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What will happen to Australia’s national football team come 2014? It is not a new question – it has been asked since 2006 – and is more important now than ever.
With the nation grasping at straws by holding onto the stars of Germany 2006, the immediate future is not looking as bright as once believed.
Ageing stars such as Mark Bresciano and Lucas Neil are not what they once were. Unfortunately for Australia, they do not join the ranks of other footballers who are still top-class performers in their mid to late thirties.
Tim Cahill has moved on from Everton to the New York Red Bulls, a considerable step down from the English Premier League, while Socceroo pinup boy Harry Kewell has publicly expressed his likely retirement, after his failure to find even a mid-range table club in England.
It’s time to say goodbye to the golden generation. While not completely dismal, Australia cannot afford to rely on the team of 2006 to make it through Brazil.
Pim Verbeek recently expressed his fears that Australia has a generational gap between high class footballers, and he is right.
There is, at present, nobody who can fill the aforementioned shoes, not now at least. There are high hopes for prospects such as Mustafa Amini and James Troisi, as they both signed to fantastic clubs in Germany and Italy, but as of now, they have failed to make an impact.
The quality of the A-League does not largely produce the players we have seen in former years; to receive the training, skill and craft of the game, Europe is still the ultimate training ground. While the A-League is young, and we all hope for it to prosper to the level of the J-League and beyond, right now it does not hold the answer.
According to Verbeek, too many young Australians these days are opting for game time in the A-League, rather than doing the hard yards in Europe. While it is possible that these A-League players would not receive game time in Europe, they would receive priceless training in a football fanatical environment
Motivation and ambition would be high, and the need to push oneself to a higher level would be on the agenda of every footballer.
There are no A-League players who possess the skill required to match the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Huntelaar, Benzema, Ibrahimovic or Neymar, and the reality of the situation is that in order to progress in 2014, they have to not only match them, but beat them.
Who can realistically say at present that this is anywhere near possible?
Where does Australia go from here? Can we make an impact in Brazil come 2014? Furthermore, is it fair to rely on our golden oldies to get the job done? It has been hoped for a long time that a new, younger generation of players would make an impact on the world stage, but with no answers in site, the future does not look bright for the Socceroos.
Some hope that a new crop will magically appear, while a small few believe that A-League players need to be bled more for their potential to be realised. No matter which side of the argument you sit on, the fact is that there is no new crop of talent emerging, and A-League players are not receiving opportunities in the national team.
Where does Australia find the new crew of Socceroos which will lift us to glory? It appears that nobody knows, and that spells trouble for Australia’s future.
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