If Mark Bresicano wasn’t a footballer he’d have been a mechanical engineer. You can picture it too – his measured responses to questions; peculiarly long pauses as he ponders his thoughts and his enjoyment of the tactical side of football. Glib, cliched answers are not in his make-up. Oh, and he’s refreshingly frank.

“At the moment I’m not at my best physical condition,” he concedes. “I don’t know if it comes back to not having a good break and being in competition, but I think at the end of the day it could come bite me on the arse. I think most of the [Socceroo] players are probably feeling it.”

Feeling it or not, Bresciano still burns with a desire to show the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) what the Socceroos are really capable of after a disappointing quarter-final finish at last year’s Asian Cup – a tournament he says shows the strength of the AFC and shocked many Socceroos.

“It’s a great opportunity to show the quality we have,” he stresses. “I think a lot of people thought it would be easier than what it was playing against the Asians and in the Asian conditions. Everyone got a bit of a shock – especially some of us players.

“We haven’t played in conditions like that in a very long time. It’s probably going to be the biggest hurdle for us to get over. If we’re ever going to have games like that in those conditions those are the things that can hurt us the most.”

Therefore, argues Bresciano, it’s of “fundamental” importance to the Socceroos that they win their home games in this first round of World Cup qualifiers over the next five months, “because when we do go overseas, with the conditions we never know what we’re going to find.

“Actually the [Asian] teams are pretty good too,” the 27-year-old adds. “Going along all these years, these teams are getting better and better, creeping up and the difference between one and another is very minimal.”

So, given that Iraq won the Asian Cup, should they be considered favourites ahead of Australia?

“Oh, shit. I don’t know... because with China, Iraq and Qatar, you’d back yourselves and we should be quietly confident – but just keep it to ourselves. But it’s going to be tough. Very tough.”

Bresciano is great mates with ex-Carlton and now Torino man Vinnie Grella. Actually, they’re like brothers – “even more than brothers” Grella has said – as they’ve shared an incredible Serie A dream at Empoli and Parma and a World Cup adventure with the Socceroos.

So what did Bresciano make of his close buddy’s pointed comments last year after the 2007 Asian Cup when he claimed certain celebrations by Asian opponents were taking the piss out of the Aussies?

Bresciano takes another good long pause before reflecting: “To be fair, I don’t pay much attention to all that stuff. I’d seen what they’d done with the celebration and all that kind of stuff but to be honest, it doesn’t get to me. I really don’t have anything to say – they can do what they do, but once we get out on the park, that’s probably when you want to get them back.

“Playing AFC teams is totally different to the World Cup. No-one expected anything from us and we had nothing to lose at the World Cup. But this time around, everyone who plays against us wants to beat us. They all think we’re the team to beat, maybe the most dominant team.

“It’s different...” He pauses again and exhales air before adding, “...sometimes, because if we don’t get the results we get frustrated.”

Even down a phone line from Genoa, the quietly spoken Mark Bresciano’s pride in the Green and Gold shines through loud and clear. But that pride comes at a hefty physical price.

The 2005 Confederations Cup; 2006 World Cup; 2007 Asian Cup… It’s been a hectic three years with little respite. And for Bresciano, sandwiched between those Green and Gold campaigns has been the demanding spotlight of Serie A.

In 2008, the Socceroos face a host of 2010 World Cup qualifiers in wildly varying climatic conditions across Asia and Australia. It’s not impossible – but hardly a smooth ride for Australia’s first campaign through the AFC.

This schedule sees a group-deciding quartet of fixtures in June: Iraq home and away – at a neutral venue – China at home and a trip to sweltering Doha against the Qataris.

“Any athlete needs his time off. Time off his feet, just to recharge the batteries – but we haven’t had a chance yet,” he notes without a hint of bitterness.

“I don’t know if we’ll have it this year because I think there are also a couple of games in June for the World Cup...”

Two games? Er, actually Mark, it’s four. “Four?” he replies, the alarm rising in his voice. “Faaark,” he muses quietly after a few seconds. “I thought there was only two...”

But don’t mistake for lack of commitment. Despite the physical toll his relentless footballing schedule has had on him, Bresciano is ready to go.

“At the end of this World Cup campaign, if we don’t qualify you’d be thinking, ‘Shit I could’ve helped out the team.’ That’d be hard. I think all the European Socceroos are going to be up for it.

“I don’t want any regrets, you know?”