FC St. Pauli

It is almost a month ago to the day that Jackson Irvine and Australia lost 2-1 to eventual world champions Argentina in the World Cup Round of 16. The FCSP skipper and his teammates came agonisingly close to achieving a sensation. Now the dust has settled, the overriding feeling is one of pride in the sporting accomplishments of his Socceroos. "It's pretty special to play against top players who constantly perform at this level week in, week out," said the midfielder looking back. “Those small moments, like walking into the tunnel and you look and see the best player of all time, Lionel Messi - to have shared the pitch with him, for me personally, never having played at the highest level domestically, the chance to play against these guys and compete at the highest level on the world stage is an just incredible experience and one I'm very proud of. For me and the rest of the team, It was like a little dream come true.”

Irvine had a major hand in Australia making it to the last 16, having started all four games. "The most intensive time was before the second group game against Tunisia", he said. "We lost the first game and were under pressure to get a result. You know you have to go out and perform and give it all you've got. To win that game and then go again and play it back as well as we did against a top ten team like Denmark in the third game was just incredible. Our mentality was elite, and it had to be, otherwise you have no chance."

Experience he can pass on to the team as captain of Boys in Brown? Perhaps, but it's not that easy, as the Melbourne native explains. "It is impossible to take what we did as a national team over two or three weeks to every day at club level. You can't be at this intensity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What I do want to bring back from this, though, is being able to tap into this feeling going into matchdays or important periods. A lot of the guys have come and asked me questions about the experience and what it was like playing against the top teams. The general reception has been relaxed, though, and I don't mind talking about it (he laughs)."

After the World Cup, he spent some time recharging his batteries in Australia before resuming full training a week ago. So as not to be caught out by the Hamburg weather, 'Jacko' had an ace up his sleeve. "I had a quick trip to England before coming back to Hamburg to resume training. It gave me a chance to get used to the cooler climate again (he laughs)."

That said, the temperatures in Benidorm, Spain, where the winter training camp runs until 9 January, are expected to be mild. Irvine and his teammates have come through their first few sessions under new head coach Fabian Hürzeler - and the approach is not entirely new, as Irvine explains: "The intensity has been very high. We know Fabian and we know what he wants from the players. For me, there's a new level of energy and intensity that everybody's brought. For certain players, for everybody really, it's now about showing what they can do and putting themselves in the best position - and the same goes for the new players. The changes have been a positive. Under Fabian, we work a lot with the ball in training and on the little things. There's a focus on small details, such as the right body position and playing the ball to the right side. The details might not seem important in the grand scheme of things, but for Fabian these are the details that can take us to a different level. When you have to concentrate a lot on the small details, then the concentration levels are just higher, naturally, and that's good for our development, because these small details will make the difference in the second half."

Photos: FC St. Pauli