AT 33, Socceroo captain Lucas Neill has no intention of handing over his armband with a World Cup in Brazil still three years away

From Australia’s first friendly back in June of 1922 against New Zealand, up until the Germany World Cup in 2006, only the 1974 squad played at a World Cup finals during that 84-year period. Socceroo captain Lucas Neill now plans to play three consecutive tournaments, two quite possibility as captain – in just 12 years.

That is the current footballing landscape we assume in Australia. We now expect to be one of the top 32 nations competing at the World Cup and when FourFourTwo sat down with Neill recently, it was not a case of just reminiscing about South Africa last year and the Asian Cup final, it was about looking forward to another major tournament in three years time.

The qualifying draw for Brazil 2014 will take place at the end of this month and a gruelling campaign through Asia will commence once again. A tough campaign that the 50th captain of the Socceroos is ready to fulfill and claim the prize of World Cup football once again. There is no talk of not making it.

It is entirely plausible that Neill, who will be 36 in Brazil, will be able execute his desire. Physically fit and never one to overly rely on pace, Neill has that invaluable knack of reading the game and positioning himself correctly ahead of approaching attacks.

We spoke with Lucas to discuss the year since the 2010 World Cup, working under a new Socceroos coach, making Brazil and a “horrible season” at club side Galatasaray.

The last time we spoke it was before the World Cup in South Africa and we chatted about the feeling of leading your nation out at a major tournament. Now it has happened, what was it like doing just that against Germany in our opening game?
It was truly a proud time. It surpasses all your dreams, that knowledge that you are the first to walk out – it is just an amazing feeling. With that comes a little bit of responsibility and I probably took it a little bit too personally that we didn’t qualify for the second round, but I’m not going to let that tarnish the fact that I am one of a very lucky few that captained their country at a World Cup.

A year has passed since the World Cup, with such time for clarity, how do you assess South Africa?
I still think we did amazingly well – we just got off to a less than impressive start. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing, but perhaps at 2-0 down and with a man sent off we should have just said “right, let’s just lose this game 2-0,” but it’s never been in our nature to do that.  We are starting to learn that it’s not really about the performances, it’s about getting to each stage, and we really took that concept onboard at the Asian Cup where it was just about taking small steps at a time to making sure we were always in the next game, or the next round. Maybe we needed to make some honest mistakes to learn that. We played so  well against Ghana, particularly with 10 men, and should have won that game. Then it was an amazing spirited performance against Serbia, but what was more surprising is that Germany didn’t do us a favour in the other game. Look at Uruguay, who ended up being in the last four of the World Cup, a team that we have beaten in a pressure situation before. So, it’s one of those things, another one of those tournaments where it’s a “what if”, but still we have been to another World Cup and you can’t take that away from us.

Luckily we had the Asian Cup soon after! What was the key to going on that run to the final?
The mindset when we got there was to learn from each tournament. The attitude of teams that are successful in tournaments is to make sure they do just enough in the early stages to keep being in amongst it, keep advancing, and then obviously when it comes to crunch time, take advantage. We did everything we could to win the tournament but on the night didn’t execute. We created plenty of opportunities and apart from one out of character defensive mistake [Japan’s winner in the final], we were faultless in the tournament. And for me especially, I was disappointed I didn’t get to lift the cup, not just for myself, but on behalf of the country and all the guys. Plus a lot of people that have a put a lot of hard work into the game for a number of years. It would have been a sweet moment.

What was it like working under Socceroos coach Holger Osieck? What type of coach is he?
Very open, very honest, but I’ve been the same with all my managers. He [Holger] has been around long enough in football, in so many different environments, that he never gets over fazed by any situation. He never gets carried away and he never worries too much, he breathes an amazing amount of confidence in the squad and I think that’s evident by the fact that he’s willing to play younger players in big games too. He makes those yougsters feel like they’re good enough and gives them the belief that they can go out and perform. And he’s just a guy with tremendously good tactical knowledge of the game as well, all without complicating the game.

The Asian Cup ended in disappointment. Was that made all the harder as it was the last opportunity for this ‘Golden Generation’ to win a major tournament?
A lot of the guys didn’t know how to respond to losing the final because we were so determined and so sure we were going to win when we got to the final, without being over-confident. A lot of players will be thinking long and hard now about when does the next chance come? It’s up to your body, how long it is going to allow you to get selected. If that means getting to the next World Cup, which realistically we are not going to win, that would be something phenomenal. Just getting to the World Cup and getting out of the group stages is an achievement every time you go to a World Cup. And then anything’s possible once you are in the knock-out stages. But then beyond that is an Asian Cup in Australia, which would be amazing, but I suppose a lot of people think that’s probably a year or two too far [for me].

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