The Socceroos’ desperate 2-2 draw with Oman was unacceptable. Given the quality of their group this result would be an acceptable setback against Japan only.
However, the Socceroos did not lose to Japan and instead drew against a team ranked 105th in the world.
This, after previously capitulating to the ‘powerhouse’ of world football that is Jordan in qualifying.
Although these results are unexpected, the warning signs have been plain to see recently.
Australia has only won one of their qualifiers, and excluding the East Asian Cup – where if Australia had lost they should have all been fired – have failed to win in seven of their last ten internationals.
Four of these results have been losses, two of those have been completely unacceptable, with Jordan and Scotland ranked much lower than the Socceroos.
Scotland sit a whole 27 places below Australia on the FIFA rankings. They are not great at football, yet they made Australia look abysmal by holding onto the ball; the boys in green and gold helped them out by passing everything they could straight back to the kilt wearers.
Drawing with Oman and losing to Jordan though is the icing on the cake being served at this sad party the Soccerooos are hosting.
Some teams are much better than their ranking but Oman and Jordan are not among those teams and deserve to be languishing.
Holger Osieck claimed before the game this was a must-win and nothing else would be accepted. Well hopefully it is not accepted and highlights the need for change in the Australian set up.
Australia had its golden era at the 2006 World Cup and were unfortunately robbed by a dive that would have stolen a gold from the Chinese Olympic team.
Most of this team then played on in 2010 but were schooled by Germany and did not deserve to progress in the slightest.
Alarmingly though, the core of this side still makes up the current crop. Mark Schwarzer is past his prime, the defence in front of him is too old or inexperienced, the midfield give the ball away and the attackers seem to have no creative flair.
So why do we persist with them? The simple answer is there is nobody better lining up to replace them and that is a sad fact.
Australians are not making their mark in the world of football like they were only six years ago, with only five players currently playing in the top three European leagues of England, Italy and Spain, and three of those are goalkeepers, who clearly cannot be on the field at the same time for the Socceroos.
The standard of the A-League has improved, particularly this season, but not near the level it must to allow the Socceroos to compete on the global stage.
More money must be invested by David Gallop and his team in grassroots and academies to let players learn the beautiful game more intimately.
Incidentally, Australia has slid down to 39th in the rankings. The World Cup showcases the best 32 teams. Technically we do not qualify but thanks to the continental fairness of the competition, Australia still has a slim chance.
The Socceroos cannot let any more points slip and if they do manage to somehow qualify then they should book tickets home after the group stages (which you may as well do in advance) and then give Australian football the attention and shake-up it needs.
Its fans and players deserve more.
Michael
Guest
1. We don’t have the mongrel (the tenacity or the drive) with our players we used to have to win games any more. 2. The robotic mentality we apply where we pass the ball around with the back 3 as if the ball is a hot potatoe on more occasions than I can count is not pretty .....We should be getting the ball up and moving our players up with conviction which puts pressure on the opposition and creates opportunities........ 3. We don’t have a composition of players such we did in 2006. By the same token it makes a mockery about the reasons why we went into Asia…where are the massive improvements we heard would result in the quality of our players and our team performance by playing in Asia? 4. It doesn’t look good....if we get one draw, a loss and a win over the remaining games; it is more than likely that we will be 3rd in the rank. You only need one of the other teams to get 2 wins and one of these teams will be 2nd....... 5. World rankings count for nought here..........take the NZ team ( ranked somewhere in the 80’s)as an example
Australian Rules
Guest
You pointed out a typo. Well done. Anything else to say?
Peeeko
Guest
The author quoted we are a slim chance
West
Roar Pro
Should have played the Omani AFL team instead - guaranteed qualification for the AFL World Cup.
West
Roar Pro
Long way to go to get back to the Golden era and the young Socceroos still have a lot to learn., but agree we picked the wrong starting team, which should have included Bresc, Rogic and Oar if Holgo was intending to blood a few players. If Neill was suspended for the Oman game why did he play a full game in the friendly beforehand. Surely he should have used that friendly game to try a new centre back pairing and give the new players a run. We'll still qualify even with a loss to Japan. We didn't have any luck in the Oman game and should have scored at least one more, while Oman goals were lucky with a handball in the first goal and an unfortunate own goal from a toe poke that snuck in around the near post. We'll be there at Brazil, but with our weakest team in years and likely to drop out early. We really need to change managers and direction early to get the next golden generation going instead of relying on older players who are slow and get injured a lot.
Darwin Stubbie
Guest
The negative effect of moving into Asia is the in the youth ranks ... The kiwis are now the ones that are benefiting from their mens and womens teams regularly qualifying for the youth world tournaments an Olympics ... Which is strengthening the base, giving great pathways and will obviously eventually flow through into the senior ranks ... Asia is a great route for the senior team in a lot of ways plus the bonus of the real excitement of proper group qualifiers - the problem is the expectation levels are currently set too high
fadida
Guest
Not the easiest route mate, more competitive matches which then increases the quality of our NT. Playing in Oceania meant lots of double figure scores, even with home-based teams. The weakest teams we meet in Asia are at least competitive ie NZ quality
AGO74
Guest
The author should pay respect to Jordan and Oman. Jordan have beaten both AUS and JPN whilst in 4 games vs OMN we have only had one win. Comments such as this by the author are lazy and plainly incorrect.
Australian Rules
Guest
I thought after I pressed "Add Comment" that it may draw a quickfire response. *Obviously* population isn't the only measure (see Portugal 10M, Greece 11M, Switz 8M, , Belgium 11M, Uruguay 3.5M - all in top 20) but it certainly has a direct correlation to player-pool, infrastructure and, usually, to resources. It's not just that Oman has a population a little bigger than Brisbane, it's also that we were playing on home soil, in our conditions - the performance we put up was woeful.
Jukes
Guest
I watched that game between Por vs Isr. Bloody hell the Israelis were great. They were so unlucky not to walk away with the 3 points. Everyone get this into your heads. There are no such things as "easy matches" any more. They are very few and far between. Why would you want it any other way.
langou
Roar Guru
They may have smaller popoulations but I imagine Oman and Jordan don't have 3 other codes of football to compete with
Wii
Guest
The fact Australia is even playing in Asia is laughable, every other sporting competition Australia plays in Australasian or Oceanic qualifying tournaments. Seems the sporting bodies change region to give themselves the easiest route to world tournaments. The disrespect here shown to the Asian teams is mind boggling to say the least.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
How about you watch ISR v POR played in Tel Aviv last week-end. It was obvious that Portugal's team of superstars couldn't cope with playing in the Middle East. I watched a bit of MLT v ITA and KAZ v GER ... neither MLT nor KAZ played any better than AUS or OMA. ITA struggled in their match; GER did what was needed but failed to impress against very poor opposition.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Australian Rules Anyone, who tries to draw a correlation between "size of population" and "ability to play football" is demonstrating ignorance & a very unsophisticated appreciation of what is required to win international football. I'm not surprised that people, who follow sports that are limited to suburban Australia, don't have any idea about International Football.
Marc
Guest
Ever been to Jordan? Lived there for 3 years and it's a football-crazy country. Football is one of the few things that unites a country with a significant divide between Palestinians and Jordanians (ie. from the East Bank of the Jordan River). When the el-Classico is on, the streets of Amman are deserted.
pete4
Guest
AR - in our game you are only considered a minnow if your FIFA ranking is past no.150
Australian Rules
Guest
Oman - population 2.8M Jordan - population 6.2M It is woeful we are losing to these minnows.
King Robbo
Guest
International football has gone down hill since players club wages have gone through the roof. It is mainly used as a vehicle by players to find bigger clubs and hence make money. Players earning massive salaries, have less motivation to perform at major tournaments. A good example of this is how Rio Ferdinand pulled out of the England squad last weekend and was then seen at the game commentating the game on Qatari tv. Players earning massive salaries will always protect themselves to an extent in international tournaments. Look at the lack of star players at the last world cup - messi, ronaldo all went missing and why more of the traditional big teams flop. Those players who play for mid level teams like Australia, Japan, Oman, Iraq need to perform exceptionally at a World cup to get any interest from a big club. Like when Lucas neill had a slight possibility of going to Barca after the 2006 WC. I think thats a reason why Australia do well against strong teams and poorer against those that want it more. A lot of our players are too content were they are at and have no ambition to go to bigger clubs.
striker
Guest
Fuss i agree there is no much diference these days between teams ranked 5-100 lets say just look at portugal the other day they were lucky not to lose to Israel, were in transition after the golden generation and it will take a number of years to replicate the team of 2006.
Hawker
Guest
Montenegro are on top of their qualifying group - hardly a minnow