- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Socceroo's coach Pim Verbeek chats with Harry Kewell during a training session at ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Thursday, June 19, 2008. The Socceroo's take on China in a World Cup qualifying match this Sunday, June 22. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
A recent article out of the Netherlands named Dutch football as the most successful of the past forty years. With Verbeek and Henk Duut (ex Feyenoord) leading Australia to another World Cup, the Dutch school must be close to being declared Holy Down Under.
Verbeek: “It’s just great. We’ve started this series in February 2008 and obviously, playing these games is a real challenge on the body for the players from Europe with 22 hours plane flights, 7 to 10 hours time difference, and they never complained. Their mental attitude is top notch.
“They’re a tight team and they know exactly what they want.”
The admiration is reciprocated.
The big names in the team, Kewell, Cahill and Neill are very happy with their Dutch coach. They did have to Google him at first when he was appointed, but now they can’t say enough positive things about him.
After securing the ticket to the FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar, Everton star Tim Cahill said: “I love working under this coach. You know exactly what you get on the pitch and off. You can discuss anything with him, for me that’s crucial and most players feel this way.”
“It was different under Guus. Nothing against him, he’s respected all over the world and rightly so, but I wasn’t always happy.”
A remarkable quote. Wasn’t it Guus Hiddink who gave Australia their confidence?
Pim Verbeek can answer that question. He and Hiddink worked together for South Korea in 2002 and reached the semi finals at 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament.
“Guus is able to align and fine tune everything quickly and gets a result, that’s his speciality. He controls the management of the games and understands how to work the players and media.”
Verbeek smiles when he says that, he‘s still in touch with his former boss who immediately sent his congratulations via a text message.
“I learned a lot from him and from Dick Advocaat. The main thing is, be who you are. This will be my first World Cup tournament as a head coach and I look forward to it, however I realize very well that I can do this thanks to the people I work with.”
One of those people is former Feyenoord defender and Fortuna assistant coach Henk Duut: “I worked with Henk before. He’s my left and right hand man, both in tactical decisions as in training build up and he’s a great scout, too.”
Duut worked with Verbeek for the Dutch Antilles and worked at Feyenoord under Ruud Gullit and Erwin Koeman. Duut highly enjoys working and living in Australia. “You can see the team come together and that’s the best thing about this job.
“I think both myself and my buddy Mario Been never dreamed of becoming a coach, but being able to move these processes along is just great. Also I live in one of the world’s prettiest spots, so what more can I ask.”
The name Feyenoord is mentioned: “Unbelievable that they never contact me, they have my number, there’s a lot of talent here.
“Tactically, maybe not that good, but still a lot to work with but they’re strong mentally and physically and love to learn and work hard, most talents are now scouted by Twente and AZ, and it’s weird because Brett Emerton and Holman started their European careers at Feyenoord.”
The Football Director of the Australian Football Federation is Dutch as well. Han Berger, a former coach of Utrecht and Groningen, took over from Rob Baan and is responsible for the strategic planning: “I work on Baan’s foundations. The local competition needs to be stronger, but now there are more and more players like Culina returning, so that’s good.
“The facilities need to be upgraded and we need to work on the youth competitions and the youth selections. In Canberra, Jan Versleijen is working with the talented youth, we are all going to play 4-3-3, all following the Dutch school.”
Money is not the problem in Australia, but the “attitude” is: “Soccer, they call it still on the streets. There’s still a huge English culture apparent (cricket, rugby) and AFL is number one sport, but there are lots of scandals and bad stuff happening there so most parents would love their kids to play football and sponsors turn away from these sports.”
Therefore, the performance and results of the national team are essential, and Australia is also bidding for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments and are serious competitor to the Holland/Belgium bid.
Han Berger: “That would be the ideal impulse, and make no mistake, they can pull that off here, remember the Sydney Olympics, but that’s all in the future. We are focused on the 2010 World Cup first. We have qualified as one of the first nations and people start to complain that we’re boring.
“We weren’t able to qualify for decades and then now these comments. Pim Verbeek doesn’t mind all that criticism but I sometimes get agitated by it. But hey, we’re missionarie. It’s part of the job”.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.