Australia's coach Pim Verbeek reacts from the sideline during the friendly match between The Netherlands and Australia at the Philips stadium in Eindhoven, southern Netherlands, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. AP Photo/Ermindo Armino
By the time Australians awake from their slumber on Sunday morning, the Socceroos may have already qualified for a second successive World Cup finals appearance. With three qualifiers remaining, Australia need just a point to book their seat on the plane to the world’s most popular sporting event.
Yet, even drawing with Qatar in the desert of Doha could be easier said than done.
With temperatures expected to soar towards the 40 degree mark at the compact Al Sadd Stadium, the Socceroos will be up against more than just a desperate Qatari side aiming to sneak into third place in the group.
Wily tactician Bruno Metsu has pinned his faith on youth for Qatar’s must-win encounter – dropping captain Saad Al Shammari from his squad and including teenage defender Ibrahim Majid after he scored the winner in a recent friendly against Iraq.
But while Harry Kewell was quoted this week as suggesting that Australia “don’t need to win pretty,” the pressure will remain on coach Pim Verbeek no matter what the result.
That’s partly the result of the increasing influence of our football media.
Late last week The Roar’s very own Jesse Fink was taken to task over at The World Game website, for daring to question why Verbeek had dropped Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici in favour of Middlesbrough custodian Brad Jones.
I thought it was a reasonable question to ask.
I’ll even lay my cards on the table and admit that I’m an unabashed fan of Jesse.
I may not always agree with what he writes – I reckon he needs his head read if he thinks that “the 39th game” is in the best interests of the sport – but I admire his willingness to consistently ask questions that make him about as popular as a Melbourne Victory fan at a Sydney FC club luncheon.
After all, isn’t one of the responsibilities of the media to hold the powers that be to account?
I’m sure that Pim Verbeek can handle any criticism. He’s a calm and composed individual and no doubt he’s generously recompensed for his role as national coach.
Besides, a little tit-for-tat in the Australian press is nothing compared to the suffocating pressure of coaching South Korea.
What will be interesting is whether Verbeek chooses to experiment with his line-up should Australia pick up the point required in Doha.
Verbeek has already named an experimental line-up in one home qualifier – the dead rubber against China at ANZ Stadium a year ago – and he was widely criticised by fans as the Socceroos went down 1-0.
Then there’s the issue of Japan.
The Blue Samurai have suddenly roared into life with back-to-back 4-0 friendly wins over Chile and Belgium in the Kirin Cup, and they’ll be buzzing at the prospect of trying to snatch top spot in the group off Australia.
Japan coach Takeshi Okada has a selection quandary of his own – whether to thrust 18-year-old Urawa Reds sensation Naoki Yamada into his starting line-up.
The teenage midfielder is drawing parallels with the great Shinji Ono – one of the most talented Asian midfielders of our time before a series of knee injuries all but ended his career.
Urawa’s stern German coach Volker Finke has warned against putting too much pressure on Yamada, whose rise to national prominence has been meteoric to say the least.
The production line of talent shows no sign of grinding to a halt in Japan, and Takeshi Okada may be tempted to send out his youngest player in the hotbed that is the MCG.
If Pim Verbeek feels under pressure, a glance towards the Japan bench might provide some small consolation.
After all, no matter how much pressure he faces from Australian fans and media, things could be worse.
He could be in Takeshi Okada’s shoes.
Follow Mike on twitter @Mike_Tuckerman
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tifosi said | June 5th 2009 @ 8:25am | Report comment
No way the FFA will let Pim experiment in the bahrain and japan games.
The Australian public was, and still is, right to be upset about paying money to see that performance against china.
The paying public deserve better, especially with the prices of the tickets for these two games.
Slippery Jim said | June 5th 2009 @ 8:36am | Report comment
Sometimes a person shows “willingness to consistently ask questions” as an intelligent way of penetrating the BS and getting to the truth of a matter.
And sometimes they do it because they have got absolutely no clue about the subject to begin with.
We all have our agendas and influences, for instance, Jesse praised Mike Tuckerman in his last article for his great work on the roar, and Mike scratches his back in return by declaring himself publicly to be a fan of Jesse Fink in this, his very next article.
Now, I certainly find many of his articles entertaining to read, but outside of the Roar Writers Mutual Admiration Society, it is harder to view Jesse as a writer who consistently asks all the hard questions. He actually leaves a lot of the important questions out altogether so as not to jeapardize his stridently held opinions.
As an example, as everyone knows, Jesse Fink’s one-man propaganda campaign promoting Nicky Carle is a well known in-joke in the Aussie football community.
Jesse Fink has constantly and consistently blamed in quite strong language the resident Socceroos coach for not giving his favourite player a fair chance in the national team. It became public knowledge as reported by Mike Cockerill and others that Nick Carle asked for himself to be excused from Socceroos duty in the China world cup qualifier in Sydney, and later the Socceroos matches against Uzbekistan and the Netherlands, Nick Carle siting “rest” and “personal reasons” as the excuse for opting out of Socceroos duty.
Did Jesse ask the hard questions about the players commitment? Did he even mention that Nick Carle himself was to blame for lack of match time in thes matches? No. Silence.
So, yes, Jesse may consistently ask questions, but only the questions that further his own agenda and opinions, pretty much like every other journalist. It is for the very reason that there are so many other football journalists like him in Australia that Pim will face criticism no matter what result is achieved against Qatar early Sunday morning.
whiskeymac said | June 5th 2009 @ 8:46am | Report comment
Well the whole qualification Aleague debate evenmade the guardina this time. some interesting blog comments there too…. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jun/04/australia-socceroos-world-cup-2010-qualifiers
tifosi said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:08am | Report comment
great article, thx whiskeymac
Tom said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Mike, we clearly have a different understanding of what ‘asking the tough questions’ means.
For me, it involves not just questioning the views of the people in power, but also your own prejudices and perceptions. Fink has a very annoying tendency to rabbit on about the same topics repeatedly, bleating triumphantly when he feels vindicated and quietly ignoring his own mistakes.
Not that I don’t find his articles interesting to read, nor do I think he’s uninformed.
I just think ‘asking the tough questions’ is a compliment he doesn’t really deserve.
And seriously, how tough a question is ‘who should be Australia’s third choice goalkeeper?’.
Koala Bear said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
” I’m currently living in the UAE and was at the teams training session (in Dubai) last night. In a practice hit out, Pim set the team up with Scotty Mac up front, Kewell as a left winger and Nicky Carle just behind Scotty… and the combo was working a treat! Several times they broke through the defence (consisting of Neil, Coyne, Carney and North) however, I wouldn’t read into it too much, seeing as Cahill flies into camp today and will change the dynamic of that trio anyway. And with the likes of Kennedy, Holeman and Djite lingering in the background, it’s obvious that Socceroos have the quality in attack even if Dukes doesn’t hop on board. He’s had his day and it’s been much appreciated by all, but I think it’s time for him and the team to move on. ”
Slippery Jim,
you may find yourself out on a limb; if this on the scene report is true my ol’ Chelsea team mate… It sure sounds like Pimbo is warming to Nicky Carle’s Zola type creativeness … Gosh he might even start him instead of Timmy who needs a well deserved rest after playing the mighty Blues in the FA Cup with no apparent affect up against Essin (the Brick Wall)
~~~~~~~~
KB
Koala Bear said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:32am | Report comment
yes a great article, whiskeymac
~~~~~~~~
KB
Pippinu said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:37am | Report comment
That probably says a lot about a back four consisting of Neil, Coyne, Carney and North.
Millster said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Moving away from the Jesse-Carle issue.
I find the line “increasing influence of our football media” to be vexatious when linked to other tangets of the media discussion on this site and elsewhere.
Its difficult to comprehend how a media can on the one hand exert pressure and influence on the national coach and team, but on the other not break through from its position of relative marginalisation in the general public.
Not a value judgement or a particular criticism, but just an observation that in my mind this assertion that football media has so much power is inconsistent with other assertions put elsewhere.
Kind of related to all this, to Timmy’s comments, to what the game this weekend means etc incidentally is my view that someone needs to put squarely on the table the issue of the Australian public’s sporting psyche and how it needs to grow up significantly in relation to football.
Slippery Jim said | June 5th 2009 @ 9:43am | Report comment
KB, not at all – it was a year ago that Nicky Carle asked to be excused from those matches, he is showing a different, much more hungry and committed attitude by training furiously to get into the squad based his current fitness and form (some critics might point to the fact that this is because Australia is now a certainty to make the next world cup).
This shows a change in attitude in the player and is exactly the kind of effort that national team managers want to see from players that are on the fringe, after all they pick players on form and fitness not on reputation. As such Nicky has earnt his place in the greater squad in recent times, I have no problem with him being given match time, in fact I would welcome an opportunity to see how he performs these days. (As a side note, Kewell is also looking extremely fit and hungry – can’t wait until Sunday morning!).
Take Ljubo as a contrast in attitudes – mouthing of in foul mouthed rants at both the national and club coach – he is doing himself no favours, and even if he was in form any manager would think twice about picking an obvious malcontent and troublemaker into their squad for the world cup.