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Rock out! It’s time to put Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild on the iPod boombox and count down the hours. Tonight, in Brisbane, the Socceroos resume their World Cup odyssey against Qatar, after whupping some Uzbeki ass in Tashkent.
It was an historic victory in Central Asia, arguably the best win of Pim Verbeek’s career as Socceroos coach, which is beginning to assume the firmness and thrall we’ve all wanted to see in that position since the departure of Guus Hiddink in June 2006.
Qatar shouldn’t even be here, of course; but that’s by the by.
Politics assured their survival and they’re here to give us a shake.
This Middle Eastern paperweight is deadly serious about qualifying for the World Cup and there are two important items in their luggage this time that weren’t with them when they last paid us a visit.
Bruno Metsu and Sebastian Soria Quintana.
Metsu, a stand-in for the “ill” Jorge Fossati, is one of my cult heroes: his charismatic and explosive Senegal side was one of the highlights of Korea-Japan 2002, beating world champions France and going to the quarters before meeting a roadblock in the form of Turkey, and he’s got a Choirboys-style bonnet going on that is so unhip it’s positively happening. Teamed with a T-shirt and linen suit jacket: dynamite.
Marseille Vice.
Uruguayan born, Qatari-naturalised Quintana, or Soria as he’s often called, is the superstar of Qatari football and the one player I’ve always sense the Australians have never quite had the measure of.
Last time I saw him play against the Socceroos, in Doha in June, he got more joy down the right side of the pitch than I do with a bottle of Chartreuse and a Jenna Jameson DVD, so don’t expect a repeat of the Qataris’ tactics from their visit to Melbourne in February next year.
They’ll be looking to score early through Quintana and his naturalised Brazilian-Qatari team-mate Fabio Cesar Montezine, and, if they do, it’ll be an interesting test of Pim Verbeek’s coaching. He’s rarely had to pull back a goal – the Socceroos are usually level pegging or defending a lead – and in terms of creative weapons at his disposal his stocks are slim, with Harry Kewell and Mark Bresciano out, and He Who Shall Not Be Named regarded as surplus to requirements.
Tim Cahill is going to carry a lot of weight on his shoulders.
Going into this match of the final round of qualifying, the Qataris are on four points to Australia’s three, and four goals to Australia’s one, albeit from two matches to the Socceroos’ one.
They’re in form, been given a World Cup lifeline by their buddies in high places, got what appears to be their first-choice team on the park and playing under a bloke with more Gallic personality and infuriating aloofness than Eric Cantona.
It’s gonna be a hell of a show.
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