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I couldn’t believe the press. All the doom and gloom from the pundits, and leading the charge, or at least getting the most headlines, is one of our own – Craig ‘Fozz’ Foster.
“Not the Australian way” he said about our performance earlier that morning. His sentiments echoed around the SBS team lamenting our defensive style, our unwillingness to press teams early, our lack of quality in the final third and most controversial – not starting Daniel Arzani and leaving Tim Cahill on the bench.
All fingers pointed at the coach.
Even worse was the commentary from non-football people like Liz Ellis, former Captain of the Netball Diamonds, who claimed that given the amount of funding that Football in Australia receives, the Australian public should expect, demand even, success at the World Cup.
Who can blame her? She comes from a team used to winning and, more to the point, filled with players with opportunities to play regularly against the best.
Now I’ve never played at international level, so I don’t have that lens, but I have been part of the game for over 40 years at all levels from playing to coaching and administrating, so I feel I’m entitled to a view.
I’ve seen the game go from an ethnically-based minority sport to one that in a single defining moment, was able to capture the nation’s imagination. Indeed, we have come a long way.
In the bloodbath that is the aftermath of our failure to progress at the World Cup, the naysayers hold court and threaten to take us backwards with calls for heads at headquarters and fundamental changes.
So, what are these changes everyone is calling for? A different philosophy?
We had Ange’s possession-based systems that were supposed to stamp our identity as an evolved footballing nation capable of winning the World Cup. Did it work?
I can just imagine what Daryl Kerrigan might have said to Ange. The fact of the matter is we almost didn’t qualify for Russia using this system and it still relied on the heroics of a veteran to get us over the line at the death knell.
In my opinion, and I’m sure that there will be lots of people that will argue the toss and that’s ok, had we have gone to Russia playing Ange’s possession-based style of play we would have been crunched. Against our Asian opponents it almost failed, imagine it trying to hold up against a higher tempo and better players. Don’t think so.
Bert van Marwijk was a godsend. In a small amount of time, he constructed a system that enabled us to compete and gain respect.
Respect? Who gives a rat’s proverbial about respect? you may ask. Liz Ellis might not, but other football nations around the world do.
I grew up in an era where the Australian national team played against domestic clubs from Europe, if they were lucky. No one gave a crap about us and we had to work long and hard to gain the respect of other footballing nations so that national teams now see the Socceroos as a valued opponent.
Had we have gone to Russia and been beaten 3-0 every game because we steadfastly believed in an ideology instead of results, then all that respect we had earned would have flown out the window.
Van Marwijk did an outstanding job in the time he had and with what he had to work with and he has enabled us to walk out of this tournament with our heads held high.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Australia. (SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
So, what of the future?
A lot of the commentary I am hearing is about legacy. More investment in youth, better coaches, more TV time, yadda yadda yadda. All the old chestnuts.
We’re not doing a lot wrong except for one crucial element – competition. There is no substitute for competition.
To be the best you have to play against the best, regularly. It will matter diddly squat long-term, at a senior men’s international level, if the FFA pours money into our junior structures as that is only one piece of the pie.
What will make the biggest difference is finding opportunities for our players, of all ages, to compete in higher quality leagues.
How do we do that? Australia’s NBL recently announced an agreement with the NBA for domestic clubs to play games against the world’s biggest basketball franchises. Melbourne will play the Philadelphia 76ers in September this year. Football needs to do the same.
Some of the biggest youth tournaments in the world happen in Europe – The Gothia Cup for e.g. attended by academy teams from all the European giants. Why not take an FFA-funded development squad over? The opportunities are endless.
The ‘Golden Generation’ that we all daydream about, did so well because most of them were playing in the ‘big five’ leagues in Europe.
Hard competition week in, week out. Our senior girls are well placed to seriously contend for World Cup honours because most play in strong competitions around the world when they’re not playing in the W-league.
It’s hard to argue with the Liz Ellises of the world, or most of the non-football media and non-football general public when they wonder why we bomb out at the biggest dance of all.
“Billions of people play football and in some countries, there are 26 million players wanting to play striker for their country not 26,000,” I want to shout.
“It’s not that easy to win a World Cup – only a few countries have managed it”. “It’s a great effort to just to qualify”.
“We are the Asian Champions”.
Do the Liz Ellises of the world care? Nope. Because they are used to Australian teams that dominate. Teams that play the best of the best on regular occasions. But let’s not turn on ourselves because the future can be bright.
So Fozz, et al, let’s cut all this doom and gloom stuff, our problem is not our footballing philosophy, our players, the FFA or Bert van Marwijk – it is our inability to provide opportunities to play against the best.
We can fix this. The opportunities are there. And if we take advantage of them, then we may see the ‘something different’ in the next World Cup that everyone is clamouring for.
In the meantime, to all the lads in Russia, including the coaching staff, heads up, and thanks.
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