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If it is true, and a Lucas Neill led mutiny against the previous Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek occurred before last year’s World Cup opening game against Germany, then Neil should be immediately relieved of his duties as captain of the Australian national football team.
It was released into the media this week that prior to the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Germany, Lucas Neill asked then Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek to leave the room while he spoke to his charges.
With the team to himself, Neill then erased the coach’s game plan from the whiteboard, told his team to “forget this bullshit” and ordered them to play the way they always had – attacking football.
This new game plan, sprung on the Australian team literally minutes before they were to face arguably the World Cup nation with the most consistent tournament record, would easily describe the absolute disgrace with which the Socceroos took to the pitch that night.
While much has been said about Pim Verbeek’s defensive footballing style and the fact he put results above the aesthetics of how his team plays, there is no denying that as coach of the Socceroos (with exception to the Disaster in Durban) results were the one thing that he did managed to achieve.
Which made it all the more surprising that against Germany, Australia seemed completely lost on the park.
I’ve spent the last twelve months with a lot of anger aimed squarely at Pim Verbeek. I criticised his blatant giving in to the German team for our early removal from the tournament and sung the praises of anybody offering to give us more attacking flair.
However, now, with the bombshell news that Pim did have a plan to get a pragmatic result against a team with a much higher skill base than the Australians and that the plan was overthrown at the very last minute by the ego of a player whose judgment was clearly lacking, the man everyone loved to hate seems to be a lot less at fault than was first thought.
My anger is palpable: what on Earth was Neill thinking to change the game plan only minutes before the start of the match? What sane person would think that this level of confusion and misunderstanding would benefit the team?
This is the man that is meant to represent our country and the countless Australians at all levels of the game (of which I am myself) and yet I am left to think that he was more concerned with his ego and belief that he knew better than the coach, abused his position of leadership in the team and ruined our 2010 World Cup campaign.
If this is the truth and Lucas Neill really was responsible for the “Disaster in Durban,” then he’s not someone who I would want representing me, and the sport that I love, to the rest of the world.
It’s true that while I’ve never been a believer in Pim’s footballing tactics and I am very glad now that Holger Osieck is the coach of the Socceroos, I just can’t help but think that had Neill not had such a terrible brain snap at such an important time, we could all be talking about what was, rather than what could have been.
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