Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer feels the current form of the team has them in a good position in the 2011 Asian Cup.
The Fulham gloveman is adamant that the current day Socceroos have learnt a valuable lesson from the disappointment of 2007 when they were eliminated by Japan in the quarter-finals after a poor group stage performance.
Four years ago, the Socceroos ended their opening three matches with a lucky draw with Oman, a 3-1 loss to eventual winners Iraq and a 4-0 win over Thailand.
This year they have beaten India and drawn with co-tournament favourites South Korea and Schwarzer feels that is a much better position to be in as they strive to redeem themselves from the previous failure.
“That was something very, very much at the front of our minds because we made it very clear that for this tournament - especially the players that were there in 2007 and are here now - that we did not want to go through the same sort of process we did then,” he told afcasiancup.com.
“It was important that we got off to a good start and it was important that we played some decent football as a team.
“We are very united as a group and we are determined to perform better than we did four years ago.”
Australia next meet Bahrain in their final group stage match on Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday 12:00am AEDT). Their current group standing means they cannot lose the encounter whilst a win or a draw will be enough to put them into the Round of 8.
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