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Winning is everything, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Just ask Holger Osieck. This time last month he was a dead man walking.
The Socceroos had gone rotten on his watch, Brazil was starting to look iffy, and it was all his fault.
The knives were out. The detractors were everywhere. Osieck’s stubborn faith in the ‘golden generation’ and his refusal to start any player without a zimmer frame had put Australian football in supposed developmental jeopardy.
If we didn’t qualify, he was gone. But we did, and he isn’t.
With a roll of the dice, a nod to the bench and a little bit of love from the football gods, Osieck played the field on Tuesday night and was rewarded with a career-saving victory.
Josh Kennedy’s goal altered the wider perception of the Socceroos coach in an instant. The German went from dour conservative to national darling and honorary Aussie.
It was exactly the kind of win he needed as well, given how so much of the criticism he has earned has been centred around tactical matters and player selection.
These were his substitutions, his plans. It was Osieck who had the gall to take off serial saviour Tim Cahill and try something new when we needed a breakthrough – and just as he would have worn the scorn if we didn’t qualify, he deserves to bask in the glory.
It was through his guidance that the same team that was shamed by Oman came back out with structure, purpose and discipline.
Osieck has earned some much-needed credibility and for the next 12 months, a little bit of breathing space.
He deserves it, though it certainly doesn’t wash away his faults.
While he might like to claim the success came from the same methods he’s been applying this whole time, there is no doubt over the past month that he has seen the error in his ways.
Could anyone honestly have predicted one month ago that if Australia was 0-0 with Iraq with 30 minutes to go in a must-win match for World Cup qualification, that the first substitute Osieck would have looked to was Tom Rogic?
No. That speaks for itself. As much as it seemed as if Osieck always had his fingers in his ears at the very suggestion of playing the kids, the Socceroos have regenerated.
Was it borne out of necessity? Doesn’t matter.
Robbie Kruse, Tommy Oar and Mark Milligan are now established starters with positions that are theirs to lose.
Rogic, the most prized of the new litter, has progressed from rough diamond to Holger’s first guy on the bench.
Just being in Brazil will make these four better footballers, and it will be these names who will become the new leaders for the post-2014 era.
This World Cup was always going to be as much about starting long international careers for the next generation as about sending off the veterans who got us there.
That’s right – they got us there. For a while it didn’t look like they could.
But Lucas Neill could roll out a humble pie restaurant franchise right now and make a killing. Just like Holger.
If it wasn’t for the skipper’s leadership and nerves of steel at the back, Australia’s massive June might not have had such a happy ending.
His partner, Sasa Ognenovski, was also outstanding, and did with this month what he has generally done with every challenge that has presented itself in his career. He killed it.
And the classy, evergreen Mark Bresciano re-entered the ‘who is Australia’s greatest ever footballer?’ conversation with three stunning shackle-free games in midfield.
Yes, they’re all going to need pacemakers by the time we get to Rio.
But if Osieck’s brass balls decision to take off Cahill wasn’t just a one-off, then he might have it in him to make the hard calls when it comes to picking a World Cup squad.
There is no use predicting what that squad will look like. A year is an eternity in football terms.
Anything could happen – injuries, transfers good and bad, form peaks and troughs, management changes. Retirement, maybe.
And inevitably, there will always be at least one player who comes from the clouds and storms onto the teamsheet.
There is plenty of time to iron out the creases ahead. But before the high wears off, credit where credit is due. Holger, you did it. Bravo.
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