Irish coach McCarthy not sold on Socceroos

By Justin Chadwick, 9 Jul 2009 Justin Chadwick is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: 2010 World Cup, Australian Football, FIFA, Mick McCarthy, Socceroos

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Former Republic of Ireland coach Mick McCarthy has warned Australia not to get too carried away with their new lofty football world ranking.

The Socceroos’ successful qualification campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa saw them surge 13 places higher into 16th on the world charts in a list released by FIFA on Wednesday.

Portugal, who boast a rich football history and possess arguably the world’s best player Cristiano Ronaldo, are ranked one spot lower than the Socceroos.

European big guns Czech Republic and Turkey and South American giants Paraguay and Uruguay are also ranked below Australia.

McCarthy, who guided the Republic of Ireland through to the second round of the 2002 World Cup and is now in charge of promoted English Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers, voiced his doubts about the ratings system.

“Australia have got good players, they’ve come and graced the Premier League,” McCarthy said on Wednesday.

“But I’ve been an international team manager and that system of points and where you’re standing doesn’t quite stack up, because the US might be playing all these teams like Trinidad and Tobago and places like that and Portugal might be playing all the top European sides.

“So I don’t think it quite adds up in how they make the numbers work.

“I’m not demeaning Australia because they are very good. They’ve got good players who are generally athletic and well-organised.

“But I don’t think the system for making the world rankings is as accurate as it could be.

“Mind you when we got to 13th with the Republic I thought it was a really good rankings system, especially from 54th.”

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The Crowd Says (9) | Page 1 of Comments

Millster said | July 9th 2009 @ 1:25am | Report comment

While I hold much love for the Socceroos I am glad this was said. We have to approach the world with humility and diligence, as a nation who cannot take anything for granted. McCarthy is right in politely reminding us that – FIFA schmifa rankings aside – we in fact are not at all better than Portugal, Uruguay, Paraguay, the Czechs, etc. At best we’re starting to be competitive against that class of team on a good day.

Note this is not a downer on the Socceroos, more a plea to recall that while we are going great in the right direction, we’ve still got a long way to go to really consolidate ourselves in the world’s top 20 or 30 teams.

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MVDave said | July 9th 2009 @ 8:16am | Report comment

Absolutely Millister (and Mick) but having worked hard to become more successful now with a higher ranking the Socceroos should find it easier to arrange matches against some of these better teams…so we can keep improving. The higher ranking should make the Socceroos more of an enticement for the top teams to want to play us.

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sledgeross said | July 9th 2009 @ 8:24am | Report comment

Lets ask Roy Keane what he thinks

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Midfielder said | July 9th 2009 @ 8:31am | Report comment

Sorry guys have to disagree … 16 may be a tad high but aside from the teams Milly mentioned and TBH we would give them a decent game ….I think we are a top 20 side …

I also put our a challenge aside from the top 12 European sides many are very weak and of the 54 sides they have at least half would struggle to beat the top Asian sides … I would back Singapore to beat Malta as an example ..

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Pippinu said | July 9th 2009 @ 10:15am | Report comment

But would Gozo beat Sentosa??

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Finno said | July 9th 2009 @ 10:27am | Report comment

I tend to agree, no one looks to hard at the ranking system really. Its a good point that we are not probably as high as 16th but remember that the nation below still have alot of football to play to get into the world cup. Australia will probably slip main due to the fact that we wont be playing as much football. We are not as good as Portugal, Czech Republic and Turkey. But we are still a good enough side that you ahve to play well to beat us. Roy Keane was a great player with a great temper, Mick Mac does know a little about football. But Im always willing to bet that if you take the Socceroos lightly it will only bite you.

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sledgeross said | July 9th 2009 @ 12:42pm | Report comment

Maybe not Goza, but Mosta could, they survived teh German bombs after all!

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Phutbol said | July 9th 2009 @ 12:45pm | Report comment

It shouldn’t need to be said that the fact the roos are currently 1 point ahead of Portugal in the rankings does not definitivelly make us a better team, but it does say that on current form we are competitive and can confidently say that we are a good chance to beat them (and Turkey, Chzech etc). I think people place too much emphasis on the exact number of the ranking, rather than the ‘general position’ in the pecking order. its indicative only.

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David V. said | July 9th 2009 @ 12:52pm | Report comment

Europe weak? You’re having a laugh- the majority of European (and for that matter South American, even African) sides would wipe the floor with Asia and CONCACAF bar an elite few. Australia is one of that elite few.

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