The Middlesbrough goalkeeper admitted he understood the public’s disappointment following the Socceroos’ quarter-final loss to Japan, but has urged fans to support the team when they take on Argentina at the MCG.

“Argentina will be a great opportunity, hopefully, for us to play well and put us back in the minds of the Australian public," he said.

"And then all of the supporters will remember that’s how we can play."

The showdown may yet prove to be a swansong for some players said to be considering retirement including Josip Skoko, Scott Chipperfield and Mark Viduka.

While Schwarzer says he does not know of any definite retirement plans, he does believe the friendly will see both Australia and Argentina field full-strength sides and says Argentina’s incredible roster make them firm favorites.

“It’s always great to play in these sorts of games," he said. "They’re a world class side and one of the top three or four teams in the world and they have been for a long, long time.

"It’s always a great experience to play nations of this caliber. There’s so many of them [top players].

"Obviously [Carlos] Tevez is one of the players most people are talking about at the moment. You look at Pablo Aimar, you look at [Juan] Riquelme.

"There are a lot of players and you can just go on and on and on. It’s going to be difficult to play against them because every one of them is a top-class player."

While he would not be drawn into what would be considered an acceptable result, Schwarzer believes that returning to the form that saw them so many fans during the World Cup will be most crucial.

“I think what’s important, especially after the Asian Cup, is that we need to perform really, really well," he said.

“You’ve got to be realistic – you are playing one of the best teams in the world. If we can get a result against them, fantastic and we’re going to go out there to get a result against them.

"We want to win every game we can but they’re the same and they’ve got a reputation to live up to and they’ll want to knock us down a little bit. It’s going to be a big game that we’re going to go out and try to win.”

While also said that while there is no shame in losing to a regional force such as Japan, he does concede that the team played poorly – particularly in the first two group matches.

“It’s very disappointing. We’re disappointed in ourselves," he admmited.

"We’re upset with ourselves because we know we should’ve done a lot better. We didn’t perform well enough and there were a lot of unanswered questions of ourselves.

"Sometimes these things happen and sometimes you don’t perform well as a team.

"The first two games of the Asian Cup really did put us in a precarious position. After that we showed that we are a good side and rightly one of the favourite teams in Asia."

He added: "Unfortunately the quarter-final was away to Japan when they’d been in Vietnam the whole time... it was going to be a very tall order."

“But if we sat on the pitch with 11 players, I think we would have won the game.”