Culina not contemplating anything but a win

Experienced Socceroos midfielder Jason Culina is not even contemplating Australia losing next week against Uzbekistan and admits to having a good feeling, knowing they are close to securing a place at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals.

Experienced Socceroos midfielder Jason Culina is not even contemplating Australia losing next week against Uzbekistan and admits to having a good feeling, knowing they are close to securing a place at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals.

Culina, who is likely to anchor the midfield in Vince Grella-s absence through injury, is only thinking about winning against Uzbekistan and he believes with a good preparation they should win comfortably.

“In my mind, it-s going to be a win, I don-t think about losing,” Culina remarked, when asked where the match could be won or lost.

“With them coming here, I think they have got to worry about us rather than us worrying about them. So as far as I am concerned it-s going to be a game we-ll win quite comfortably.”

Having being involved four years ago, Culina knows the highs associated with making a world cup and it-s obviously something he would like to experience again before his career ends.

“Obviously I know what it-s like to be part of a World Cup and it-s a fantastic feeling, so to think in six days time we could be in the same situation as we were four years ago. Yeah (pauses), it-s a great feeling!

“The mood in camp is fantastic, we-ve only been here a couple of days and already you can sense the excitement amongst the players. We-re looking to work hard for the whole week and get a good result, because we know by the end of next week, we could just be about in the World Cup.”

Culina has no doubts the preparation time will make a huge difference and fans can look forward to an attacking style of play from Australia, because that-s what they enjoy playing.

“This time, we-ve got time to prepare, get used to the conditions, get over the jet-lag and we-re looking to be fully fit, have a good strong squad and hopefully we can do the job.

“I think if we look at our past performances at home you could see what a huge difference they were, compared to what they were for our away performances.

“It-s a situation where we can play our best football and I-m sure we-ll show that next Wednesday.”

Culina didn-t hold back and said the fans should have high expectations of Australia playing an attacking style next Wednesday.

"I think they (the fans) should have a high expectation (of an attacking style of play), because we (the players) do. We always want to win; we-ve shown in the past we can score many goals, especially here at home.

"Each game brings a different situation. With our away games to Japan and Bahrain the preparations were a little difficult, so you can't go there expecting to win 3-4 nil and play entertaining football.

"We went to Japan and played a very professional game and got the point we wanted and now it's time we stepped it up a bit.

“We can go into next Wednesday-s game playing a more attacking type of football, a brand of football that we prefer to play. I enjoy playing attacking football; we all like scoring; we all like attacking and I'm sure we'll be doing that on Wednesday.

"And with the extra preparation, we're all very confident that it's going to be a good game, an exciting game for the fans.”

Asked whether there had been some talk amongst the players about his move back to the Hyundai A-League with new franchise Gold Coast United, Culina simply quipped - “Yeah they-re all jealous.”

Tickets are still available for the match. To purchase your tickets, go to www.ticketek.com.au or phone on 132 849 or they can be purchased from all Ticketek outlets.

*ANZ Stadium referred to original name of Stadium Australia, due to rules of Asian Football Confederation.