Asian Cup 2015: Socceros star Nathan Burns chasing more playing time after busy cameo

NATHAN Burns is hopeful his effervescent cameo against Kuwait will earn him more game time in a Socceroos system for which his style could have been designed.

Australia v Kuwait - 2015 Asian Cup

HE was only on the pitch for 18 minutes but Nathan Burns was only the width of a crossbar away from a spectacular first goal for his country.

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Nathan Burns impressed in limited time against Kuwait.

Now Burns is hopeful that his effervescent cameo will earn him more Asian Cup game time in a Socceroos system for which his skilful, mobile style could have been designed.

Coming off the bench in Friday’s 4-1 over Kuwait, Burns struck the bar with a diving header from Aziz Behich’s cross, then was denied by a spectacular save by Kuwait goalkeeper Hameed Youssef from a close-range shot.

But with his confidence skyhigh after scoring 10 goals for Wellington, Burns feels at home in the green and gold and ready to grasp any opportunity.

“I haven’t been in the national squad lately but I’d trained hard in the week,” he said.

“To come off the bench was massive, and hopefully I can get more minutes now.

“The thing with my game is adapting to a lot of formations in the past couple of years. I think I can play in a variety of styles – but it’s true the way we’re playing at the moment, without so much of a target man and more agile, mobile players, really suits me.

“I’ve got a lot of momentum and confidence at the moment which is a big part of football. I’m trying to use that confidence – if you’ve got games in your legs you feel a lot better, and I’m feeling good at the moment.

“When you have the confidence of your coach and you feel strong, one thing leads to the other – and equally if one part’s not working then it kind of breaks down the whole pattern of things. At the moment, everything’s in line and that leads to good performances.”

Nor was he agonising over how close he came to a first goal in Australian colours.

“Football is all about inches isn’t it? Even the other one that clipped the goalkeeper’s feet – it was a good save but normally you get those on target, they go in. It didn’t affect the result though so overall I was happy.”

Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Socceros star Nathan Burns chasing more playing time after busy cameo