Australian defender Michael Beauchamp admits it is an honour to be representing his nation ahead of the World Cup. The Melbourne Heart recruit is in South Africa fighting for a spot in Pim Verbeek's final 23 and although he is no certainty to make the cut is enjoying every moment of being in the Australian national team.
"It is always a great honour to be a part of the Australian national team, representing your country in any sport is something that not many people get to do, I love being here with a great bunch of guys who are at the top of their game, who will do the best we can to make Australians proud," he told tribalfootball.com exclusively.
The 29-year old Sydney-born Beauchamp is confident the Socceroos will be able to hold their own once the tournament proper starts as the outlook of the squad is extremely optimistic and he is comfortbale with his own form ahead of the final two friendly matches (against Denmark tomorrow and the USA on Saturday) before the competition really heats up.
"Since arriving in South Africa the feeling within the team is very positive, training has been intense but that is a very good thing and the boys are looking forward to the upcoming friendlies to get ready for the 13th of June (against Germany)," he added.
"I feel like I did a job in the game against New Zealand, which I was happy about and it was a good feeling to be out there with the boys once again, having been away for a while. I'm just going to concentrate on each training session and leave the decisions of who will play up to Pim."
Beauchamp, who has spent the better part of the past three years playing abroad with German outfit FC Nuremberg, Denmark's Aalborg and UAE's Al-Jazira, understands it is too near-sighted to concentrate on individual players when the group stage gets under way, admitting that the Socceroos will have to be wary of their opponents as a whole whilst stating that from a personal point of view, he still harbours ambitions to play overseas despite signing a contract with new A-League club the Heart.
"You can't focus on only certain players because this is the World Cup and every player from every team will be playing better then they have before," he added further.
"I decided to make my move back home as I felt I needed to get regular game time again and actually start enjoying my football. Melbourne Heart has signed a good mixture of senior and youth players so I'm sure it'll be a good season to come. I won't be closing any doors to a move back overseas in the future, but obviously my first focus is on making the final 23 players here, then getting regular games with the Heart, and then who knows what is around the corner."
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