Fresh from heading home the winner in Brisbane’s 1-0 triumph over Central Coast on Saturday, Roar skipper Craig Moore is confident he will be back in a Qantas Socceroos shirt in six weeks.
Moore was left out of national coach Pim Verbeek’s squad for Saturday’s international friendly against South Korea in Seoul.
The veteran defender said he had spoken to Verbeek and was confident he would rejoin his compatriots for the October 10 international friendly against the Netherlands.
“I spoke to Pim before he announced the squad, I’d be a little bit concerned if I was the only one left out, but that’s definitely not the case,” Moore said.
“I’m at the age now where maybe traveling … if it’s not needed to be done, it’s probably better for me (not to).”
33-year-old Moore suggested a possible appearance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup was still on the cards, should he be playing at the standard required.
“My discussions with Pim were along the lines of ‘I’m not going to include you in this squad, get yourself ready for the game against Holland’ … and that suits me,” he said.
“I’m like any other player, the form needs to be good and I need to be on top of my game otherwise there is every chance you get left out of the squad.”
Moore said ultimately his immediate focus was still leading the Roar.
The central defender scored a rare goal at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, the third time he has found the back of the net in 48 Hyundai A-League appearances.
Moore looked to downplay his efforts.
“My first three passes were to their jerseys, so it was nice to pop up there because I don’t get many chances.”
“It was nice, but I have never been one for the individual plaudits.”
“(The win) was extremely important for us today, because hopefully we can grow in confidence and look to slowly start moving up the table.”
Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna was let down by the lack of fight in his charges.
“Of course Craig Moore has got a great header, (but he had) a free run, a free challenge – it just shouldn’t happen,” McKinna said.
“They deserved to win today, the disappointing thing was we didn’t even have a yellow card today.”
“That just summed up a flat performance – we didn’t even compete.”
“Brisbane were the better team on the day, if we had of gotten a draw I would have been very thankful.”
