Budapest: As Mile Jedinak quickly learnt after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, theres little honour in defeat.
Shortly after swelling with pride from his first foray as captain, the defensive midfielder was left disappointed having left the tournament with three straight losses.
Ready for Russia: Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak, left, was disappointed with the team's showing at the 2014 World Cup.
Photo: AAP
It didnt matter that Australia put on a brave face against Spain, The Netherlands and Chile – even outplaying their opponents in short spells – leaving Brazil pointless was a bitter pill to swallow.
As he prepares to lead Australia once more on the world stage, Jedinak knows playing stylish football is irrelevant compared to attempting to reach the second round in Russia.
"It was a disappointment for me, we know how hard we worked as a group," Jedinak said. "I know that we had given a good account of ourselves and it wasnt really a reflection on how we had performed in some of those games. I think if we had come away with something from some of those games I would have been a bit more satisfied. That we didnt made it just a a hard lesson."
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The 2018 World Cup will certainly be his last as captain and Jedinak wants to ensure he doesnt have to say chin-up in his final speech to his teammates.
Results are all that coach Bert van Marwijk has based his preparations on. The Socceroos have done away with noble philosophy and replaced it with a pragmatic set-up that will give them their best chance of snaring an upset against their first opponents and tournament heavyweights, France.
"Normally when you play 10 times against France maybe you lose eight or nine times. I want to create a situation that we lose only five or six times and we can win two times and maybe two times we play a draw," van Marwijk said.
Australias defensive set-up will be compact, consisting of a back four screened by two defensive midfielders. They will operate in a tight phalanx without the ball while looking to use their pace advantage by attacking on the break. Put simply, in the absence of individual stars, its a system that will attempt to make Australia a star team.
"We have to become one of the best teams. We dont have the best players of the world but I want to create a team who is one of the best teams and then you have a chance also against those countries," van Marwijk said.
His quest to do so has been aided by the Socceroos road to Russia. No team in the 88-year history of the World Cup has reached the tournament having travelled greater distances than this Socceroos team during qualification. It took them to places such as Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Honduras, Japan and Iran. It means van Marwijk inherits an already battle-hardened squad, one that has played more games than other nation to get to Russia (22 in total, including four play-off fixtures).
“This group is resilient. They dont give up, we dont give up until the bitter end, we always put everything we can out on to that pitch regardless of the opposition and the result. I think weve seen the growth of this group,” Jedinak said. “We want to do something special and everyone is pushing each other to the utmost limits to try and make that happen.”
In some ways, Russia is the easy part compared to the arduous journey theyve taken to get there. However, thats not how Jedinak sees it. Knowing from past experience that performances alone wont be enough to satisfy the public or the squad, Jedinak know Australia need results in 2018. Brazil taught him the only victory that came with noble displays were hollow on the world stage
“Weve gone through a long campaign in terms of getting to this World Cup, now were here were going to have to work doubly hard but well need to enjoy that. We knew what we had to go through to get here," he said.
Dominic Bossi is a football reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
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