The prospect of marking Socceroos team-mate Tim Cahill in Wednesday’s clash between Melbourne Heart and Everton does not intimidate Heart defender Michael Beauchamp.
The pair recently spent six weeks together in the Socceroos World Cup camp, playing on each other almost every day in training matches. Beauchamp knows how much of a handful Cahill can be, but would love to mark him on Wednesday.
“I’ve trained against him plenty of times, and even at training he’s a very tricky character. He’s a great player,” he said.
Beauchamp, who made his World Cup debut against Serbia last month, has only joined Heart’s training sessions, this week, but insists he is fit and firing and ready for Everton at Etihad Stadium.
“I had my first session today, which was pretty intense so I’m definitely looking forward to it,” he said on Monday. “I feel pretty good, I had a couple of weeks off after the World Cup. I’m still feeling very fit.
Beauchamp is also excited by the challenge of helping pull together a brand new team.
“It’s a good set-up here and we are really hoping to get a lot of support behind us throughout the season,” he said.
“There’s a lot of boys coming from different areas, a lot of young players coming through as well, so it-s going to be interesting, but there is a great bunch of boys here, I can already see, and I’ve played with most of them before, so I’m sure it won-t take that long to gel.”
“We’ve got a lot of experience in the team and a lot of young players coming through, it’s a good mixture of players and it-s going to take a few games to get used to everyone and get that gelling happening, but it should be a good season for the club.”
