With a World Cup looming, Rowles welcoming the competition and potential new position
Kye Rowles isn't the same everpresent figure in the Socceroos defence for Tony Popovic as he was Graham Arnold but he's ready to do whatever is needed to press his case – even learning a new position
Though still a regular member of squads, Kye Rowles has seen his Socceroo roll shrink under Tony Popovic. With a World Cup looming, however, the defender has said he’s ready to do whatever is needed to press his case – even if it means learning an entirely new position.
With nearly 30 international caps to his name, Rowles is one of the more experienced members of the squad called up by Popovic for the October window, and, amongst the defenders, only 50-cap veteran Miloš Degenek has more internationals under his belt.
Much of the DC United defender’s exposure to the international game, however, highlighted by his ever-presence at the heart of the defence during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, came under former coach Graham Arnold.
Though called up for all of Popovic’s squads, the 27-year-old has featured in just three of the ten games the coach has thus far overseen in his tenure – Degenek, Cameron Burgess, and Alessandro Circati increasingly shaping as being preferred in the coach’s back five.
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“We’re so tight for competition and spots in this team that you’ve just got to wait for your opportunity,” Rowles said.
“All the guys are playing so well, and if you get handed an opportunity, you’ve got to grab it with both hands and do your best to prove your worth in the team.
“I know that everyone here doesn’t take a minute for granted when they’re out on the pitch, and you can tell that by the way we play and the team spirit that we show on the pitch and off the pitch.
“I just want to play the best role I can, whatever that may be, and I know all the other boys are the same, so it’s just head down, and if you’re lucky enough to get that opportunity, just make the most of it.”
One potential avenue for minutes for Rowles could come in the role he played in the Socceroos’ 3-1 win over New Zealand during last month’s Soccer Ashes: left-wing back.
Starting, playing a full 90 minutes and even at one point coming close to grabbing just his second international goal, he played on the left side of a back five for the first time in his international career in that win.
If his Transfermarkt page is accurate, it was also just the second time in his professional career period – joining the 2-0 loss to Western Sydney that he suffered with Central Coast in round seven of the 2018/19 A-League Men season, a game in which current Socceroo teammate Aiden O’Neill started in the Mariners midfield.
Admittedly, Bos and veteran Aziz Behich shape as the almost unbackable favourites to fill that slot in Popovic’s World Cup squad. Bos, in particular, is well on his way to establishing himself as the Socceroos’ best player if he can maintain his red-hot start to life with new side Feyenoord.
But with Bos arriving late into camp and only training fully for the first time on Wednesday evening, and Melbourne City skipper Behich not selected as he awaits the start of the A-League Men season, Rowles could easily find himself competing with potential debutant Jacob Italiano for minutes in that slot come Friday evening.
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And with competition for places in the FIFA World Cup squad so tight – the expected return of Harry Souttar in the new year only going to add to the logjam in defence – the ability to play another position, one in which Rowles has seemingly been receiving a crash course in well before his debut, would undoubtedly boost his case.
“We’ll have to wait and see. I’d love to be out there [on Friday], but it’s not really up to me at the end of the day,” Rowles said. “I’m just going to put my head down and work as hard as possible and be ready for whatever role I need to play. And yeah, I mean, I’ll just be excited to be given the chance.
“At each camp, I’m learning more and more about that position out there. It’s pretty difficult. So I have huge respect for the wing-backs that are running around the pitch, for sure.
“I’m just trying to learn as much as possible and try and do the best I can in that role, and hopefully that helps the team.”
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