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November 16, 2005 is often regarded as the beginning of the golden era of football in Australia.
I’d prefer to think of it as the end of an era – the era where glorious and improbable defeat was enough, where the story of the Socceroos got more tragic with every vain attempt to make it to the big stage.
January 31, 2015, feels a lot more like the start of an era.
Both those famous games were played at the stadium built for the biggest event Sydney has ever held, but which keeps adding to this Socceroos history which ebbs and flows like a Christmas tide. And the tide came in for the Socceroos last Saturday night.
The Asian Cup final was an extraordinary night. To be there live, to witness the cut and thrust from a seat which should have come with its own Sherpa it was so high, to hear the noise of the crowd, the various voices of the committed, the curious and the passionate, was unforgettable.
A tournament labelled by Eddie McGuire – the man who ran Channel Nine into the ground – as a lemon, produced some great football but the final was a game for the ages, a match that built with every passing minute to become a classic confrontation.
I had just mentioned to my partner in Socceroos fervour that the team would do well to make it to half time at 0-0, such was the late attacking waves of the South Koreans, when Massimo Luongo, turned, shrugged off a defender and rifled a shot low into the net. The game had turned on an instant of brilliance.
The 91st minute equaliser from the South Koreans was like having your heart dug out with a spoon. Fans with the worry lines of past Socceroos matches etched on their face called up those awful memories of Sydney 1989 versus Israel, Melbourne 1997 versus Iran and Kaiserslautern 2006 versus Italy, to name a few. ‘So close’ seemed to be the whispered lament.
But a team who had made three forced changes due to injury were not about to add to eras of days gone by. They were forging new history and when Tomi Juric, plying his trade in our own domestic league when not so long ago that was seen as counter-intuitive to being a Socceroo, survived two fouls to twist and turn in zero space and whip the ball across the penalty area, where the Korean keeper’s desperate glove could only deflect it to the path of another super sub James Troisi.
The eruption from the packed house when Troisi’s shot bulged the net could literally be heard suburbs away (I’ve had that confirmed from friends watching at a barbecue in Newington).
What followed next were 15 agonising minutes which didn’t so much vindicate the Socceroos as define them. They continued to keep possession, rallying defensively, not falling into the trap of lumping it and waiting for the next wave of red-shirted attacks. They worked wide and then inside again and it was only in the very final stages that the South Koreans, who were superb in their own right, fashioned a clear chance which was magnificently blocked by man of the match Trent Sainsbury.
The final whistle signalled the thousandth life lived, as sweet a sound as you could imagine.
There are many people within the Socceroos who deservedly received plaudits for their outstanding contribution to the Asian Cup triumph. Luongo, Tim Cahill, Sainsbury and Mat Ryan were all outstanding within the squad. But spare a thought for a few unsung heroes, both in and around the team. Like Eugene Galekovic, ostensibly the number three choice goalkeeper, who would have been itching to get on the park while knowing that if he did, something would have gone seriously wrong.
How about Luke Casserly, the FFA head of high performance who got his job two days before the second of the Socceroos’ consecutive 6-0 losses, possibly the best example of low performance in recent history. One of those charged with picking Ange Postecoglou with the top job and sticking with him, no doubt Luke’s first months were a baptism of fire.
Which brings us to the man himself. The Asian Cup win is as great a vindication of Ange Postecoglou’s coaching credentials as anything he has done in a wonderful club coaching career. When the football community were watching with dismay as the Socceroos’ ranking plummeted, and the results didn’t come, Postecoglou asked to be judged by the Asian Cup.
That was his focus, coming out of a World Cup that didn’t look good statistically but produced moments of magic and portents of good times ahead, even if most of them came from the one guy who didn’t fit Ange’s youth philosophy. He got it absolutely right and watching the Socceroos mentor urge the crowd on after the cup had been won was as magic as Luongo’s goal.
Let’s live another thousand lives with Ange’s Socceroos.
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