Consistency for your club is the key, Tim Cahill warns those who would replace him for Socceroos
TIM Cahill has backed the next generation of Socceroos to retain the Asian Cup, but warned his would-be successors that their club form is the key to international success.
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TIM Cahill has backed the next generation of Socceroos to retain the Asian Cup, but warned his would-be successors that their club form is the key to international success.
For the first time in 14 years Australia will head into a major tournament without their record goalscorer as they seek to defend the Asian Cup in the UAE next January.
Though Cahill will make one more appearance in Australian colours, at his farewell game on November 20, the likes of Tomi Juric and Jamie Maclaren will vie to replace him in the long term under new coach Graham Arnold.
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With 50 goals to his name, Cahill has set a record unlikely to be beaten – but he insisted the individual honours are just a means to a collective end.
“Will someone break my record? I hope so,” Cahill said. “Everyone kept saying that with a few more games I’d have the most (appearances) ever – but that didn’t mean anything.
“I used my time to score goals in order to win – to qualify for a World Cup, to win an Asian Cup. I was consistent, I was professional and I threw everything I had into it. If you look back at my career, that’s reflected in my statistics.
“The records didn’t mean anything, except in the sense of how many more times can you wear the jersey, how can you affect the team’s results.
“As your time comes closer to the end, you don’t think about whether people will break your records. I think about how I’m going to help Tomi Juric, or Dimi (Petratos), or (Daniel) Arzani.”
Cahill repeated a message he has been drumming into those players for several years – that consistent productivity at club level is the easiest way to score goals for their country.
None of the current contenders to lead the line has been a prolific scorer at club level, one of the major challenges facing Arnold.
“The only things I’d ever ask of players coming in are professionalism and consistency,” Cahill said. “When you get given the jersey, it’s only yours while you’re in that camp. It’s your job to protect it until you hand it on to the next person.
“There’s lots of talent in the squad, and that talent needs to be consistent in scoring goals at club level, then come into (Socceroos) camp and score goals. You look at Aaron Mooy or Maty Ryan, the standards they set are fantastic.
“I’m excited to see the new crop, but it’s down to them doing the same. These next few games will be fantastic to see what can happen. The Asian Cup will be a massive test for us but one we’ve been preparing for for years.
“Now for them it’s a case of defending the trophy; let’s keep the motivation high, keep the professionalism high, and then there’s no reason why we can’t defend this trophy.
We have amazing young talent, and one of the fittest squads with all the monitoring. The Asian Cup isn’t for me, it’s for these guys.”
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