After two World Cup games, it is quite noticeable that Australia coach Pim Verbeek has been copping a bit of flak from a variety of quarters, especially after the performance against Germany.
Some of this is obviously justified, if he was going to break from his usual strategy and tactical formation, he should have ensured he selected the players that would have allowed for it.
A good example is that Scott McDonald would have been well suited to his eventual formation. Another selection issue is that I believe that in the spirit of dynamism, it may have been a good idea to select Nicky Carle to allow us some spontaneous creativity. Also, in light of the Jubilani ball that does not allow for potent functional, crisp passing play, he would have been good to have as someone who can keep the ball at their feet take on defenders and set other players up as opposed to try and pass around them.
Pim will feel vindicated in his preference for Holman due to his goal against Ghana, but Carle would still have been useful as a squad player nonetheless.
The 4-0 drubbing by Germany has put Australia at a disadvantage in terms of goal difference, and we can consider ourselves a little unlucky in terms of Kewell’s red card against Germany also resulted in the penalty spot kick which pegged back our lead. For what it’s worth the result could have easily been different had we converted some of our second half chances.
But before we remember Pim as someone who “bottled” it and lump on him a bit of a dubious legacy, I think that it is worth maintaining some perspective, something which some of the slightly hysterical football commentators need to keep in perspective.
Craig Foster needs to remember Beckenbauer was not only a player, but a World Cup winning coach and a top end football administrator so when he speaks regarding the German team it is with more authority than just that of a former player. It certainly isn’t in Australia’s interests to have an environment where former Australian players are undermining our coaches in the same way that is happening with the French team now for example, otherwise we will struggle to attract high quality coaching talent to manage our national team.
Looking back, let’s not forget that Australia was a bit of a shambles in the 2007 Asian Cup, our institutional unfamiliarity for playing in the conditions and understanding how to deal with the culture of Asian football was exposed.
This posed a certain challenge to our qualifying aspirations. The skills Pim Verbeek brought were exactly what Australia needed at that time. He successfully guided Australia through all the challenges that an elongated campaign in Asia comes with, including midweek matches where players had to play on the other side of the world after playing in Europe on the weekend, stomach bugs, below par Australian surfaces and more.
In the end Australia qualified in the first group (nicknamed the “Group of Death” remember) and the second phase. There are some legitimate question about the quality of play at times – we were very lucky away to Bahrain – but it has to be remembered it simply isn’t always practical to play “jogo bonito” midweek in an awkwardly unfamiliar country when many of your players played for European clubs on the weekend. Another issue is that the quality of performance partly heralds from the form of players, who they are playing for and the new talent coming through.
It is a difficult challenge when you are having to juggle a relatively large pool of players (the “Euroroos” and “Aussieroos”) of varying degrees in playing standard. A lack of cohesion can partly be put down to a lack of consistency in the starting lineup. I’m sure Saudi Arabia and Iran would have traded places in a heartbeat.
Lastly, whatever happens in the last game versus Serbia, let’s not forget where Australian football is at, we are at the stage where we are not a regular qualifiers for World Cups, and domestically Australian football is only just moving from the periphery into mainstream focus. The first task is to ensure we work on qualifying consistently for World Cups and build the Socceroos brand and all that comes with it (strong attendances and corporate sponsorship). People need to keep a perspective on just how much an achievement the Round of 16 achievement in Germany was, and the squad is weaker in the 2010 edition.
We are not the first in this predicament, Japan and South Korea have struggled to follow up their 2002 performances, Croatia struggled to follow up their 1998 performance before that.
At this time, our challenge is toe ensure consistent qualification, then to build on that with potent performance, a generation long task that will result largely from the fruits of small-sided games to refined youth development pathways.
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