We now know what Tim Cahill’s club future holds, courtesy of a series of carefully-timed announcements, but what about his Socceroo future? What does it really hold?
What will his place be going into the first series of World Cup qualifying matches? And beyond?
The business of being Tim Cahill is obviously a very lucrative one – on and off the field – and good luck to him for that.
How much of that may depend on him retaining a place in the national side for whatever period of time is hard to judge, but whatever the case the last thing Cahill would want to risk is for his Socceroo career to end badly.
We’ve seen how messy that can be, with Lucas Neill.
Many people will argue that Neill was entitled to do whatever he could to try to hang on to his Socceroo jumper.
But, in the end, his desperate search for clubs to play for to try to keep his international career alive was not befitting a player of his standing.
Neill should have seen the writing on the wall and made the friendly match against Costa Rica in Sydney in November, 2013, his Socceroo farewell, but instead he chose to roll the dice and came up snake eyes.
Obviously, Cahill isn’t even remotely in the same boat as Neill. Let’s get that straight. These are two completely different sets of circumstances here. Neill was trying to keep going even though his form was diving. But Cahill can’t go on forever, so how long will he go on?
This Australian team is no longer Cahill’s team.
He made an important contribution during the Asian Cup campaign – particularly in the quarter-final against China when he came up with the goals we needed when others weren’t.
But when the final was there to be won or lost he was on the bench, having been substituted midway through the second half, apparently due to the effects of a knock he took in the first half.
After Korea Republic had equalised to force the Socceroos into extra time, it was the mostly new-look side – no Cahill, no Mark Bresciano – that was faced with the challenge of either getting it done or not getting it done which came up trumps.
Australia finished the better and Tomi Juric engineered the goal, refusing to give up in a torrid battle with a defender and brilliantly nutmegging him to get clear before whipping the ball into an area where the goalkeeper could only push it into the path of James Troisi for the winning goal.
If coach Ange Postecoglou truly sees Juric at the front of the attack in the future, then surely he has to start picking him in the run-on side now to find out if he is genuinely up to the task or not.
That has, in recent years, become Cahill’s spot, and he has done a tremendous job there, but could it be that his eventual path out of the side will start with him coming off the bench more?
Would he be comfortable with that?
If the Socceroos were winning and Juric or someone else at striker was doing well and Cahill was getting used less, would he be OK with that?
Cahill says he is a team player, so we have to presume the answer would be yes, but it is obviously inevitable that at some point his Socceroo career is going to come to an end and it is going to be interesting to see how that whole process plays out.
In the wake of the Asian Cup triumph and surrounding the announcement he was moving on from the MLS in the US to play club football in China, Cahill has made some comments about his Socceroo future.
There was this:
“My plans are to support the boss. My vision for the last 14 months has been to be a team player. It’s never been about me. The boss knows my plans for the national team and I’m always there for him on and off the park.
“I will always leave that decision to him because he’s definitely someone who’s changed the footprint of football in Australia in my opinion.”
And this:
“I spoke to Ange the morning of my announcement (to play in China) and he was very supportive of me as a footballer both domestically and internationally. You get picked on merit for your performances and consistency for your club.
“Overall, we’ve got a great relationship as player and manager and it’s one of those where we’ll definitely be speaking a lot in to the start of pre-season for me which is coming up soon in China and then the development of the season when it starts and then when the games come in.
“I think it’s definitely going to have a lot of verbal activity (between us) to see how physically things go. I love playing for my country and for me I’ll always be there when the boss calls me.”
So, no specific timeline, but a commitment to make himself available as long as Postecoglou wants to use him.
Postecoglou was asked in a radio interview whether he could see Cahill and fellow veteran Bresciano “playing on for much longer” at international level.
He replied: “Oh look, I mean, that’s their decisions. I’m never going to be one, you know, I don’t think it’s my place to tell people when to finish their careers.
“You know, I think they’ve both been unbelievable servants to the game and for their country and I think it’s right that they make that decision. I’m certainly not going to make that call for them, you know.
“Timmy proved again that he’s still one of the best in the business . ‘Bresh’, it was just circumstances that he didn’t play more.
“I didn’t expect Massimo Luongo to play every game and be so good that I couldn’t leave him out, which meant guys like Bresh and Tommy Oar didn’t get as much game-time as I’d planned. But that’s the way football works sometimes.
“But, you know, the ball’s in their court and I think they’ve earned the right to make the call when they want to.”
Postecoglou has proved he is prepared to make the tough decisions. Players making themselves available doesn’t guarantee selection.
The Socceroos have a friendly scheduled against World Cup champions Germany in Kaiserslautern on March 25.
Our first World Cup qualifying matches, in the second round of Asian qualifying, are set for dates from June to November, with two more dates next March.
Presuming we qualify for the third round, those games will be played from September, 2016, to September, 2017.
Considering the fact he wasn’t used in the latter stages of the Asian Cup campaign, there is the possibility Bresciano, who turns 35 on Wednesday, has already played his last game for Australia.
Cahill turned 35 in December. He will be 36 by the time the second round of World Cup qualifiers is completed and will turn 37 midway through the third round. He will be 38 by the time the next World Cup finals are held, in Russia in 2018.
It is a very wise decision of Cahill to keep in close touch with Postecoglou. That way, each can get a guide to the other’s thinking.
I’m happy to be proved wrong, because I’m sure it would only be under the circumstances that Cahill was still a main cog, but my guess is that, all things going well for the Socceroos in terms of their form and results, Cahill will no longer be in the squad by the time of the next World Cup.
Preferably, that would be after he has reached the conclusion that it is time and he has gone out on his own terms, with a fantastic farewell playing for the Socceroos in front of a big Australian crowd.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
Nestory Irankunda has sensationally rejected the chance to play at the Paris Olympics this June after a late bid from the Olyroos to include…
Mathew Ryan's tenure at AZ Alkmaar appears to be over, as the Eredivisie side are seemingly moving on from the 93-time Socceroo. The decision…
One down 49 to go. Socceroos striker Kusini Yengi raised some eyebrows this week when he declared himself to be the talisman striker the…
