The Australian Olympic team started off their campaign to qualify for next year’s Asian Games with a 2-0 win over Brunei Darussalam in their AFC Under-23 qualification opener in Myanmar on Wednesday night.

Australia play Singapore today and Myanmar on Sunday, and if they can top their group they will qualify directly for next year’s tournament in China.

Despite the Olyroos not being able to qualify for an Olympic Games since 2008 Aspro believes the current squad has what it takes to represent Australia in Tokyo.

“We’ve got a really strong group and a group that I believe can really kick on and take us to the Olympics,” said the Wanderers defender speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo.

“Anything that’s happened previously in other tournaments we can’t control. The miss-qualification of certain teams can be talked about, but in the end we’ve got no power over what happened previously.

“We are a new group and we are looking to control our own destiny. We’ve got this tournament happening now and hopefully we can qualify for the Asian games in January and we are going to go there and represent our nation as best as we can.”

The Australian men's team has a proud tradition playing football at the Olympics with semi-final appearances in Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, but the last two campaigns have ended in failure.

However, the young defender is adamant that this squad is going to do everything in its power to make that international spotlight again and Aspro feels coach Josep Gombau can guide the team there.

“We really want to quality and we want to make Australia proud,” the 21-year-old said.

“But if we don’t qualify then we know that we put everything into it and we are not going to go down without a fight being put up. The main the thing is to qualify and that’s where Australia should be - on the main stage.

Aspro added: “I really like Josep and the way he works and the way he conducts himself around us as a team.

“It’s a different circumstance for myself because I’ve been so used to being coached under Tony Popovic but Josep gives me a different perspective to how football is thought of and played.”