Australians Planning To Rule The World
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday December 17, 2005
THE Australian men's team, the Kookaburras, has a simple goal for the next three years: to win everywhere they play.
While striker Michael McCann feels the top nine teams in the world are more even than they have ever been, he believes Australia have a genuine opportunity to separate themselves from the pack.Australia qualified for tomorrow's Champions Trophy final in Chennai after McCann's reverse-stick goal two minutes from full-time gave them a 3-2 win over Netherlands, the side the striker thinks poses the biggest threat.McCann said that having withdrawn from last year's tournament in Pakistan for safety concerns, the Kookaburras had concentrated on proving to rival sides that their Olympic gold medal had been no fluke."We've had a real point to prove, I guess," McCann said. "This is our first major tournament since the Olympics and I think all of us want to prove to everyone that we're the best team in the world."The Australians, due to play their final pool match against Pakistan early this morning, hoped to become one of the few countries to enjoy an undefeated tournament."Everyone wants to be remembered for something, I guess, and the desire to make sure we win every tournament we play, and really put ourselves back up there, is a real driving force at the moment."It's really even out there right now, but we've probably been the only team in the last 24 months that's been able to consistently beat the top teams all the time. There's a real opportunity to truly stamp ourselves as the best, and we've got to do it in the major tournaments."McCann said the fit Australians' ability to finish off games had played a significant part in their undefeated week, as they had snuck late goals against the Dutch and Spain.He said improvement had been achieved from players such as defender Aaron Hopkins, goalkeeper Stephen Lambert and striker Andrew Smith, who spent most of last year in the national squad but missed out on the Olympics and now want medals of their own."A lot of the new, younger guys are pushing for positions, but it's more the guys who have been around for a while and missed that opportunity in Athens," McCann said. "They're the guys who are really starting to make names for themselves. They're the ones who really want to try and assert themselves and make up for a bit of lost time."
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald