June 14 2014

Mile Jedinak watches as Chile\'s Jorge Valdivia scores the second goal

Crystal Palace's MILE JEDINAK hopes Australia can recover from their World Cup defeat to Chile.

The midfielder was frustrated with the 3-1 loss in their opening match of the World Cup in Brazil and they face a difficult test against Holland in their next game on Wednesday.

"It's disappointing, to be honest," JEDINAK said. "We had a right go and those first 20 minutes ended up costing us.

"We were on top of them, we were so dominant. We had a couple of good chances, and their keeper pulled off some great saves. It wasn't meant to be, that was the difference."

Upon checking William Hill football odds, JEDINAK is 13/2 to score any time against Holland.

He is only the fourth Australian to lead the Socceroos at a World Cup.

"To be handed the responsibility of captaining my country at the World Cup is humbling, yet incredibly exciting," JEDINAK said.

"It is an honour to be named captain but it is also a huge responsibility and I look forward to providing leadership for the team along with Tim and Mark as we take on some of the biggest nations in world football."

Australia are in a tough group, alongside defending champions Spain, 2010 runners-up Holland and Chile.

But JEDINAK can look to Palace as an example of a team overcoming the odds after they avoided relegation from the Premier League.

"I’ve been thinking about Brazil for a while without actually talking about it that much," he said. "I always deflected speaking about it in public because of my job with Palace.

"But I suppose it always seemed off in the distance, too. Then it very quickly creeps up on you while you’re focused on your day-to-day life.

"It’s been great tonic going into the World Cup because we were written off every week and up against it every week.

"But if you work hard enough to better yourselves, as a team, in training and on match day, you can compete with anyone.

"What we did at Palace is living proof that things can happen and you can defy all expectation and achieve things those on the outside don’t believe is possible.

"You have that self-belief and that can take you anywhere. That’s what I’ve brought with me to Brazil and that’s what I’ll be passing on to the boys."