To see the Socceroos fans in Sydney...

 

Neill is one of many Socceroos players on the older side of 30, who may have been expected to hang up their boots with the next World Cup four years away. But while admitting it was a period of transition for the team, Neill said he still wanted to be part of that era.

"I'll go on to hopefully lead this country as long as my body will allow it. As long as I can continue to perform at a level and perform consistently, of course I'm going to help out for the country. I want to win things, I want to achieve things for this country," he said after the bittersweet 2-1 win over Serbia which was not enough to get Australia through to the group stage.

"I want to give back to these younger guys who might need a little bit of guidance. It's very quick now to move on, but Asian Cup has got to be a target of ours. With the last campaign in Asia behind us, I want to go for some glory."

While Australia's core of experienced players could hold on until the Asian cup campaign in Qatar in January next year, Neill said change in the make-up of the team is inevitable.

"Some will go and some more will get an opportunity now. People like (Michael Beauchamp) stepped in tonight and was amazing. He's been in the shadows for a while, but he is going to become more prominent. As are a lot of the players like Brett Holman," he said.

"We are gonna get a new coach, that might bring a completely different style. Maybe it's a fresh approach and maybe it's what we need. We've had Dutch for a long time, whether we go Dutch again, but with the quality we have and the experience we have gained from tournaments, we can be very hopeful," he said.

Neill said the heartbreak of coming so close to qualification for the second round in this tournament will be a motivating factor going forward.

"The way we represented the country tonight for ourselves, we should all be patted on the back. I'd like to pat the boys on the back for their efforts, but it still hurts," he said.

"Like I said we can be proud but it's a young change room, and they will be hurting, they will learn from it and let's hope they channel that energy in the right way and we take it forward and use this hurt from this tournament to keep the momentum going."

Neill said the courage shown by his team-mates was part of the Australian character of never giving up and he felt the Socceroos had shown the nation of how passionate they are about their rrole as representatives of Australia.

"I think it's Australian, we are good in pressure situations and have to dig deep, more often then not we seem to find something. It doesn't always get us over the line. Yet again I can be proud to say that no matter what the challenge, we can always rise to it and try and take it head on," he said.

  

To see the Socceroos fans in Sydney...