My lasting memory of the Socceroos’ failed World Cup campaign last night was a smiling Tim Cahill and a rather sombre Daniel Arzani chatting on the sideline.
There was Cahill, the oldest and most successful goal-scoring Socceroo at 38, and the third oldest in the Russian showpiece, chewing the fat with the youngest Socceroo, and the youngest footballer at the World Cup, at 19.
The past linking with the future.
I wondered how Ron Lord viewed the campaign, and how the late great pair of Johnny Warren and Les Murray would have seen it.
Lord, now 88, was the first soccer footballer I ever read about in the paper, long before television.
Sharing the same name was the only reason that caught my eye, and the fact we very nearly shared the same birthday – Ron the 25th of July, born in 1929, and a decade later mine, on July 13.
Our paths never crossed, which was very different to Johnny Warren and Les Murray, where we became great mates over many beers, and many years.
Both tried to convert me when soccer was better known as wog ball, prompting Johnny to write his best-selling book Sheilas, Wogs, and Poofters in 2002.
Johnny showed me the cover before it went into print, and he asked me what I thought of the title.
My answer was simple – “Johnny, you’re the only one who could possibly get away with it”.
And, of course, he did – big time.
I well remember Johnny Warren was one of the very few soccer players in the country during the mid-60s an Australian could pronounce.
Those were very different days to now, and a lot of the credit has to go to Johnny Warren and Les Murray, two of the most dedicated and passionate supporters the round ball game has ever had, especially over those formative years.
But both would have been bitterly disappointed with the Socceroos showing in Russia, despite the enforced changes in coaching from a hard to understand Ange Postecoglou pulling the coat to an interim caretaker Bert van Marwijk, before Graeme Arnold takes over.
Arnold is a modern day version of Johnny Warren, and Les Murray.
Goals are the currency of the trio, and that’s where these Socceroos lost out.
They shared 22 attempts in the three Group C games against France, Denmark, and Peru but could only come up with two penalties from the skipper Mile Jedinak.
Yet Tim Cahill, the Socceroos’ most prolific goal-scorer in his history with 50 – 21 more than the next best – played only the final 40 minutes last night against Peru and spent 225 minutes warming the bench in the three games.
The exciting Arzani spent a bit more time in the middle, but not nearly enough as he didn’t seem to slot in with van Marwijk’s plans.
Yet those plans didn’t work with the Socceroos filling last spot in the Group.
Warren and Murray would not have been impressed, van Marwijk’s way was not the Warren-Murray way.
One last memory of Johnny Warren.
He came into The Oaks at Neutral Bay, gave me and my son Andrew a big hug without a word, and died later that night.
Both are no longer with us, and a large slice of me died with them.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Firstly what a great article David Lord. Secondly, I think you miss the point 'Kangas' of what David Lord is saying, that in the 50's and 60's multicultural names were very hard for Anglo-Saxons Aussies to pronounce e.g. besides Smith, Warren etc. etc I fully agree with David in regards to J. Warren and L. Murry, they would have strongly disagreed with how the Socceroos played and tackled this WC 2018 especially the part that Tim Cahill played. And also, what 'Adam' said above is very true 'What a lot of football fans (all four codes) forget is that people can be passionate and follow more than one of the codes' that is so true because, if we all teach each other, then and maybe then our passion of every sport will improve the breed and each code can learn from each other and adapt some skills. Just a thought?
rajiv
Guest
Surely all this happened well past your bedtime
Bondy
Guest
Amazing story about The Oaks to Lordy , nice memories there ...
Kangas
Roar Rookie
M q Commiserations for Germany mate Big surprise they got knocked out
Matt
Guest
"Not trying a plan for a couple of years then throwing it out the window and trying something different." What do you suggest they should have done when Ange walked out on them. It wasn't the FFA telling Ange to get on his bike it was Ange deciding his best option was to up and leave the national team months before the World Cup. The only available coach at the time who fits Ange's philosophy is Beisla (well actually Ange fits Biesla's philosophy) who wanted $3-7 million dollars salary to take up the role (depending on who you are sourcing from). Thats between 25%-50% of the World Cup prize money gone out of the country with no guarantee he would have performed any better than BVM considering our lack of attacking quality or wing backs which are integral to his style of play. The logical option would have been Arnie (fitting in somewhere between Ange and BVM with a more defensive approach than Ange and a more attacking approach than BVM) who didn't want to take Ange's squad to the WC after the 2007 AC fiasco and being forced to take Guus' squad by the FFA at the time. BVM, a World Cup finalist as a coach, not only showed interest in the job, but paid extra staff out of his own pocket, his philosophy best fit the available players we had and we saw the team put in 3 brilliant performances out of the last 5 games working within a solid system. I mean the fact Matt Ryan made more saves in Bangkok against Thailand than he had to over the last 5 games doesn't show you how defensively frail we are without a proper structure in place? It doesn't tell you why currently Bielsa/Ange's system doesn't work for us? Regarding player development the fact is, no matter what we do, Australian players aren't going to reach the same skill levels as European or South American nations in the next 20-40 years because we have only had a fully professional league for 13 years. We don't have the youth development pathways still and never have hence why the player drain on the NSL was so much worse. Another part of the reason we had the Golden Generation develop how it did was because the semi-professional nature of our sport and previous laws of FIFA allowed players to leave at a younger age (<18 years old) and go into these overseas systems and receive coaching they can't get in Australia. Even something as basic as the competition from other players, once the Golden Generation got overseas, they were no longer head and shoulders above their teammates. Arzani for example stood out all through his youth in NSW (I remember seeing him playing Futsal when he was 14/15 for NSW and he just strolled around the pitch he was so much better than anyone else) and it's impossible for the lad to not see how much better he is than anyone else and no matter how motivated you are that isn't going to help you reach your peak faster, competition for your spot will. Imagine for example if you go and drop Arzani in PSV's youth system 3 years ago with the coaching standard at PSV and the competition with someone like Nouri.
Conan
Guest
This comment has been removed for breaching The Roar's comments policy.
punter
Guest
JohnB, My apologies, yes you are correct Australia came 5th that year & missed the semi finals in a 9 country world cup finals. Italy the 2006 world champions missed the whole world cup & Germany, 2014 champion, knocked out in 1st round, just showing how difficult it is to compete, so my point being the condescending way the author dismissed Australia's performance in the world cup. Sorry I upset you JohnB.
MQ
Guest
It took 132 years for someone to defeat the US in the America's Cup. Let us at least wait 132 years before we decide whether the FIFA World Cup is harder to win than the America's Cup.
Who?
Guest
So people who watch football and who have listened to JW and LM for decades can’t question an article now? Les and Johnny would be absolutely ecstatic at the viewing numbers, media attention and effort put in by the Socceroos this World Cup, can you honestly argue that point? What makes Mike or David’s opinions on JW and LM infallible all of a sudden?
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Geoff Soccer is not everyone Valhalla, but we love it .
anon
Roar Pro
Arnold will be a failure. We should be going out getting the best coach available in the WORLD. Coaches that have cut their teeth in the best leagues in the world, not a coach plodding along in the A-League. I think the Socceroos did well. This is a team on paper that's far inferior to the 2006 side. On another day we beat Denmark and draw with France. As well as we played against Denmark, we were lucky not to give away a penalty and Denmark had chances in front of goal that they didn't convert as well. Plus we didn't score in open play. Now is not the time to throw the baby out with the bath water. I think we'd have easily finished at the top of our Asian group under Bert and would have never been in danger of not qualifying. Losing a ODI series 5-0 to England. Now that's a failure when you consider Australia's standing in cricket. Australia not winning a Bledisloe series in about 15 years when you consider Australia's past successes in Rugby. Now that's a team that's a failure. Socceroos are soccer minnows that were struggling in their Asian conference. Commendable effort the World Cup was.
lesterlike
Guest
No Lord we made it very clear that we don't need or want your opinion on Football after your previous appalling efforts.
Geoff Dustby
Guest
great to see nemesis and his militants having problems with everything. keep up the good fight
Seriously Mike?
Guest
Nice work avoiding the point Mike. It is very nice he was friends with Les and Johnny, why does that excuse his uneducated view point? Why not ask him, as a football journalist, why he doesn’t think they would be happy with the main stream media attention for the game and great TV ratings as well as Optus’ own goal on streaming giving SBS the tournament back because it has been so popular? You know they would be delighted with the game now versus the game in 2013, yes they would want to see Australia attacking and making the next round but as balanced football men (unlike certain SBS lead analysts now) they would recognise the achievement of not embarrassing ourselves after Ange’s last 6 months in charge and scrapping past Syria by a goal post.
Lionheart
Guest
and that's good for you, but open your eyes and count the numbers then include the numbers who didn't make it to the final in Russia
DLKN
Guest
I'm completely over the whole "my code / world cup / national league is better than yours" stuff. It's just so tedious, and highly subjective anyway. I've been extremely lucky to attend world cups in football, cricket and both rugby codes. And they've all been bloody marvelous events, without exception. And that's good enough for me.
Lionheart
Guest
Thanks David, for your personal insight into Johnny Warren. I think you need to watch more soccer if you think Graham Arnold is going to bring an attacking style to our national team. I hope he does, but his record at Sydney FC puts him more in the Bert Van Marwick school of pragmatism on my observation.
Lionheart
Guest
But it is way better John B. No other code can match what The World Cup brings to the world. The other codes world cups don't even get close.
Lionheart
Guest
Nicely written Chris Kettlewell, thanks. It's at times like these that we fans should stand up and demand what you have written, of the FFA. It's times like this that those words you have written would be quite appropriate if they were front page on our leading newspapers and TV stations, all of them, and raised in parliament by our Minister for Sports.
AGO74
Guest
I enjoyed the opening parts of this piece as David related his own experiences with Johnny and les and was touched by the closing paragraph. Sorry for your loss David. The rest was a rather generalised assessment of where Australia went wrong and what they should do better from a non-fan of the game that doesn’t take into account a wide number of things. That may sound like a soccer snob talking - but it would be the same if I was to write or comment on with sweeping generalisations about rugby or AFL in an article on those sports of which I really don’t have a deep knowledge.