In the past eight hours I’ve read that the Socceroos 4-0 defeat was the worst sporting performance by an Australian team (on the World Game), an unmitigated disaster (on The Roar), and a whole host of other things, ranging from a national disgrace to the death of the sport in this country.
Robbie Slater called it “un-Australian.” Can anyone tell me what the expression “un-Australian” is supposed to represent?
Save it for a while, it’ll side-track us. I listened with mounting horror to the outpouring of anger but a measure of sanity was provided from the most unlikely of sources – Craig Foster.
I’ll admit, he spoke with something of a forked tongue, but after slamming Pim Verbeek’s selection and tactics for the game, he went on to say, “Yesterday, it was easy to be a Socceroos fan and wear the gold shirt. Today, it’s not so easy. But today is the day when it matters the most and when we really NEED to show our support.”
True words, but they highlight something else, something that has been the silver lining that Mike Tuckerman couldn’t find in his overwhelmingly negative article – people care. I mean, I got calls today from friends and colleagues who don’t have a strong football affiliation, yet they wanted to know where we go from here, how did it go so wrong, and most tellingly, how awesome were those Germans, and how great was it to watch them? (Just, you know, not against us!).
TV news, current affairs, morning shows, print media, websites and social media have blanket coverage of the tournament and consumers are lapping it up. It took a rugby league racism scandal to penetrate the domination of football’s sporting headlines, something league could have happily done without.
It highlights something else for me and that is how completely immersed the country is in this World Cup. I was in Germany in 2006 and while the experience was unforgettable, what I didn’t see was how people back in Australia took to the tournament and the fortunes of our national team.
This time, it is there for all to see, and it is as uplifting as the Germany result was disheartening. While other sports can point to stronger domestic leagues and larger fan bases, is their any in this country that could attract 25,000 fans to a site at four o’clock on a bitterly cold morning, to watch a game on a giant TV? In their dreams. For that matter, has any national team played in front of 30,000 fans so far from home, as the Socceroos have now done in two World Cups?
I realise that much of this is to do with the stage – the World Cup is enormous, easily the biggest global sporting event held. But that also should ram home just how big a deal it is for the Socceroos to even be performing on that stage.
Without doubt, a lot went wrong in Durban last night. Verbeek has accepted responsibility, and as a proud man I’m sure the result and the manner of its unfolding have wounded his pride. He has been roundly criticised for the selection of Richard Garcia as a striker, and for seeming to tinker with the 4-2-3-1 formation which has served the team well in the qualifiers. Also inarguable is that some high-profile players turned in awful games against a team we could ill-afford to be at anything but our best against. And were punished. In a way, it’s somewhat heartening that so many fans felt punished too.
Given Verbeek’s post-match comments, I’m prepared to judge his and the team’s performance over the whole tournament. That might only be two more games but thousands of fans here and in South Africa are desperately hoping it is more.
If it isn’t, then yes, as a football nation we will have been seen as under-achieving. But for long-time Socceroo fans, who suffered two generations of heartbreak, that notion itself was unthinkable not that long ago. The 4-0 loss was a terrible result, but an unmitigated disaster?
How about Uruguay 2001, and a 3-0 loss in Montevideo which saw then-chairman Ian Knop admit there was “No Plan B?” What about Iran 1997, and the 2-2 draw that turned the MCG from a rock stadium to a funeral parlour in 10 terrible minutes? Or back even further, and a 2-0 loss to New Zealand in Sydney in 1981 which torpedoed the Socceroos campaign and Rudi Gutendorf’s coaching reign? Those are disasters, because each of them prevented Australia from even getting to the big dance.
Even if it all ends in tears early next Sunday morning against Ghana, ask yourself this: would you swap places with Ecuador, Poland, Czech Republic, Iran, Croatia, Ukraine, Tunisia or Sweden. They were all at Germany ’06 but they’re not swaying to the sounds of the vivuzula in South Africa. And if you are really desperate for omens, try this one: Ukraine lost their first game in the 2006 tournament 4-0 to Spain, and went on to make the quarter finals.
mahony
Guest
The media coverage and its lack of depth / sophistication is still a great leap forward. Austrlai is 'growing up' in football terms and it is the only sport that moves the planet. I am greatly heartened by the responce of the Australian people and the media on this one. No conspiracy theory here - we are just getting out 'football legs' after years of denying the game and kidding ourselves that other world cups matter......
mahony
Guest
Nail - Head!
mahony
Guest
Wow - you got all your usual garbace into an even more efficien parragraph. You hit every football-phobia 'talking point' and did so with 68% less words. Well done Dave! By the way - any perspective on the substance of the article - Plonker?
apaway
Guest
Might I just say that when I wrote this article, Craig Foster did sound like the voice of reason. But his rant against Pim Verbeek was just insane. He also looked like he was ready to throw up when Craig Johnston said the players just needed to play "English" and knock long balls to Josh Kennedy. Perhaps CJ has been listening to Roy and HG's Route 1 program (which is very funny if you haven't caught it)
apaway
Guest
Actually, I'm a hopeful novelist. So anyone who knows a crime fiction publisher, get back to me!
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Good point Beaver .... their are probably some Kiwis who watched the replay once they know the score :P Also that is actually decent figures for the replay because the normal ratings for anything on the digital only channels (even 7's and 9's) normally don't get over the * threshold
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Craig Foster was brilliant last night and I am right behind him. SACK PIM! Of course he doesn’t really believe it will happen but the point he is trying to make––never again should we have an AFL man in a position to appoint a National Football Manager. This is what this diabolical situation we find ourselves in is all about. The precedent was set in 1974 when Franz Beckenbauer in 1974 led a player power revolt against the incumbent manager sideling him to only a figure head and then went on to win the 1974 World Cup. So it has been successfully done in the past. However, we don't have such a man in our ranks to support this radical move. But, if we had a Franz Beckenbauer I would support him. The question is can Lucas Neil step up and resume that responsibility? Well what do we have to lose? I think I would back him as Pimbo has been a disaster from the word go. Let’s not fool ourselves with his track record to date––a number of Australians could have achieved what Pim has achieved and a number are as good as Ricki Herbert; who has shown up Pim for what he really is––a career assistant coach. Now we are paying the price for this fraud Pim Verbeek. _____ AF
Beaver Fever
Guest
AR, cant think of many Aussies who would want to watch it all, considering the scoreline, how many German backpackers are here ATM.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
i think because it's 4 am then replays are fine....especially since I can't think of any Aussies who would want to watch it twice!
Beaver Fever
Guest
If these figures are correct, and they are the figures i was talking about, then it's safe to assume that they will be around half of 2006. Very rubbery at best to include 2 replays in your total figures. But having said that the figures will probably halve, it has to be said that they are still very good.
punter
Guest
You didn't answer me Beaver, did the Swans win? Who's leading the AFL? It's just all football to me at present, it's the world cup, nothing else really matches up.
Dave
Guest
You are in for a lifetime of frustration and disappointment if your enjoyment of your sport is so shallow that it depends on Australia playing and beating other countries. Especially in the case of soccer.
Kurt
Roar Pro
Official published viewing figures for the Aust Germany game were as follows: SBS (Live): 1,106,000 SBS2 (delay): 116,000 Total: 1,222,000 Compared with figures for 2006: Aust v Italy: 2,297,000 Aust v Japan: 2,166,000 Aust v Brazil: 1,549,000 Aust v Croatia: 2,003,000 All figures are average audience, total in-home viewing including guests, 5 city metro markets.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Spot On? it was absolute drivel....sack Pim in favor of the players coaching themselves or coaching by commitee by a bunch of captains with no coaching experience? Oh wait I think alex Tobin had a role with the Mariners at one stage. So Paul Wade (who also talks absolute drivel), Viduka, Skoko, Muscatt and Durakovic are in charge? A bit hard to organise now but thankfully Graham Arnolds a former captain and is already their....... call me crazy but I prefer to let Pim finish the job he started rather than sack him with 4 days to go until a must win game. No coach worth his salt would touch us after that even for 6m..... well we might get Sven. Then in the preview for Slovakia vs NZ he bangs on about how you need decades of (insert made up Foz word) to get the technical and tactical nous to play top level football and keep possesion. The game starts and we have a Slovak (i.e. super football culture) who's armory just seemed to be all arms, little elbows, shirt pulls and kicks (can't remember his name but he got a yellow card) at the heart of the Slovak defence. Good centre back but if Foz didn't tell me I would never know he came from some super football culture. His opposite number was Ryan Nelson who grew up in NZ and then went to college in the US and played in the MLS, two countries I am pretty sure call it soccer Foz. Nelson was fantastic did his own job to aplomb and marshaled another defence to keep the Slovaks to just one despite a very loose keeper.
MVDave
Guest
Wrong again BF...but hey dont let that get in the way of a good story; from SMH "Clash joins SBS all-time top-10 ratings winners KARL QUINN June 15, 2010 - 3:32PM .Despite the awful timeslot, the Australia-Germany World Cup clash was watched live on SBS by 1.4 million Australians. The total audience for the game was lifted by two repeats later on Monday that took the figure to more than 1.6 million. The repeat showing at 8am was watched by 137,000 viewers and a second repeat at midday by a further 65,000." The games that drew bigger audiences in 2006 were the final do or die game vs Croatia and the next knockout game vs Italy...if the Socceroos get that far again l predict the TV audinces will be just as big. Sorry BF to damper your short lived joy.
dasilva
Guest
It happen once. Cha Bum-Kun in the 1998 world cup, coach of South Korea. got sacked after 2 games after losing 5-0 to the Netherland So it's not unprecedented Although I do agree that sacking the coach in the middle of the world cup is a bad idea. I also think the socceroos captain committee suggestion is a terrible idea. No coach in the world would accept a job when you have a committee second guessing your decision.
Al
Guest
I guess you're right, I don't think a coach has ever been sacked in the middle of a world cup surely? I do hope however that the FFA learn a serious lesson out of this and put in place appropriate procedure sin recruiting a national team manager. I also hope they get rid of people like Ben Buckley.
joeb
Guest
World Cup fever ?? ;-) :-( :-)
Farqwar
Guest
I like Foz and agree with a lot of what he says but sacking Pim now would just be farcical.
Al
Guest
He was absolutely spot on in everything he said. Foz can be abrasive in his delivery but he is genuinely passionate about the sport specifically in getting the right development here in Australia and you can't fault him for sticking to his guns. What he's saying now regarding the Kiwis at half time is spot on aswell regarding Herbert's tactics, which have been spot on in stark contrast to Verbeek's abomination.