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With our cricket team in disgrace, now seems like as good a time as any to ask what sort of national team we’d like the Socceroos to be.
Whichever way you cut it, the Socceroos’ 4-1 defeat at the hands of Norway in freezing Oslo made for difficult viewing.
Jackson Irvine’s thumping header was about the only thing that went right on a night when plenty went wrong, as the pace and trickery of Mohamed Elyounoussi and the deft finishing of hat-trick scorer Ola Kamara proved Australia’s undoing.
And while it’s obviously too early to question Bert van Marwijk’s methods, it was a sobering reminder that at international level, individual mistakes can cost dearly.
Individual errors have been a recurring concern for the Socceroos throughout this World Cup cycle, and the Aussies risk being torn apart by not only the likes of France, but also a resurgent Peru and a clinical Denmark in three months’ time.
The threat of Kylian Mbpappe, Andre Carrillo and Christian Eriksen should be giving van Marwijk nightmares, and the Dutchman faces a race against time to try and mould the Socceroos into some sort of functioning defensive unit.
It’s not like this is a new problem – the same defensive fragility plagued Ange Postecoglou’s final 12 months in charge of the national team, and perhaps the new Yokohama F. Marinos coach didn’t fancy the risk of taking an underperforming defence into the cauldron of World Cup football.
Whatever the permutations, van Marwijk needs to find a way to cut out the defensive errors – and fast – lest the Socceroos cop three successive maulings in Russia.
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
He’s already claimed he’s desperate for Trent Sainsbury and Matt Jurman to return to the fold, but the reality is that neither of the pair have been flawless for the Socceroos in the recent past either.
It’s a stark reminder that for all Australia’s tendency to punch above its weight in the international arena, a lack of truly world-class talent could spell trouble for the Socceroos on the biggest stage of all.
And it begs the question of what we’d like our national team to be.
Postecoglou was determined to transform the Socceroos from plucky underdogs into a genuine international force, yet the reality is that for all his attacking bravado – and it shouldn’t be forgotten that Australia played some exhilarating football in Brazil in 2014 – he never found a way to stop the leaking of goals.
Now van Marwijk will invariably play a much more defensively-minded style of football – as his 4-2-3-1 formation attests – but it’s not much good to anyone if the Socceroos continue to concede goals due to sloppy errors and lose anyway.
And for all his undoubted football nous, there’s a danger van Marwijk could pull a Pim Verbeek on us and employ an ultra-defensive style in Russia as a form of damage limitation.
He was already said to have been nonplussed about having to play Norway and Wednesday morning’s upcoming clash with Colombia at Craven Cottage, and for a federation that has never bothered to respect international breaks, perhaps the five A-League games over the weekend weren’t the worst distraction to have.
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Sydney FC, Adelaide United and Melbourne City were the obvious big winners – although the Sky Blues were patchy at best in collecting a last-minute 2-1 win over the Central Coast Mariners.
And Brisbane Roar missed a golden opportunity to leapfrog Western Sydney Wanderers into the top six, following yesterday’s entertaining 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix.
Even Perth Glory are not mathematically out of the equation following their 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory last night, with the race for a finals place going down to the wire.
It’s exactly what Football Federation Australia would have wanted.
There’s no telling what kind of Socceroos team they want though.
From Postecoglou’s all-out attacking ethos to the defensive-minded van Marwijk, Australia’s national football philosophy remains all over the shop.