By Con Stamocostas -
July 4th 2009 @ 1:46am
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Socceroos are sweet at sixteen
The Socceroos are ranked sixteenth in the world. It’s hard to believe they are sitting one place above football pretty boys, Portugal, a team who are struggling to make South Africa next year, even with the best player in the world in their side.
One week derided by its own media and betrayed by infighting, the next achieving it’s highest ever FIFA ranking. The football gods curse one moment and bless the next.
The Socceroos, you can almost say, are sitting at the big kiddies table of world football.
If you look closely, nearby are the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Greece and USA, all teams the Socceroos should not fear. A bit further up the table sit Croatia, Argentina and Netherlands, teams the Socceroos have drawn with, been competitive with or beaten.
A Football Odyssey 2010
It seems like this phrase “Next year will be Australian football biggest” has being said every year since 2005. Obviously, the two big dates are the World Cup in June and the decision by FIFA in December on who will host the World Cup in 2018/22.
It’s quite a difference to the phrase “This is Australian football’s last chance,” which used to be said every four years before the Socceroos would play a one-off home and away match to qualify for a World Cup.
As an Australian football fan, I have had nor the time or the inclination to follow the FIFA rankings.
Two reasons why:
The first that they don’t seem to be a true reflection of the ability of the team: like Eddie Vedder said at the MTV awards, how can you rate art?
The other reason is Australia never rated lower than 30, and usually hovered around the 50s, so if we were not number one who cares right?
Heavy Is the Crown
But now that the Socceroos are ranked sixteenth I’m starting to take notice. The good news for Australia if it can maintain that ranking through to the World Cup is that it will enjoy a high seeding, thus avoiding the likes of Brazil, Spain or Italy in its group.
This could prove to be a positioned chalice, a heavy crown, a cursed blessing, whatever grand metaphor you can think of to describe the added pressure of having success.
It is an unexpected bonus for Pim Verbeek the Socceroos, players and staff for how well they have performed during this World Cup qualifying campaign.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing or pretty to watch. To use a Damian Lovelock-ism, at times it was pure granite after all these years of being in the international football wilderness and only playing two real games every four years.
The football fan that hitched a ride on the Socceroos bandwagon after the Uruguay game or joined during the World Cup will have realised like other football fans that sometimes international football or even football in general can be mostly granite.
But just to be at the World Cup is worth it.
Australia now has World Cup history and will be humming the words to the Split Enz song History Never Repeats, hoping to progress to the Quarter-Finals in South Africa next year.
A goal that should not be out of the question.
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(11)
colin said | July 4th 2009 @ 4:14am | Report comment
the fact that were up so high is truly a great achievement for sport in australia. this is the only sport played by every nation in the world and to see us up so high is remarkable. as per the higher seeding, we must not lose within the next 12 months if we are to be placed in pot 2. the higher up were ranked the more favourable our draw will be. mark my words, this is a team which does not like to lose, in fact our first choice team has not lost a game for over a year, if we make it out of the group stage we can make the quarter finals regardless of who we have to face. simply put, this team is incredibly hard to beat and we can make giant strides in south africa
Midfielder said | July 4th 2009 @ 7:09am | Report comment
Con
Another excellent article…my two bobs on the top 16 position…. we will get to play quality teams in the lead up to the WC..will help with the local media… will help the the local game…
But has some unexpected consequences as well like this .. Highly interestingly article from the Bangkok Post..
The way the article talks about Australia I wonder are we considered an Asian country … anyway they want into Oceania as a means of getting to the WC ….
The article does raise some interesting issues about the allocation of WC spots… Thailand should join Oceania is the theme of the article
I will copy some key parts .. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/spor…d-join-oceania
In fact, the quota for “Asia” has been effectively reduced now Australia has joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The Aussies have comfortably booked a ticket to South Africa playing in the qualifying round in Asia.
For convenience, Asia should get six spots with the Oceania champions joining the AFC qualifying round.
After being crowned Oceania champions, Thailand would face an Asian side in a play-off for a finals spot. This could be easier for the Kingdom than playing in long qualifying stages in Asia.
With only New Zealand a creditable side in Oceania, Thailand could become champions of the region. The Thais comfortably defeated a second-string All Whites in a friendly in Bangkok recently.
Australia switched to Asia so why can’t Thailand go the other way round?
Chuq said | July 4th 2009 @ 8:48am | Report comment
“The good news for Australia if it can maintain that ranking through to the World Cup is that it will enjoy a high seeding, thus avoiding the likes of Brazil, Spain or Italy in its group.” This is a myth that I see perpetually spread throughout football forums. Seeding is only applicable if you are in the top 7 nations. After that, it’s all done by confederation.
jimbo said | July 4th 2009 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
World Cup qualifiers have a higher weighting in FIFA rankings than friendlies and that’s why Australia has done so well in the rankings lately, because we’ve played a lot of qualifiers and not lost any.
But we have played all our qualifiers, so between now and the December draw we will probably fall back down about 10 places as the other WC qualifiers are played by teams below us and the Socceroos only play 3 or 4 friendlies.
jimbo said | July 4th 2009 @ 3:03pm | Report comment
Chuq,
That’s right, our FIFA ranking doesn’t necessarily get us an easier draw.
The teams for the WC draw are drawn from four pots to make the first round eight groups of four.
Depending on which teams are in the top 7 seeds, the draw goes roughly as follows:
The top FIFA Ranked 7 seeds plus the host go into Pot 1
Europe qualifiers in Pot 2
Asian qualifiers and Concacaf in Pot 3
Conmebal and Africa in Pot 4
So we won’t get another Asian team or the USA in round 1.
Here’s one prediction of who we will face.
http://www.football-rankings.info/2009/06/2010-wc-seeding-formula-based-on.html
Albert Ross said | July 4th 2009 @ 8:18pm | Report comment
Based on the Football-Rankings.info crystal ball job:
Group H: Germany, Denmark, Australia, Paraguay is the group of death 2.
Substituting AUS in any of the others –
Group A: South Africa, Serbia, Costa Rica, Chile Group A would be a doddle
Group B: Spain, Russia, Korea Republic, Uruguay would be death group 1
Group C: England, Scotland, Saudi Arabia, Zambia – easy
Group D: Brazil, Netherlands, Korea DPR, Gabon – would be err… interesting
Group E: France, Switzerland, Honduras, Ghana – easy
Group F: Italy, Northern Ireland, Japan, Tunisia – If AUS were in this group then JAP would be out and why would the others bother coming?
Group G: Argentina, Greece, USA, Cote d’Ivoire – tough but AUS could qualify
Derryn said | July 4th 2009 @ 9:37pm | Report comment
Can’t wait for the draw. I hope we get England. That would be massive.
Joe FC said | July 4th 2009 @ 10:35pm | Report comment
Nice story Con, a very interesting read. Derryn I’m with you, what a match that would be.
md said | July 6th 2009 @ 2:01pm | Report comment
Great article Con. Am going to steal a bit of it if you don’t mind
In relation to seedings, my understanding is that Oz would be unseeded because it hasn’t made 2 consecutive cups. Might be wrong though.
Cheers
md.
Green n Gold 2010 said | July 7th 2009 @ 11:47pm | Report comment
Any group with Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain would be tough.
Like to see a pool with Ivory Coast, England, Korea Republic or Portugal. Not too hard not too easy just rite
jimbo said | July 7th 2009 @ 11:57pm | Report comment
md
FIFA only seed the first 7 teams for the WC based on past WC performances and FIFA rankings.
Top 7 plus host become pot 1 in the draw and can’t be drawn to play against each other.
South Africa are the biggest beneficiaries and will be given every chance to progress at home.
Socceroos would be unlikely to be in the top 7 when the draw is made.