Just days after a deflating semi-final loss to South Korea, the Olyroos must bounce back in the AFC Under-23 Championship to realise their Olympic dream.
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Beaten 2-0 by the impressive Koreans on Wednesday, Graham Arnold's team now face Uzbekistan in Saturday's third-place playoff in Bangkok.
The match is essentially a sudden-death Olympic qualifier.
A win over the 2018 AFC U-23 champions would book the Olyroos' spot at the Tokyo Games while defeat will extend an Olympic drought for Australia's men which extends back to 2008.
From the moment the final whistle blew against the Koreans Arnold has been making sure his players did not dwell on the defeat and reset their focus on the clash with the Uzbeks.
"If you're going to lose one game out of six, that was the game to lose because at the end of the day, you've got a second bite at the cherry," Arnold said.
"Straight after the game I got the boys together and said 'we can't do anything about that game any more, it's over' ... they did Australia proud but got beaten by a better team on that night.
"You lose; you learn. You get over it; you get on with it. You can't affect that game any more and all our focus right from the final whistle til now has just been on the game tomorrow."
The Uzbeks, who are attempting to reach the Olympics for the first time, suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Saudi Arabia in their semi-final.
With several full internationals among their ranks, the White Wolves will be a tough opponent for Arnold's team to overcome.
Having left Reno Piscopo, Ramy Najjarine, Nicholas D'Agostino and Thomas Deng on the bench for the semi-final, Arnold is expected to bring most of his key player back in to face the Uzbeks.
Melbourne City midfielder Denis Genreau is also in contention to start after proving his recovery from an ankle injury by coming on in the second half against South Korea.
"At the end of the day you're playing a game every two or three days here and if you look at the lineup I put out there's only four players that played against Syria," Arnold said of his rotations.
"To get to the semi-finals is a great achievement in itself but we've got to finish this off now."
Australian Associated Press
