Amman, where the J.League striker and his teammates set up camp
With only bumps and bruises to report from Australa-s 3-0 triumph at the Saida Municipal Stadium, Brosque-s recovery from a knock to his left leg has relieved the Qantas Socceroos of their only concern.
“I-m pretty good, I told Les (Qantas Socceroo Physiotherapist Les Gelis) not to worry about the stretcher, it probably looked a bit too dramatic but, it-s just a bit of a late challenge there and more precautionary to come off more than anything else” said Brosque.
“It-s feeling a little bit better, but by Tuesday it should be fine.
“It was a good all round performance, going off the last two games it was important that we got back to winning ways and winning well.
“As a whole we had a game plan to try and stick to, we think that Lebanon is a similar team to Jordan, the way they play, the boys stuck to that game plan very well, created a lot of opportunities and ended up with a pretty convincing win.
“Hopefully we can carry that form into Tuesday night.”
Brosque has been a key performer throughout much of Australia-s FIFA World Cup qualification journey to date - starting with his match winning contribution against Thailand in Brisbane a year ago.
In what was his first start in green and gold in two years, Brosque ensured Australia-s journey to Brazil started on a positive note and has since featured in six of Australia-s eight qualifiers - netting three goals along the way.
Although not on the score sheet in Lebanon, Brosque-s contribution in his sixth straight start for the Qantas Socceroos was integral in snapping Australia-s four-match winless run.
“We noticed it a bit in training, when you lose or, when you don-t win a few games in a row, it really makes a difference to the dynamics of the team and how you train and things like that so, confidence wise, it was massive for us,” said Brosque.
“Just to go back to the way to playing the way that the team was playing in the past and, getting a comfortable win again, it-s just got everyone is high spirits again and confident that we can do the job on Tuesday.
“We-ve seen how hard it was in Oman especially and games like that. The conditions are always tough but mentally we-re very focused and prepared for this game, we know how hard it-s going to be and we know we can-t afford to drop any more points.
“This game-s massive for us and to get our campaign back on track and we-ll be hopefully going out to get a very good win.”
The Qantas Socceroos resume their FIFA World Cup qualification campaign against Jordan in Amman, at 7pm on Tuesday, 11 September (2am AEST, Wednesday, 12 September).
The Qantas Socceroos return to Australia in 2013, for the FIFA World Cup qualifier against Oman at Sydney-s Stadium Australia at 7.30pm, Tuesday, 26 March, followed by Iraq, at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 18 June.
Tickets for both matches at Stadium Australia are on sale now through Ticketek or via phone, 132 849.