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Sometimes you have to wonder if Ange Postecoglou is the loneliest man in Australia, so frequently does he make a point that goes completely over most people’s heads.
Postecoglou’s latest gripe heading into Thursday night’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia surrounds the tepid atmosphere that greets the national team at home games.
Telling reporters that the Socceroos are not just “a show that comes into town,” Postecoglou urged fans to get behind the team and create the sort of intimidating atmosphere experienced in other parts of the world.
You can just imagine the suits at Football Federation Australia nodding along in agreement, then checking online to see how many $85 tickets they’ve actually sold for the Adelaide Oval showdown.
And while preliminary sales suggest there should be upwards of 40,000 fans in attendance for one of Australia’s most important World Cup qualifiers in years, not everyone is happy with the choice of venue.
The Adelaide Advertiser’s veteran football journalist Val Migliaccio aimed a flurry of tweets at fans earlier in the week, asking them to stop “moaning about the Adelaide Oval on talk-back radio and (online) forums”.
Calling the whinging about the stadium “astounding,” Migliaccio implored fans to forget about the choice of venue and simply support the national team.
Yet Migliaccio’s plea overlooks an unspoken but increasingly prevalent aspect of our football culture – the fact so many involved in the conversation seem so detached from reality.
How many more times can we hear that a city like Adelaide needs a football-specific stadium?
The city already has a football-specific stadium, of course, but it’s too small to host a game of this magnitude.
And since there’s nowhere else to play – and the South Australian government has already spent some $70 million on trying to attract major events to the state – the game is, by necessity, at the 53,000-capacity Adelaide Oval.
Yet instead of debating the merits of the Socceroos playing three at the back, discussing whether homegrown hero Craig Goodwin deserved a place in the squad or perhaps even coming up with some new chants for the songbook, we’re focusing on – for the umpteenth time – whether the only venue available is still the best place to play a game of football.
It must drive Postecoglou mental.
And while he probably doesn’t long for the days of being grilled by Craig Foster on The World Game, you get the sense Postecoglou is growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of sophistication in our analyses of the Socceroos.
Still, with Australia lying third in Group B – three points behind Saudi Arabia and Japan, both of whom we are about to play – Postecoglou invariably has bigger concerns to worry about.
Finding some goals is chief among them, with the in-form Tomi Juric no doubt eager to replicate his excellent club form in the international arena – not least because the Darmstadt-bound Jamie Maclaren is also jostling for contention.
And an embarrassment of riches in midfield won’t stop plenty of us from wondering whether Groningen youngster Ajdin Hrustic will make a cameo appearance, with Postecoglou no doubt keen to get his international allegiance locked down once and for all.
With the Confederations Cup just around the corner, this is shaping up as the most important month of football for the Socceroos since the Asian Cup.
It’s one that deserves some thoughtful analysis – not just from the talking heads on Fox Sports and Channel Nine, but also from Socceroos fans across the country.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re watching the game in the stands or on TV – what matters is that we start taking a more sophisticated approach to the way we talk about the Socceroos.
We wanted more competitive fixtures when we joined the Asian Football Confederation.
Now that we’ve got them, the least we can do is treat them with the respect they deserve.