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Australian player Vince Grella (right) during the Socceroos pre-match training session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. AAP Image/Luis Enrique Ascui
Australian boss, Pim Verbeek, announced a preliminary 31-man Socceroos squad yesterday ahead of next month’s World Cup, but he also made a curious declaration, stating Australia would definitely reach the knockout phase in South Africa. The comment, coming from a football coach who normally employs very conservative tactics, caught me by surprise.
“We will be ready, don’t worry, we will go to the last 16,” Verbeek told Fox Sports, before being asked by the reporter, “definitely?,” with which he added after a moment’s pause, “Yeah”.
Considering our difficult World Cup group and the recent lack of gametime of several of our key players, Verbeek’s remark seemed more than optimistic.
And you’ve got to ask, what does he have to gain from such a comment? Why not be reserved and cautiously optimistic as he has been in the past?
The Socceroos already go into the 2010 World Cup with higher expectations from the fans than four years ago.
And the success Australia enjoyed in Germany in 2006 was far from simple, even under the assured guidance of Dutch maestro Guus Hiddink, so replicating those exploits will not be easy.
Curiously elsewhere at yesterday’s squad announcement function, one of the four Socceroos floating around, Rhys Williams, was also asked if he thought Australia could progress past the group phase.
Williams responded initially, “I really hope so.” Before giggling his way through, “I think we will, we’ve got a good manager, a good team, so of course we’re going to make it.”
Now, I interviewed the Boro man a few months back for Soccer International magazine and asked him the exact same question to which he replied with a much more conservative answer, so his response yesterday surprised me again.
And once again yesterday, Verbeek’s supreme confidence in Harry Kewell’s ability to get back from his latest injury setback seemed overly optimistic.
The Dutchman said he was 100 per cent convinced Kewell would be fine to play and was surprised at the speculation otherwise.
Perhaps I was reading too much into it, but it all seemed a bit too perfect. Maybe their over-confidence was a directive from above as they try to generate some World Cup fever, but again perhaps I was over-thinking it.
Nevertheless, you could understand if the FFA were trying to offer the fans reason for confidence ahead of the World Cup.
After all, we are about to participate in our third World Cup and following on from 2006’s exploits, naturally the fans don’t expect us to simply make up the numbers. Where’s the fun in that? Especially as typically competitive Aussies.
Indeed, that’s an interesting point to ponder. To generate peak interest in Australia’s World Cup campaign do we need to have lofty expectations?
Personally, I’m of the belief we’ll struggle to escape our group in South Africa and I dare say there’s a few other keen football followers who’d share that opinion.
Those ardent fans will follow the Socceroos no matter what, but for the casual fan, do they need to be enticed into the World Cup by the prospect of Australia reaching the knockout phase?
What expectations should be set? And if we fail to achieve those expectations and promises could it cause major damage to the Socceroos brand in the mainstream?
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