Melbourne Heart FC rising star Jason Hoffman says his participation in this week’s Socceroo and Olyroo camp in Sydney was a humbling experience, providing a confidence boost ahead of Saturday’s match with Sydney FC.
Melbourne Heart FC rising star Jason Hoffman says his participation in this week-s Socceroo and Olyroo camp in Sydney was a humbling experience, providing a confidence boost ahead of Saturday’s match with Sydney FC.
Hoffman was one of four Heart players to earn selection for the two-day camp, joining David Williams, Brendan Hamill and Aziz Behich.
Helmed by Socceroo Coach Holger Osieck, the camp was designed to better acquaint the German with the leading emerging talents in the Hyundai A-League, allowing him to assess the strength of Australia-s generation next.
The 22-year-old says he will draw confidence from the camp as he looks to regain his place in the starting eleven after falling victim to food poisoning a fortnight ago.
“It was definitely very humbling for myself and also David and Brendan from the club,” Hoffman said. “It’s always fantastic if you’ve got someone like Holger whose watching the games and he picks you out to go to a camp.
“In saying that, it was only very quick, and it was more of a get-to-know Holger and the way he likes to play.
“Obviously it’s hard to have a camp during the A-League season but I thought it was definitely good. If you’re going to things like that it gives you confidence to go forward, and back to your clubs to perform well.”
Now back in Melbourne, Hoffman-s attentions have firmly turned to the next challenge on the radar, with Heart facing Sydney FC at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
While Heart has never lost to the Sky Blues, Hoffman expects Sydney FC to present a stern challenge.
However, the Novacastrian is confident the side are well poised to secure their first victory of the new campaign.
“We couldn’t wait to get back to be honest, and just enjoy the week leading up to the Sydney game,” he said.
“We took a lot of positives out of the derby and we feel like we’re getting very close to that goal that’s going to get us the three points.
“We were pumped up for the Victory game, and we expected them to be quite good, and after the way the game panned out, we’re definitely expecting Sydney to probably be a harder challenge.”
