Should America emulate Australia in football?
Roar Rookie By sabbir_ahmed, 20 Jun 2009 sabbir_ahmed is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- 2010 World Cup, America football, Australian Football Federation, confederations cup, football, World Football
Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, left, is tripped-up by New York Red Bulls midfielder Clint Mathis. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun
After America’s defeat to Italy and Brazil in the Confederations Cup, and listening to all the Yanks moaning about their poor performance, I can’t help but compare their experience with Australia’s, when just few years ago we were going through the same thing.
We were a country that dominated the Oceania region for God knows how long, but when it came to defeating the fifth South American team, we always failed to experience the class act of football World Cup.
Now, if we fast forward to the present time, Australia is one of the first few countries to qualify for the World Cup and we are no longer in the Oceania region.
I think joining Asia was the best decision taken by the Australian Football Federation. Obviously there was lots of politics that went on behind the scenes, and some benefited personally. But from what I can see now, Australia was the main benefitter.
Yes, obviously Asia is not as good as the European or the South American region. But over the years, Asian countries some way or the other did prove be a stumble for major footballing countries in the World Cup.
With countries like Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia in the region, one thing is for certain, there is more quality in the Asian region then in the CONCACAF region.
If you look at Australia’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup, we have played the like of China, Iraq and Japan and went through the whole qualification conceding just one goal. And that was against Japan, against whom we came back to win 2-1.
America needs a foreign coach.
Australia realized that long before and had the like of Terry Venables, Guus Hiddink and now Pim Verbeek, who has a good record in the Netherlands.
But the major factor was Guus. He built the whole layout, starting from the first team to the youth system.
Being in a country which is dominated by sports such as AFL and cricket, Australia’s blueprint is the one to follow.
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June 20th 2009 @ 9:19am
Sabbir Ahmed said | June 20th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Thats it Tom, a manager with genuine class is what US needs, Bod Bradley is not class. His lack of tactical ability was clearly exposed against Brazil.
June 20th 2009 @ 9:25am
tifosi said | June 20th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Soccer in the USA is in a harder position than it is here. They have so much to compete against its not funny.
The problem is that they are trying to take on the world of soccer with an american system which might work for their other sports ie the college sports system, but is completely unsuited to the rest of the world.
The other problem is how could you tell a country of 300 million that you should implement one plan and one plan only? You could never get consensus i would think.
anyway if you want to read what american fans think about the current situation here is a good forum.
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=131
June 20th 2009 @ 12:21pm
Macs.football said | June 20th 2009 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Stars n Stripes, Brazil, Croatia and Japan was hardly an easy group.
June 20th 2009 @ 12:40pm
David V. said | June 20th 2009 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
tifosi: the different is that the USA is such a big market that you can always find a comfortable niche.
June 20th 2009 @ 2:14pm
Roger said | June 20th 2009 @ 2:14pm | Report comment
Good article, and good points Sabbir.
For the record however, Australia conceded 3 goals in qualifications, 1 against China, 1 against Iraq, and 1 against Japan.
June 20th 2009 @ 2:28pm
Joe FC said | June 20th 2009 @ 2:28pm | Report comment
Sabbir
the 2005 Confed Cup saw the end of Frank Farina & I suspect Bradley maybe heading the same way. But if the Americans were to choose a foreign coach who would it be?
June 20th 2009 @ 2:31pm
David V. said | June 20th 2009 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
Stars’n'stripes and Viscount Crouchback have a point. Asia isn’t really any stronger than CONCACAF if you look at historical and recent records, or in terms of a gulf between the big teams and the rest. The top and middle-tier sides in Asia have been no better, and both confederations have their minnow teams little better than Oceania. But both confederations have their peculiar situations.
June 20th 2009 @ 2:35pm
Ben of Phnom Penh said | June 20th 2009 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
The USA have a different dynamic to Australia, especially with a large Spanish speaking population and supporter base for the MLS. As David V noted, the USA is a huge market and there is plenty of room for everyone. With the increase in immigration from traditional footballing nations in Latin America this niche is set to grow.
The point of the foreign coach is a good one. As England have recently learned the key is to get the best coach possible, not the best local. If the best available is from your home country then great, however given that countries like Australia and the USA have only a small number of professional coaches this is going to be unlikely.
As to whether CONCACAF is stronger than the AFC, who cares? I’m going to be backing Australia followed by the AFC nations regardless of who they are facing, where they come from or what their world ranking happens to be. Perhaps for the first time in my life I will find myself madly cheering on North Korea. It’s great being in Asia though I am saddened by the fact Uzbekistan won’t be there. Cheering on those mad, crazy Uzbeks; now that would have been fun.
June 20th 2009 @ 2:56pm
BigAl said | June 20th 2009 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
Didn’t the US have a top notch German come & go very quickly as coach a few years ago ? What went wrong there ?
June 20th 2009 @ 3:04pm
David V. said | June 20th 2009 @ 3:04pm | Report comment
Uzbekistan’s poor showing is a major surprise- we all thought they might present a decent challenge to Australia and Japan, alas they did not. The Asian WCQs were a far more accurate reading in the quality of the continent than the Asian Cup did. It also revealed the gaps in quality that exist in Asia- the fact that Vietnam made the Asian Cup quarter-finals and Indonesia nearly did, yet both countries WCQ campaigns ended very early and in humiliating fashion says it all.