Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou reacts with the crowd. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt).
It’s the age-old question: Are foreigners really better than locals? On the playing front it’s safe to say that some of our European and Latin American stars shine brighter than the local talent. But when it comes to the current A-League campaign, Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold are leading the way in the coaching stakes.
Plenty of media pundits must be choking on their cornflakes at the sight of Central Coast Mariners sitting just a point behind second placed Adelaide United, after the Mariners beat the out-of-sorts Reds 2-0 in Gosford on Sunday.
The Mariners haven’t exactly played champagne football in their run up the standings, but Arnold has got the best out of the resources at his disposal, and he’s done so with Argentine import Patricio Perez rarely involved following an injury-ravaged campaign to date – although some of his team-mates look as though they’d rather avoid passing him the ball at any rate.
Instead it’s towering Dutch defender Patrick Zwaanswijk who has been the stand-out foreign player for the Mariners, which perhaps says something about the style of football employed by Arnold and his team.
But if the Mariners are content to base their success on a platform of solid defence and simply grinding out results, then the attack-minded Brisbane Roar are the polar opposite.
They too have a couple of key foreign players to call upon, with German import Thomas Broich the signing of the season for mine.
The former Bundesliga regular is a class above most imports we’ve seen in the A-League so far, although he’s recently found an able foil in Costa Rican hot-shot Jean Carlos Solorzano.
The youngster has been in sparkling form since taking over from the departed Reinaldo as Postecoglou’s striker of choice, and the Roar will lose a key player should Solorzano play for Costa Rica in the Central American Cup next January, even if he only misses two games.
Although the Mariners and the Roar have both had some success with foreign players this season, Arnold and Postecoglou deserve some credit for utilising their knowledge of the local scene to make equally astute signings elsewhere.
Arnold knew Oliver Bozanic from his time in various Australian youth squads, while Josh Rose and the gritty Rostyn Griffiths have also proved useful acquisitions.
Postecoglou has fared even better, turning former Scottish lower leaguer Erik Paartalu into an imposing midfield enforcer, picking up the underrated Shane Stefanutto from North Queensland Fury and handing opportunities to several youngsters where predecessor Frank Farina relied on veteran talent.
While coaches obviously enjoy plenty of assistance from support staff, knowledge of the local scene is something foreign coaches like Rini Coolen and John van’t Schip simply can’t replicate overnight.
And after all the hype surrounding Sydney FC’s title win under Vitezslav Lavicka last season, the Czech tactician has come crashing back down to earth with a thud, proving along with his compatriot Franz Straka that it hardly matters what country a coach hails from when resources are spread so thinly across the park.
Fuel for the fire in the long-running debate over whether home grown coaches are a better investment than international interlopers, although there’s little doubt Australian football would not be where it is today without the input of foreign knowledge.
But with Ange Postecoglou’s side in such a vibrant run of form and the Mariners closing in on second place, it looks like the 2010-11 A-League campaign could ultimately turn into the year of the local coach.
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