- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
So after qualifying in the small hours of Sunday morning, I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon with the Socceroos for 2010 World Cup. But the question that I want to ask is this: is everyone else as excited as me?
From the outset, let me say that I am not a football aficionado and don’t pretend to be. However I, like many others, was swept up in the wave of emotion that the Socceroos created in 2006.
I have happy memories of wearing my newly acquired Socceroos strip and sitting at various Sydney venues in the small hours of the morning, watching our boys play on the biggest sporting show on earth outside the Olympics.
Now that they have booked their spot for the 2010 finals, I am ready to do the same and hoping that they can go a stage or two further than they did last time.
I am amazed that since the campaign started, one of the overriding themes has been criticism of tactics and the way the team has played – with Pim Verbeek in the sights of several learned experts.
Surely there have been two goals: first is qualification, and that has been achieved with two games to spare.
The second is to go further than our result in 2006.
Again, I don’t pretend to know the technicalities of football, but I am sure that Verbeek and the entire squad knows that to achieve this that the bar needs to be raised, not just from the performances of the qualifiers, but from how we played in Germany
From the top decks of the bandwagon, it instills me with great confidence to see the team led by Pim Verbeek, who seems to be made of similar stuff as our first savour – “Aussie Guus.”
That, and the fact that the bulk of the squad that will go to South Africa will have experience from 2006 under their belts will count for a lot. It will be one of the most anticipated events next year to see Cahill, Neill, Grella, Kennedy and Schwarzer lead our team on the field and try and go one or two steps better.
And, is it just me or is Harry Kewell looking the best he has been in a very, very long time?
I will be one of the many who will head out to Homebush on Wednesday night to congratulate and celebrate our team’s achievement. I hope that many others do the same and give this squad the praise and the support that it deserves.
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.