Maty Ryan has welcomed Mitch Langerak’s shock return to the Socceroos and the impending battle for Australia’s goalkeeping jersey at the World Cup, saying that no player – including himself as captain – should be entitled to a starting position.
Langerak ruled himself out of national team consideration in mid-2021, citing the onerous coronavirus restrictions imposed by Japan, where he plays his club football for Nagoya Grampus and is considered far and away the J.League’s best goalkeeper.
But despite stressing as recently as a few weeks ago that he would stay permanently retired from international duty, coach Graham Arnold has convinced the 34-year-old to reverse his decision and accept a call-up for this week’s friendlies against New Zealand – the final games they will play before their World Cup campaign begins against France on November 22.
It means Ryan will have his strongest challenge in several years for a spot in the Socceroos’ starting team from chief rival Langerak, who he always thought would change his mind at some point.
“As soon as he texted me to tell me that he was retiring, I already flagged it with him then that I sensed there was going to be a comeback,” he told the Herald and The Age.
“Thrilled for him, thrilled for the team. He’s had a great few years over there in Japan. The team’s definitely stronger with him in it. You know you’ve got to be on top of your game in order to earn the right to play. That’s what every position has got to be like.
Mitchell Langerak’s return to the Socceroos fold will give Maty Ryan his biggest challenge in years.Credit:Getty
“That’s the environment we want to create within the national team – no one is ever entitled to play, and you’ve got to go out there and earn the right to play through your performances in training and matches.”
Ryan and Langerak are expected to both see significant minutes in Thursday night’s clash at Suncorp Stadium and Sunday’s rematch at Eden Park in Auckland, with Arnold having flagged his intention to field two entirely different teams in each game. While there will be several weeks of club football to impress Arnold before the coach locks in his final 26-man squad for Qatar, there is no better way to leave an imprint in the coach’s mind than a strong performance in an Australian uniform.
Arnold has already shown his willingness to change his team if he thinks it will help the Socceroos’ fortunes, having taken his skipper off when their World Cup play-off against Peru went to penalties, sending Andrew Redmayne on for the shootout that would make him an instant national hero – a shock call that an unaware Ryan graciously embraced.
Ryan, 30, is the warm favourite to retain the gloves but would have been much more vulnerable to being superseded by Langerak had he not moved to Danish Superliga giants FC Copenhagen this season. He had previously endured a lean run at club level.
Maty Ryan has found club minutes hard to come by in recent years, but solved that problem with a switch to FC Copenhagen.Credit:Getty
Suddenly frozen out by Graham Potter at Brighton and Hove Albion in late 2020 after three years as a Premier League regular, Ryan saw just 540 league minutes at Arsenal and Real Sociedad in the last two seasons.
Now Ryan is going toe-to-toe with the world’s most lethal strikers in the UEFA Champions League – a tournament he is experiencing for the first time in his career. After successfully navigating their qualification pathway to end a five-year absence from the group stage, Copenhagen have been pooled with Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla, who they drew 0-0 with last week. Next month, a showdown with the red-hot Erling Haaland and Manchester City, the other team in Group G, awaits.
“It’ll be a big challenge and when we do come up against him, if we can manage to keep him quiet and not let him score or [let] City get a result, that’s something we’ll never forget as a club or as individuals,” Ryan said.
“That’s the great thing about playing at the highest level. You get to test yourself against the world’s best teams and players. We get to do that with the World Cup coming up [too]. As a goalkeeper, getting clean sheets in the Champions League is something you dream of doing.”
Ryan says he learned a lot from his experiences in England and Spain in managing the mental challenges that come with not being the first-choice goalkeeper at his club, and is proud of the level he played at when rare opportunities did come his way.
“I always felt like I was ready and prepared, I always was knuckling down at training as hard as I could … [that’s] why I was able to play some of probably the best games I’ve played in my career [in that period],” he said.
“Playing more regularly, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it much more than the circumstances I’ve been in. But in terms of my form, I’m really not finding too many differences. Externally, for Arnie and other people out there, when they see someone playing regularly, it ticks more boxes, even though while I wasn’t playing regularly, I still felt that I was planning to a real high level.”
Watch the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League group stage matches on Stan Sport. Resumes Wednesday, October 5.
