JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Australia's players are ready to embrace the challenge of a packed Gelora Bung Karno stadium in their FIFA World Cup qualifier against Indonesia on Tuesday, believing the hostile environment can help invigorate their attempts to bounce back from a shock 1-0 loss to Bahrain.
The Socceroos suffered just their second defeat in a 'live' home World Cup qualifier since 1981 in the opening game of Asian qualifying's third round on Thursday, unable to convert their handy domination of possession into meaningful chances before an unfortunate 89th-minute own goal from Harry Souttar.
"Speaking as a group and amongst ourselves, we can say all the things we want tactically and everything like that but if we were to look ourselves in the mirror, each and every one of us, we were below par," Souttar told ESPN. "We can all do better and we can all improve.
"The one thing about this group is that wherever we've kind of maybe put a bad performance, we've always responded. Since I've been in the set-up, we've always responded well."
Indonesia, conversely, heads into Tuesday buoyed not just by advancing to this stage of qualification for the first time but also a surprise 1-1 draw with Asian powerhouses Saudi Arabia in Jeddah.
"It's going to be a really tough game," Socceroo midfielder Aiden O'Neill told ESPN. "We were expecting that before the result against Saudi Arabia. It's going to be a really tough game and we've got to be at it from the start to get out of it what we want.
"We have so much character in this squad, and I think it's a great game for us to go and show everyone, show Australia, what we have in this team."
The Socceroos and Indonesia last met in the round of 16 in January's AFC Asian Cup -- the first time Tim Garuda had advanced to the knockout stages -- where the Australians saw off their dogged foes with two late goals in a 4-0 win.
Under the stewardship of Shin Tae-Yong, however, Indonesia has continued to strengthen across 2024 and Souttar -- who scored Australia's fourth in that January meeting -- is under no illusions that a stiffer test likely awaits on Tuesday.
"The one thing we said as a group is that it's going to be a lot different from the Asian Cup," he remarked. "The Asian Cup game was a bit strange because we scored two late goals. Although we dominated the game, [the score] probably wasn't a true reflection. The late goals put that extra nice bit on it for us.
"They're going to be a very tough opponent. We know they're very capable with the ball at their feet, they've brought in some more experienced players from overseas and with the home field advantage and atmosphere they're going to create we're going to have to be switched on."
"[Tuesday is] going to be loud, it's going to be noisy [but the feeling is] one of excitement. You want to play in front of big crowds, full houses and big atmospheres.
"It might make it a bit more difficult but it feels like going into a place where it's not just 11 guys but all the lads on the bench and all the team behind us, all the staff, versus 80k. It's an 'us-against-the-world' mentality [and] there's no better feeling to go away from home like that and get a result."
Indeed, it's a longstanding truism in Australian football that its teams operate better when tapping into a battling mindset, and one player who won't be overawed by Tuesday's sense of occasion is defender Alessandro Circati.
The 20-year-old wasn't a part of the Australian squad that went to the Asian Cup -- remaining with his club Parma as they successfully chased promotion to Serie A -- but started and played a full 90 minutes for I Gialloblu in front of 51,520 partisan Napoli fans at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in his last game before this international window.
"That's my favourite type of football," he told ESPN. "[It] gives me more energy, and makes me want to win a bit more."