It has been a strange week for Holger Osieck. No sooner had the Socceroos coach finally garnered some popular support than he went and almost ruined it all with a pointlessly insensitive gaffe.
Making sexist remarks is never acceptable – a fact made abundantly clear to Osieck in the same week Australia’s politicians sunk to new lows – though anyone who has met the German would know he’s not exactly a stark-raving misogynist.
I dare say Osieck has more important things to worry about – namely qualifying for the World Cup – and it should be pointed out that his clumsy off-the-cuff remark was made in a language which is not his native tongue.
What has been largely overlooked in the fallout from Osieck’s thoughtless comment is the fact he was trying to engage with the media in the first place.
It’s a point worth noting from a coach who gave the press short shrift when he first arrived in Australia, generally treating local journalists with a mixture of haughty indifference and outright disdain.
So what has changed from the days when Osieck snapped back terse one-liners in post-match TV interviews during the beginning of his reign?
Well, the fact that a growing number of Australians no longer want him to coach the Socceroos, for one thing.
A new Football Federation Australia chief executive eager to make his mark in David Gallop may not have helped Osieck’s cause either.
Nor will the increasingly vocal pack of pundits who have come to question just about every facet of Osieck’s reign; from tactics to player selection and perhaps most pointedly, his failure to revitalise the national team in any meaningful way.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was that insipid 2-2 with Oman in Sydney and not even four points from a possible six in his next two competitive fixtures should dim the glare of the media spotlight.
It will all count for nothing if Australia fails to beat an Iraqi side falling apart at the seams, though failure to do so would suggest the Socceroos don’t even deserve to qualify for Brazil in the first place.
But even if Holger’s Heroes make the World Cup, will it be enough for the German to retain his job?
Plenty of countries have sacked coaches in the wake of World Cup qualification and there’s still a year to go before the party starts in Brazil.
And the problem with Osieck’s reign hasn’t been his gaffes or unwillingness to ditch the old guard, it’s the fact that the Socceroos have played some of the worst football recently seen by Australian fans.
It shouldn’t be overlooked that the Jordan team which Australia quite rightfully spanked at Docklands last Tuesday night was a decidedly poor one.
But then, nor should it be overlooked that arguably Australia’s two best players – Robbie Kruse and Mark Milligan – are more or less products of the A-League. Would Pim Verbeek have given them a run?
The fact remains that if Osieck had better players at his disposal, he may have produced better performances and results.
But even if Australia qualifies for the World Cup under Osieck’s tenure, then what? There’s every chance the Socceroos will be slaughtered by the first competent team they face.
At the end of the day, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that one swallow doesn’t make a summer and one win over Jordan doesn’t gloss over what has been a dreadful qualifying campaign.
And even if the Socceroos reach Brazil – and let’s hope they do it in style in front of a big crowd in Sydney on Tuesday night – one point still remains.
We need to talk about Holger Osieck and what we want and expect from our national team coaches, irrespective of whether Australia qualifies for the World Cup or not.
Blue Devil
Guest
After the match against Iraq last night, Tim Cahill was expressing his respect and admiration for "the boss" Osieck, and compares Osieck's "genius" to that of Hiddink. That's all I need to know really. No, I don't think we need to talk about Holger Osieck at all. Unless, of course, we have our own personal agendas and reasons for such a talk. The WC 2014 team will look different to the team which secured the qualification over the last couple of weeks. I trust that we'll see new blood being introduced into the team next month during the East Asian Cup. We'll be wiser then.
jmac
Guest
Interesting stats on what's occurred when the maligned MF combination of Jedinak and Valeri plays. They've played together on 13 occasions under Holger. The stats are: Goals conceded = 6, Clean sheets = 7 (so, no more than 1 goal conceded in a game) Goals scored = 21 9 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. one of the losses being the ET loss of the Asian Cup final. mmmmmm......
JohnL
Guest
Fuss, we were the highest ranked team in Asia when the draw was made (ranked at 20), but you dont mention that we are now ranked at 46. That is a pretty big drop in rankings.
Viva La North
Guest
Don't you remember that only 34,603 turned up at the Oman game in Sydney only last month when it was still all to play for and not basically in the bag? The Sydney "crowd" was even out chanted by the opposition and some of the home supporters booed the Socceroos off the ground, talk about creating an atmosphere. Sydneysiders are the definition of Bandwagon supporters.
jui
Guest
Some Australians here have just wrong expectations. There are 250 million football players in the world. The competition is absolutely huge. There are many, many countries who have a much stronger football tradition than Australia. Currently Australia is ranked 47th by the FIFA. Only 32 countries can qualify for Brazil 2014. Just by this ranking alone we don't really deserve to be there...
Ralph Nadeer
Roar Rookie
The fact that we have to win our last game or we are out, has created a tense atmosphere and a full house sign has gone up at ANZ stadium - 84K capacity. If we qualified easier like last time there would be barely 30K turn up man. We will win it easy, put your house on it.
Ralph Nadeer
Roar Rookie
Youse had your chance and barely 40K turned up and the atmosphere youse created was crap man.
Matt
Guest
Ralf, if the game was in Melbourne, there would 100K at the G buddy.
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Agree, people seemed to get a bit ahead of themselves when we signed Hiddink and seemed to think we could get similar quality replacements, when in reality Australia is quite far from the centre of the football universe and so difficult to get anyone to commit to being out here
j binnie
Guest
fadida - You've been busy.I'll add some more stuff to your points that should cause some discussion. There were 23 players named by Verbeek for the 2010 World Cup.Of those, Moore,Grella & Chipperfield have retired. Due to "lack of club ", injury,or "coach's choice", it would appear Kewell,Carney,Beauchamp,Emerton,Culina,Federici,Valeri,Ruka,Jones, & Garcia have all been omitted from the squad presently involved in our WC qualifying matches.So in effect we have seen 13 of those original 23 positions vacated.The remaining 10 positions were filled by Schwartzer,Wilkshire,Neill,Holman,Bresciano,Milligan,Cahill & Vidosic,(these 8 playing against Jordan the other night), with the last 2 ,Kennedy and Jedinak both on the bench. So it would be correct to say10 of Tuesday night's team (13 used) have been Socceroos for the last 3 years. Now to the critics. In that same time frame the squad has been changed with the incomers being,Langarack,,Galecovic,Franjic,Oganovski, McGowan,Thwaite,Cornthwaite,Zullo,Holland Brosque and of course Mackay,Kruse,Oar,Thompson & Rogic who also took part in the Jordan game. So Osiek has revamped the squad by at least 13 places, or 50%.The fact that the team's widely recognised 2 best performances have occurred in the last 2 games while using 8 of that 2010 squad is purely co-incidental, there are new faces around the traps so to speak. jb
Cameron
Roar Guru
Langou, Let's just continue to qualify as an achievement and that's it... To be honest id rather hope for a lot more than become complacent and just enjoy whatever. That is in my opinion boring... Leaves nothing to strive for and provides no motivation. Australia can always do much better, always! Don't mistake my optimism with realism. I understand the difference very well.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Australia won't beat Iraq? In Australia on Tuesday night as being part of Asia? My expectation is that we beat Iraq and qualify for Brazil 2014. Have your past experiences made you less optimistic and more of a pessimist?
langou
Roar Guru
Kellett, Happiness is linked to expectations and in my opinion you are in for some very disappointing years if you expect us to win in Asia all the time. Australia as a football nation has never won a major tournament, only qualified for the World Cup three times and only ever won two World Cup matches. Our league and the sport is on the rise but still a minor sport. We are going to drop games we expect to win, win games we are expected to lose and at some stage we are going to not qualify for the World Cup, if you treat qualification as an achievement and not an expectation you are going to enjoy the ride allot more.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"I expect us to always be preforming better and expecting to win." Fair enough. Maybe around the year 2040 - after you've been following international football & the AUS National Team for as long as I have - you, too, may decide to reassess your expectations about how teams perform at international level. With your current expectations levels, I reckon you're going to be disappointed - and/or whinging a lot - whenever the AUS National Team plays.
j binnie
Guest
real- I think it is you who is missing the point I am trying to make. You will note my "lecture"' was addressed to Fadida, for I would not deem to insult such a football intellect as yours with such a mundane subject. so your suggestion that I not patronise other posters should have read that in fact I was 'patronising "fadida",&,as I don't see "fadida" complaining, I must assume he found my "lecture" somewhat acceptable. No doubt you will also have noted that in no way have I praised or criticised Osiek in his selections,simply pointed out that there has been a considerable number of players gone through his squads in his 3 year tenure. We now return to my " lecture". As I said, an international manager, ours especially, doesn't get the number of games he would like, especially with our far flung "population" of possiblities , so his assessment procedure has to use training camps & squad involvements to aid him in finding the suitability ,or otherwise, of a potential part of his overall plan for his team & how they play, To wit,I have my own thoughts on Olger's overall performance &, until he leaves us ,I will continue to assess that performance in my own mind ,not in some public forum. Thanks again jb
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Qualifying campaign was brilliant during the first (3rd AFC) group stage which people seem to be forgetting, it is the second group stage we have run into issues as a generational shift has starts to intensify Plus the draw hasn't helped, of we had a few home games mixed in with those awkward ties the psychology of the matches would have been completely different if we had had a few home wins on the board early on and there wouldn't have been that sense of vulnerability Despite the general psychology of Japan having blitzed the qualification group and us having struggled, a win next Tuesday will see us finish on 13 points and just 2 behind Japan, who still didn't confirm qualification until their penultimate game when all said and done I have followed England over elongated qualification campaigns for a long time and I'm sure other people have followed other European countries as well, Australians by and large are new to this I can tell. Qualification campaigns and then playing in tournaments are two completely different things, people give Verbeek crap but he did a fine job, his only mistake was bottling it and changing formation int he Germany game, a different formation and a less sever loss can see us with a gd good enough to get through For me, older players can play at 2014 wc, I think the team we have been putting out the last two games is effectively the starting 11, except maybe lb but it is the 2015 Asian cup which is when we begin to bring the new generation through in e arrest, that way they have a year or two to et to grips and then hopefully gel well enough to qualify for 2018
Cameron
Roar Guru
I hope you're not associating tiki taka with Australia... That would be derogatory. In my opinion Australia and Japan are the two best teams in Asia. I expect us to always be preforming better and expecting to win. Would you place Denmark and Sweden as the top two teams in Europe?
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Tbf though he completely re-moulded some of those players, Lucas Neill for example, before Hiddink he was seen as a rash and thuggish fullback type in the mould of Tiatto for example, but he became a much more classy player post 2006, and Moyes was fascinated in the role he put Cahill in for the national team For me it has always been a bit of a toss up on whether the class of 2001 or the class of 2006 was better, a close call I think with the Italy game the subs were coming in et to take advantage of Italian tiredness
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Not at all. Just had 2 hours of social football ... scored 1 & set 1 up (no need for Robbie K!) I'm just stunned that any AUS football fan can ever make derogatory comments about how AUS should always win in Asia. It's never going to happen. Even strong European nations don't take every game for granted. On Wednesday morning, Denmark were beaten 0-4 ... at home by Armenia; Sweden struggled at home to beat the part-time footballers from the Faroe Islands. I'd love to see how GER, ENG, ESP would play if they had to travel 7000 kms to play away from home - in the oppressive dry desert heat of the Middle East, or the energy sapping humidity of SE Asia. I bet the high pressing & Tiki Taka wouldn't be sustained for 90'.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today Fuss? I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of international football...