Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou says the team has learned a lot from its two international friendlies in Germany and FYROM.
The Socceroos left both games with a 2-2 and 0-0 draws respectively, but left much wiser ahead of their World Cup qualifiers in June.
“This is the first step for us and nights like this are great for us,” Postecoglou told Fox Sports after the FYROM match on Monday.
“It shows the boys that sometimes in international games it’s not just the opponent that can challenge us, it’s the conditions and playing in a foreign environment as well.
“[The FYROM match] was really good in terms of our learning curve. It’s been a whirlwind two games for us. We’ve had some pretty good players missing from this group and the guys here acquitted themselves well.”
As the players return to their leagues, Postecoglou says he’s more at ease knowing that he has a much wider pool of players to choose from.
He gave Greek Australian Chris Ikonomides his first shot at Socceroos stardom in the FYROM match after he played him in the second half.
“From my perspective we’ve got a real strong pool of players to choose from for the June [World Cup qualifiers] and the back half of the year gets really busy,” he said.