Is Eddy Bosnar good enough for the Socceroos?

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By Mike Tuckerman, 7 May 2009 Mike Tuckerman is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: Eddy Bosnar, EF United, football, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos

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The Australian Socceroos during a training session in Brisbane, Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, ahead of their World Cup qualifier match against Qatar on Wednesday. AAP Image/Dave Hunt

He’s tall, strong in the air and most importantly, left-sided. He’s also one of the forgotten men of Australian football – at least until World Cup qualifiers roll around, at which point a hardy few in cyberspace will pick up the baton and insist that Eddy Bosnar deserves to be in the national squad.

Yet the question remains: is Eddy Bosnar good enough to play for the Socceroos?

I caught the big man in action at a rain-swept Nihondaira Stadium on Tuesday night as his team JEF United were held to a 2-2 draw on the road at Shimizu S-Pulse.

Bosnar could hardly be blamed for his team conceding twice in the final ten minutes, although the Sydney-born defender got off to an inauspicious start when his first touch in slippery conditions saw him tumble over near the touch-line.

But despite turning in one of his better performances, Bosnar’s overall record in Japan bears closer scrutiny.

Recruited from Dutch club Heracles Almelo in 2008, Bosnar linked up with Croatian coach Josip Kuze at J. League strugglers JEF United.

The two knew each other from their days in Croatian football, but Kuze endured a torrid time in Chiba, and he was sacked a third of the way through the campaign.

Former Liverpool first team coach Alex Miller stepped in with the task of salvaging JEF United from relegation, and he took an immediate shine to the combative defender.

Bosnar has been an ever-present for the Chiba club, yet his biggest weapon – his aggression – is also an achilles’ heel in the tackle-shy J. League.

Last season Bosnar racked up a league-high thirteen yellow cards – a dubious distinction he shared with former Japan skipper Takashi Fukunishi – and the Australian missed several crucial clashes through suspension.

On the penultimate day of the campaign, Bosnar was sent off at Nihondaira Stadium for a second bookable offence, having clattered into Shimizu’s theatrical youngster Keisuke Iwashita.

As the red mist descended Bosnar stood over Iwashita to accuse him of play-acting, before giving referee Toshimitsu Yoshida a mouthful when the inevitable red card came out.

His emotions have got the better of him elsewhere.

After scoring from a thunderous free-kick in a vital win over Kashima Antlers, Bosnar’s wild celebration included booting a water bottle suspiciously close to the Kashima bench – yielding another booking.

If Bosnar lets J. League play-acting get under his skin, or momentarily loses his senses from scoring a goal, it remains to be seen how he might fare in the high-pressure environment of a World Cup finals.

Indeed, his lapses in concentration were brought into sharp focus in JEF United’s recent trip to Albirex Niigata.

Playing in front of 34,060 fans at Big Swan Stadium, Bosnar nodded home a second half equaliser from a corner.

His joy was obvious, but just two minutes later the tall defender was unaware that Niigata striker Hideo Oshima was lurking behind him, and Bosnar’s failure to head clear was punished when Oshima nodded home.

Clutching his hands to his face and shaking his head in disbelief, Bosnar cut a disconsolate figure.

To be fair, his team-mates don’t help.

JEF United possess one of the thinnest squads in the league, and the lack of a commanding goalkeeper means United’s penalty area operates in a state of perpetual crisis.

But despite United only avoiding relegation on the final day last season – with the Chiba side possessing the second-worst defensive record in the league – it won’t stop some fans in Australia from labelling Bosnar as Socceroos material.

Many of those fans have never actually seen Bosnar play.

Pim Verbeek and his scouts have, and as a former coach of Omiya Ardija and Kyoto Sanga, Verbeek knows the J. League well. He seems to have made his mind up on Bosnar, who is routinely overlooked.

A lack of visibility in Australia seems to have worked in Bosnar’s favour – at least where some fans are concerned.

But as far as Pim Verbeek is concerned, Eddy Bosnar appears to be off the radar.

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The Crowd Says (16) | Page 1 of Comments

whiskeymac said | May 7th 2009 @ 9:00am | Report comment

if this is your asessment “If Bosnar lets J. League play-acting get under his skin, or momentarily loses his senses from scoring a goal, it remains to be seen how he might fare in the high-pressure environment of a World Cup finals.” he would seem to be a liability when playing (street smart) teams like Italy, Argentina or, in fact, any team that has payed at the highest level before. Even players from the serie A (Grella) struggle with fouls at this level. Vebeek would know that if his mental side of the game is suspect then he would be too risky to consider, but if he does come back home he could always make an interesting partnership at the back for the Jets.

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Pippinu said | May 7th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment

Spot on Whiskey – everything Mike is saying above (from someone who has actually seen Bosnar play many times in the flesh) is ringing alarm bells and tells me that the carping bloggers are definitely misguided in this instance (and not for the first time).

It’s a good point about Grella – someone who has definitely been there and done that – and yet he too has fallen victim to displays of petulance in the past, as has other experienced socceroos such as Emo, so we definitely don’t need an untried player joining that list!!

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Ben of Phnom Penh said | May 7th 2009 @ 11:07am | Report comment

The game against Shimizu S-Pulse last year made up my mind about Bosnar (managed to watch it on NHK here in sunny Phnom Penh). It was JEF United’s last chance to avoid the drop and they had to play away in a game they were widely expected to lose. Despite these dire straits he gets a red for mouthing off at the ref.

We have plenty of big men lining up for the central defender positions in Australia, however given the talent on display at the World Cup (ceterus parabus) size and aggression won’t win the day. Discipline will. Eddie can play for the Socceroos providing that Neill, Beauchamp, North, Coyne, Moore, Spiranovic, Stefanutto, Milligan, Vargas etc are injured………. or Eddie proves he can play smart football. I believe he may have missed the boat in this regards as I’m sure that final day at Nihondaira sticks in the minds of many.

On an aside Phnom Penh Crown were invited to the Singapore Cup (along with two sides from Thailand and one from Indonesia) and managed to defeat Young Lions 2-0 to make it to the next round where they will face Bangkok Glass. Who would have believed it.

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Millster said | May 7th 2009 @ 12:16pm | Report comment

To me the ideal testing ground is some of these Asian Cup fixtures that are coming up, especially if we have real leaders such as Moore around these types of guys. Lets see what they are made of in that environment… especially as we well know that any volatility around diving/play-acting will be sorely tested by a few of the Middle-Eastern and South-East Asian teams.

By the way how is North going up in Korea?

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whiskeymac said | May 7th 2009 @ 12:32pm | Report comment

maybe millster, and i agree with the general development concept but wouldn’t it make more sense to play people in those fixtures that represent the future of the team as oppossed to possible squad players/ fringes – at 29 Bosnar is probably too old to be considered the future. I think for developments sake the Roos would be much better off using these games to continue with players like Spiranovic or Djite or Ruky or even blood a promising A-leaguer (they cannot all have been tarnished for ever and ever amen by canberra and indonesia). Secondly, the asian games (er… because of canberra and indonesia) are hardly foregone conclusions – and right now I think we would be better off not chancing it with hotheads and variables, because we are far from qualification.

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Mike Tuckerman said | May 7th 2009 @ 12:49pm | Report comment

“By the way how is North going up in Korea?”

Has only featured in three league games and two cup games so far, and wasn’t in the squad for Incheon’s most recent 2-1 win over Daegu FC.

He doesn’t appear to be injured, so perhaps Incheon coach Ilija Petkovic simply doesn’t rate him.

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whiskeymac said | May 7th 2009 @ 1:18pm | Report comment

still he is living the A$ian dream.

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Greg Russell said | May 7th 2009 @ 1:49pm | Report comment

I think in most professional sports the athletes will know that some environments are much better than others for earning national selection. Australian and New Zealand rugby take this to an extreme, by actually stipulating that national selection can only be earned by playing at home. Of course in Australian football there is no such formal stricture, however it’s very obvious that by playing in some leagues one will minimize one’s chances of Socceroo representation, while in others – most notably the EPL and Championship – they will be promoted.

So to put it bluntly, Bosnar knew when he signed to play in the J-League that he would have very little chance of playing for Australia.

Of course it’s a moot point whether or not things should be like this. After all, the standard of the J-League is higher than that of the A-League. Then again, full strength Socceroo squads contain bugger all players from the HAL.

If Jesse Fink is reading this, perhaps he could ask Pim next time around for his attitude on this. In principle Pim’s background in Korea should make him open-minded about selecting players from the J- and K-Leagues, but …

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Ben of Phnom Penh said | May 7th 2009 @ 2:03pm | Report comment

It depends on player type as well, Greg. If Eddie was a left wing-back making a name for himself in the J-League then he would be in consideration as he’d have to better than a lot of Japanese talent in that position and we are a little thin. As a big central defender though his main attribute may well be his size, and this isn’t something we need.

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Mick of Newie said | May 7th 2009 @ 2:17pm | Report comment

Greg
on the contrary, it appears that Pim’s experience in Asia has resulted in him making negative comments about a number of A league players moves to Asia. He appears to remain a committed Europhile. Given his experience who can argue with him.

Regarding player discipline, I think a number of our Euro players have struggled against Asian players and with Asian refereees. Who is to say that Neill, or Grella, or Moore or Cahill oe Wilkshire wouldn’t also rack up a lot of cards in the J league with their “all action” style. The same problem is faced by our A league teams in the ACL. I think this is one of the biggest cultural shifts we need to make to fully succeed in Asia.

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