Patrick Kisnorbo - International Career

International Career

Kisnorbo was part of Australia's 2001 Youth World Cup campaign, playing five matches for the under-20 team in Oceania qualifiers, including a goal against Papua New Guinea. He remained on the squad for the finals, appearing in all the matches leading up to Australia's second-round elimination at the hands of Brazil. His performances in the under-20 level led to his first international appearance on 6 July 2002 against Vanuatu in Australia's first match of the 2002 OFC Nations Cup. He made three appearances in the tournament including the defeat to New Zealand in the final.

In 2004 Kisnorbo was again selected for the squad for the Oceania Cup. In Australia's last group match against Solomon Islands he was sent off for receiving two yellow cards, ending his tournament. He declined to join the "Olyroos" squad for an Olympic preparation tour in July, electing to concentrate on cementing a place at Hearts in the pre-season. This decision harmed his national team aspirations, as he was left out of the squad that eventually lost to Iraq in the quarter-finals.

Kisnorbo made appearances for Australia in friendlies against Ghana, Denmark, China and Uruguay. These performances led to his selection for the Australian 2007 AFC Asian Cup squad, playing in the first two group matches against Oman and Iraq. After Australia tied the first match and lost the second, Kisnorbo was dropped from the starting line-up amongst a host of changes. He played no further part in the tournament as Australia were eventually knocked out by Japan.

It was widely regarded that Kisnorbo's poor performance at the Asian Cup had ruined his chances of ever returning to international level, and he remained outside the Australian national squad for over two years, however, following admirable performances with his new club Leeds United, Kisnorbo regained his international place in 2009 and started in a 3–0 friendly win over Republic of Ireland on 12 August 2009, nearly scoring a goal in the 22nd minute when his header was saved at pointblank range by goalkeeper Shay Given. On 5 September 2009, Kisnorbo scored his first goal for Australia in a game against South Korea. Kisnorbo was subsequently selected in the Australian squad for a friendly against the Netherlands on 10 October 2009.

Kisnorbo's ruptured achilles tendon injury suffered against Millwall in March 2010 ruled him out of the 2010 World Cup for Australia.

In June 2011, Kisnorbo was recalled to the Australia national side for the first time since recovering from his achilles injury when he was called up to train with the national side in a non playing role ahead of the friendly against Serbia.