Thwaite and Jason Culina were both part of Holger Osieck's squad for his first match on Australian soil.

Culina's display earned praise from Bleiberg with the coach also confident that Thwaite is now knocking on the door.

"Jason played extremely well for the Socceroos and is now a leading figure in the national team," Bleiberg said.

"It's nice to see even more evidence that coming back to play in the Hyundai A-League has done him no harm at all in terms of his quality and performance; on the contrary in fact.

"As for Michael, we are all thrilled for him now that he is back in the Socceroos fold and I understand that the national team coach was very happy with him even though he didn't get in the side this time around. His time will come I'm sure."