Mat Ryan suggests the race to be Australia's number one goalkeeper is on following the shock retirement of Mark Schwarzer.
The 41-year old veteran, who is the Socceroos most capped player in history, has called time on his international career leaving Club Brugge youngster Ryan and Borussia Dortmund back-up Mitch Langerak to fight it out for the number one jersey.
"The retirement of Schwarzy came as a shock," Ryan said.
"The spot is now up for grabs heading into the World Cup and both myself and Mitch are going to be trying to grab it.
"I think I've been making my case in Belgium with making some important saves and performing consistently each week and hopefully that can play into my favour when it comes to the national team.
"At the top level, in my opinion, you need to be getting regular game time to be at your best and maybe that's to my advantage a little bit right now.
"By the same token, when Mitch has stepped up for Dortmund in some big games he has done well and shown he can handle that pressure also.
"Hopefully we can bring out the best in each other and the national team will benefit from that over the coming years.
"Things have opened up now - and I just now need to showcase to Ange Postecoglou what I can do when I come into camp next week."
