At 4:18 AM on the 7th December 2013, we discovered our fate for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The much-anticipated Brazil 2014 World Cup draw was meant to fill us with excitement and dreams of what could be. Instead it filled most Australian football fans with apprehension and dread.
After being drawn in previous World Cups against the likes of World Cup winners West Germany, Brazil and Italy, and after that Fabio Grosso penalty dive, Australia might have deserved a better slice of fortune in their first round draw for Brazil.
Not to be. We were drawn alongside the might of current European and World Football Champions Spain, World Cup runners-up the Netherlands, and South American powerhouse Chile.
According to the footballing experts, we were immediately doomed to fail, barring an unforeseen and highly unlikely miracle or three.
One Australian journalist even went so far as to suggest that the Socceroos’ draw showed the FFA’s folly in sacking Holger Osieck.
“But now it is more likely our next World Cup campaign could start with similar thrashings to the ones that ended Osieck’s tenure, only this time on a bigger world stage,” he said.
“Anything can happen in football. But the reality is Australia’s team is short on technical prowess, big-game experience and world class ability. These flaws are far too glaring and give the Socceroos no hope in a very cruel Group B.”
Others were more optimistic, and if there is one man who could prepare the Socceroos to tackle what surely looks like mission impossible in escaping the group, it’s Ange Postecolglou.
Six month ago, Postecoglou embraced the Socceroos’ tough 2014 World Cup draw and backed his players to give a good account of themselves in Brazil.
“The World Cup draw is what it is,” Postecoglou declared.
Instead of complaining, Postecoglou embraced his fate and that of our football nation and looked forward to the day the tournament kicked off with our first game against Chile.
Postecoglou then acknowledged the enormous scale of the task facing the Socceroos, but he also said he believed we are capable of doing more than just making up the numbers.
“We’re going to see some good football in our group, that’s for sure,” he told SBS.
“Some fantastic footballing nations and great history. Our job is to play our part. It’s an enormous challenge for us. But for a nation like ours, that’s exactly what we want. We’ve got a chance to make some headlines when the World Cup comes around.
“We want to keep growing, we want to keep getting better and that’s our measures. We’ll certainly go out there and give our best, for sure.”
When asked if Australia’s players will be capable of rising to the challenge of taking on the likes of Chile, Spain and the Netherlands, Postecoglou said, “There wouldn’t be one of our players not looking forward to this immensely. To play the world’s best teams, that’s why you go to a World Cup.”
We are now just a couple of days before the World Cup’s opening ceremony and the first real game of the tournament between the hosts Brazil and Croatia. Like waiting for Christmas, it’s only a couple of sleeps away now, nearly arrived but you still wish it would just start.
True to his philosophy of the time, as much for us and our demands as it was for them, Postecoglou has consigned the majority of the Socceroos’ golden era of 2006 to Australian football history, allowing the new generation to write a few chapters of their own.
Just days before the sternest test of Australia’s new football generation, Postecoglou maintains his optimistic yet subdued anticipation of what will be. Given unforeseen injuries and unforetold fates, the expectations of the new look Socceroos have somehow already been met, even though they were not high to begin with.
The result of selecting Postecoglou as Osieck’s replacement is already fulfilling some of its purposes, although winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup is probably not on the FFA’s list of employment conditions.
While some have opined that in hindsight it might have been better to take greater care when discarding past Socceroos heroes, the environment to allow for change has been implemented, some confidence has been restored in the future direction of football in Australia, and most people believe Postecoglou is the best man to lead the team.
Whether the Socceroos play only three games in the World Cup in Brazil or all seven, it’s another exciting World Cup journey, our third in succession, and we are ready, waiting and strapped in for the ride.
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