I so badly want football to improve and reach its potential in Australia, but I feel it won’t, at least for a while.
How can we lose to Jordan? Well, some of us are not surprised.
All we hear about is the end of the Socceroos “Golden Generation”. The team who, in 2006, brought football into the mainstream consciousness like never before.
It’s actually quite simple why we lost to Jordan. We never had a golden generation.
And we have a coach who has no desire, or need, and possibly no skills, to develop the talent we have coming through the A-League and in Europe.
Holger Osiecks’ job is defined by qualification to Brazil. The young player requires coaching and experience. They need to make mistakes, learn and play.
I don’t know if Holger is giving them the coaching to play at international level, but they won’t get the experience because Holgers’ job, and reputation, which in turn affects his ability for future jobs, is on the line.
No way will he risk that on the younger players, when the older more proven national team players, are more than capable of doing the job. But it is that attitude that is why we have no talent coming through.
Is merely qualifying for Brazil good enough?
We have qualified for the last two World Cups, and we have brought him in to do the same. When in fact, qualification for Australia has become easier.
We had it hardest when we had to play through a home and away play-off against the fifth placed South American team, Uruguay both times.
These days, we just have to be among the top four or five in Asia. Excluding Japan, being far superior than the rest, we have to play Oman, Jordan, Iraq, but our only job requirement from the national team coach is that we qualify.
That was the mistake with Pim, and it is the mistake to be repeated with Holger. Pim Verbeek, an average at best coach, even qualified through Asia, and then was drastically found out on the world stage. The same will happen again if we only ask for qualification.
If we were to place some real ambition on the team we should aim to qualify from our group in the World Cup and say anything less is unsatisfactory.
Then, only then, would we find a coach who has the knowledge, skills, and desire to develop a team that in four years (given Holger was hired two ago) will be ready to not only beat Oman, Jordan and Iraq, but a team that has enough ‘skill’ from their ‘talent’, and enough ‘know how’ from their ‘experience’, to pass through the group stage.
Only then, would we look at a draw with Oman, air conditioned or not, and say it wasn’t good enough.
What is going to happen if we draw Brazil in our group in 2014, and we have to play them on a hot day? Holger doesn’t have to worry about that, by then his job will be done, as was with Pim.
We made our way into Asia, to play more competitive matches. But at the moment it looks as though we would have been better off playing just the competitive play off.
It demanded that we be ready. It demanded a coach of Guus’ pedigree. He is the one that created the so called Golden Generation.
Ask any of those players if they learnt anything from Guus. They all say he was amazing. That experience alone made them better players.
Truth is, I don’t believe we have had a golden generation at all. We had a good national team. We had this good national team also in previous years, the difference in 2006 was that we had Hiddink.
If this, had been a golden generation, we would have qualified in 2002 as well, we would have won or at least done well in the Asian Cup in 2007. We would have produced a similar fantastic result at the 2010 World Cup, and again in the 2011 Asian Cup.
But we didn’t. The only time, we looked superior to what we’d seen from previous and current national teams, is when we were under Guus Hiddink. He was the key.
This is not recognised. So we compare the following players that come into the Socceroos’ squad with what the 2006 squad was able to achieve, and we merely say, “they are not as good”.
The actual truth is, there is a lack of development. There is talent. There have been many young players touted as future Socceroos.
That, is talent. But talent alone doesn’t guarantee anything, or get you anywhere, everyone knows that. You need ambition, and you need to give talent a chance, an opportunity, experience.
Life is funny, and sad sometimes, as you live, you learn lessons that you wish you’d known a while ago.
But, you have to learn from them, and accept responsibility for what happens to you.
And, as an aspiring footballer, I’ve accepted what has happened to me, and where I am. But I wonder when Australian football, the FFA, our national team coaches are going to accept responsibility?
We have talent. We deserve more, the talent deserves more.
I wonder if we will learn our lessons in time. We haven’t yet.
bvanega
Roar Rookie
Have my blog linked on my profile. Thanks to you and all for the feedback and your thoughts.
bvanega
Roar Rookie
Ok I See where your coming from now.
Clayton
Guest
Hi bvanega, Yeah, if we repeatedly play like we did in the Oz vs Jordan or game, or as we did in Oz vs Scotland, we cannot qualify for every world cup. World cup qualification is earned. It shouldn't be taken for granted.
Dee
Guest
@bvanega Loved this piece...right on the money.... Have you written anything else?? Or are you going too?
bvanega
Roar Rookie
Clayton do you really believe we cannot qualify for every world cup? I think that is setting the bar low. We are good enough to. We should be comparing ourselves with and trying to follow Japan. Its the only way to improve. Accepting mediocrity sees us backwards. If we don't qualify at the expense of a Jordan, that would be mediocre.
Clayton
Guest
A couple of times last season i watched some the national team play mid week, and on the weekend watched A-league ... and the a-league game had better football imho. brisbane, ccm, mh and newcastle all had patches where they played good smart football. the coaching is a lot better ... coaches are giving their teams a plan, and the players are exxecuting them. At the start of the A-league, I think a lot of teams wanted to fill the middle of the pitch with hard men. Tough guys who tackled hard and left the football to the strikers/wide midfielders. But now more teams are looking to have passers / footballers across the whole pitch. And as the league improves, we will see more Oz based players who will be able to contribute to the NT. Even now there are a couple of guys who could "do a McKay" and contribute to a full strength Socceroos team. If the league's improvement continues at this pace, we will have a solid future. Doesn't mean we will make it to every WC, but we will continue improving.
whiskeymac
Guest
the overall standard of players (and coaches) in the HAL has probably increased IMO since season 1 to date, the fact no superstar has been unearthed is unfortunate but not that surprising either. Given time I think the tree will bear fruit and in the mean time we needed someone able to blend the new with the old to make a good NT competitive. We have some players in good clubs in good leagues who aren't getting time at NT level, even in friendlies. This is a mistake as now we dont have a lot of experienced depth. Still its not over yet and a sfor suggestions we should have stayed in Oceania. Really? No ACL, no Asian Cup, swapping japan games for fiji, no stern tests which ultimately makes us, force us, to evolve or stagnate and to introspect where we are at, or just beat the solomon islands and wait for the tournaments to survive in? Asia was a fantastc move and well worth the pain of losing to Jordan for =)
Bondy.
Guest
When have we ever really routed somebody out there?.
Vic
Guest
End of the day, we should have butchered Jordan. They are a team of semi pros. Stop making excuses.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Saša indicated in an interview on TWG that his move to UAE was to preserve his body and give it some longevity from the 50+ games he was playing in Korea. Nothing wrong with looking after your body to stay competitive at that level near the end of your career, but reality of age and fatigue is that for some players and positions a full 90 minutes is not going to be possible towards end of your career.
bvanega
Roar Rookie
Exactly right Stevo. Enough skill and experience there to beat Jordan. If any team in the world played exactly according to their manager then no one would ever lose. If they aren't following instructions, for 5, 10 or 90 minutes, then the coaching is not successful. Ange Postecoglu said it perfectly in his summary of the match after Holger had his spray. The players performance is a reflection of the coaches preparation of them for the match, and for the match( i.e. opposition and tactics).
Dillan
Guest
As far as I'm concerned there isn't enough high quality talent coming through the younger players. Some suggest they should be picked in the National Team to develop their skills. As far as I'm concerned young players should be developing their skills at club level, with club coaches and playing regularly at club level... Then when they're good enough for NT selection, they can gain that extra experience...
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Sasa usually played the full 90 when he was in Korea but the exception was his last half season (this year) before moving to the UAE. These guys are getting to the point they have to be nursed. For Sasa and Bresciano they are pretty good when healthy so it is probably worth the risk. For someone like Carney who has a bad record with Injury it's probably not. I see Davidson played the full 90 overnight ....
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I think if you ask any manager - at any level - they'll say that the nightmare scenario is to lose your creative midfielder, central defender or GK to injury in first 15 minutes of any football match. I don't think I've ever seen Sasa leave the ground after 15 minutes in any competitive match in the HAL or for the AUS NT. I've not watched enough of his football in KOR or QAT to know how early he's been substituted out, but a quick look at this stats shows that, when he plays, he generally plays for 90'
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I wouldn't say that they are unforeseen injuries, who expected Bresciano to last the 90 minutes? I didn't expect him to get injured but I didn't expect him to finish the game, nor was I shocked when he was injured. Sasa being injured was regrettable (you want your CB's to play the full 90) but these guys have left Europe for a reason.
Clayton
Guest
Can they follow the script for the full 90 minutes? I think there are shades of that first Asian Cup campaign, when Graham Arnold was trying to coach the team ... inmates running the asylum?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
It's interesting to note that in both the JPN & JOR matches, the team's structure was impacted in the opening 15' of each game with unforeseen injuries to key players - Bresciano in the 13' against JPN and Ognenovski in the 14' against JOR. I thought the style of play - the structure, the movement, the passing - for the first 20 minutes against JPN in Brisbane and the final 20 minutes against KSA in Melbourne, was as good as anything I've seen from the AUS NT in the past 30 years. So, we know that, when Holger's instructions are followed, the team exhibits fluidity & purposeful movement that allows it to penetrate opponents - even the highly skilled & tactically efficient Samurai Blue. We just need the AUS NT to follow Holger's instructions for full 90' for the next 5 competitive international matches.
Stevo
Guest
There was enough experience and skill in the team against Jordan to have walked away with a draw or a win had we a well executed game plan. Could it be that Holger and the coaching staff cannot get the message across? Could it be that the players don't have confidence in the coach?
Minister for Information for the Democratic People's Republic of Football
Guest
One thing i think that needs to happen in this country is to get football on free to air tv unfortunately we are not in europe or the states and eighty five percent of viewers in this country watch free to air tv and have no intention of getting fox in the future i think football is much more popular than all the rubbish you hear in the media which is driven by journos with narrow minds and nothing else to do I live in the sunshine coast and intend finances permitting to see all roar home matches this year it’s up to the individual person to start not just supporting the a league but supporting the lower leagues and maybe persuading your kids to play football instead of league or cricket and the other thing i would lie to see happen is to see more a league players involved in the coaching side after there playing careers end which is why the afl is so successful for a one country sport I’m not knocking any sport i play cricket and enjoy watching league, union, football ,tennis, afl but would like to see football become the premier sport in this country as i think if it was marketed right and had the right people behind it and not fat fools like palmer and tinkler who have no idea about the game but just wanted quick dollars and publicity it would explode in popularity right through the country if we want football to get more popular we need to reduce the amount of sporting codes in this country as we simply don’t have the population to support them all Is this the longest sentence in the history of The Roar? And it's not even finished yet.
Bondy.
Guest
Jamesb. The golden generation did win, they got us to a world cup "thats the victory" your use to collingwood vs esesndon annually,seven failed world cup campaigns thats 28 yrs Sir and you ask what have they done. You dont understand domestic football at all the point you make with Kewell and co they left these shores primarilly before most cognitve skills are gained most of those players got themselves to europe and were involved with major teams in europe Okon with Fioerntina for instance Kewell to Leads,the european market has changed significantly over the past ten years most of those players you mention have been retired for ten years now ,new laws mean foreigners need new permits and tougher restrictions mean limited opportunities in some leagues,if you were Australian and could play a bit 10 yrs ago you'd get a gig there now you almost have to be a genius to get in. With the A League that has also helped and hindered " up to you" the progression of australian players abroad, Why go abroad to try to play professionally when its right here?. But the standard of player increases through europe because your picking from the world ,we've only just started a domestic football league 5-7 yrs ago and patterns are now coming through.When you have a domestic league like the A League nobody makes secret of the fact its not english or spanish standard either but when the greater quality is abroad then domestically we will also suffer but also in saying that a team like Brisbane Roar play a very good standard of football almost mid table premier english league stuff,thinking through the game not physically attacking the game and keeping the ball on the ground to feet. You raise some valid points though.