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.
Rob Tripodi
Guest
Well said! It’s sad when the diatribe begins and we seek answers for questions that are not easily solved. We are a minnow in world football and before we seek to win the greatest trophy of all we need to be realistic about how and when it is achievable. Slow down Australia, hold your heads up high, you made us proud. In regard to playing against the best, absolutely, in Australia we take talented boys and play them against older boys, often men, this does not produce talent it produces boys who change their natural game to play against a physically stronger opponent, their creativity, risk, disruptive nature goes away and they become two touch robots who get rid of the ball quickly so not to be overrun by physicality. We wonder why we don’t create cutting edge players! How do we solve this, in my view simple, reestablish the centre of excellence, take the best 26 players each year at 16/17 we have and established a permanent playing/training base in Europe, yeah I can all hear you say that will cost a heap, yes it will however it is achievable, corporate Australia will fund it, just get the right people on board.
apaway
Roar Guru
JamesH How so? We conceded 5 goals in 3 games in 2018 with a supposedly far more defensive set-up. In 2014, we drew the reigning champions, the reigning runners-up and the Copa America champions. In many ways, AP had the same lead-in time for 2014 as BVM did for 2018 but a much tougher group. I think to be honest the issue we have is managing our own expectations. there was much talk of us getting out of the group this time around whereas no one expected much in 2014. In no way does this make BVM a bad coach but I do think some of his tactics are open to question.
apaway
Roar Guru
No, we didn't.
bob
Roar Rookie
Losing 'admirably'. What a joke! Like I said, Im obviously in the minority, but look at the opposition we had in 2014.I remember the worried look on Van Gaal's face after he realized we weren't afraid of them. We only started playing more offensively and created more chances after we conceded against France and Denmark.Who knows what could have happened if we actually started those games with an attacking mindset.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
Who put us in this position for Russia 2018, the FFA or Yokohama Ange?
Midfielder
Guest
The Optus team was, John Aloisi, Tony Popovic, Brett Emerton, Paul Okon, Shane Smeltz, Luke Wilkshire, Alex Wilkinson, Tony Vidmar, Amy Harrison and Sasa Ognenovski..... They provided a range of views and a balanced overall outlook. When Les ran the coverage it was the same ... tis IMO a real shame when one persons views are the only ones heard and they are made in a combination of anger, frustration and are condescending of other views.
JamesH
Roar Guru
We conceded 9 goals in 2014. 3 goals per match. Our gameplan required more talent than we actually had. Bert recognised our limitations and did an admirable job on short notice to make us competitive.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I don't mind Foz when he's talking about anything other than Australia. As soon as the national side comes into the conversation he loses all rationality.
anon
Roar Pro
We performed much better under a caretaker coach against top 15 sides in the world than we did under Ange against Asian minnows.
bob
Roar Rookie
What exactly did Van Marwijk do? Nothing. I know I'm in the minority but I preferred the way we played in 2014.
Redondo
Guest
Foz desperately lacks a balancing opinion on SBS.
Redondo
Guest
Great article Joe and excellent comment MQ.
Brendan DUYVESTYN
Guest
Thx Joey ... Good read I don't believe the Sydney mafia gave Ange support for long enough ... they were waiting for any excuse to pull the pin I would have liked to see how a starting Arzani and improving Lecke might have been able to influence more with Ange still at the helm ... who knows ... I don't think Bert did any better than Ange would have ...and to do so we sent bucket loads of cash offshore. To the future ... tick to more competition ... buy in to European club academies?? That worked for our cyclists. Tick to expanded A league and promotion relegation... Think you went a bit hard on Liz ...shes entitled to an offsiders opinion .. nothing more nothing less. Foz on the other hand goes into goes into henny penny mode every time we hit any speed bump ... hope he's first to hit the wall when the revolution comes!!! Good thought provoking discussion tho ... bring on the Asia cup!!
Midfielder
Guest
Great article and our media are becoming sadly one dimensional. Craig Foster in particular can't go three sentences without dragging in his opinion of what works best ... no matter what he is talking about or what team... Its actually good to have people like Craig around ... its not good to have them as almost the sole spokesperson...
anon
Roar Pro
Not the Australian way is choking away a World Cup appearance by drawing with Iran after going up 2-0. At home in front of a fanatical MCG crowd no less. This 2018 Socceroos side is vastly inferior talent-wise to Foster's team in 1997, but at least this side appeared at the World Cup. Foster's side didn't have the bottle in 1997. He'll forever be associated with the biggest choke (ie. biggest failure) in Australia's soccer (possibly sporting) history. How can he talk about Australia not being brave against Denmark and taking the game by the scruff of the neck when his side played like cowards in 1997.
BigAl
Guest
. . . even more importantly Australia should be in the space race, or at least develop a space industry culture !
Joe Novella
Roar Rookie
Thanks JamesH for the read and comment.
Joe Novella
Roar Rookie
True Lionheart, an expanded A-league will provide more opportunities for young kids to play at the highest level. Right now they are being choked out by players being brought in from o/s or traded from one club to another.
Joe Novella
Roar Rookie
Yeah MQ, the Mexico example is a great one. Thanks for the comment.
MQ
Guest
This is one of the better responses I've read with a real, practical and achievable solution: more competition. I think that's a more than reasonable idea. I believe Mexico may have ended up with a growth spurt in quality when they started playing more games against their bigger Latin American neighbours to the South. It's debateable whether we have anything similar in the region, which leads me to another thought: football culture. The team which embarrassed us in our last group game, a team which had nothing to play for, a team which had not been in the World cup for 36 years, has two clear advantages over us: 1. it regularly gets the sort of high level competition the author speaks of, because of the confederation it is in; and just as importantly, 2. it is a country (and region) imbued in football culture (and we are not a country or region imbued in football culture. What this last point means is that you can put forward all the suggestions you want, but it counts for nothing until we too are imbued in football culture to the same extent. What does that mean exactly? Well, we will know we are part way there when dads, mums, uncles and aunties are suffocating the family with football, where nothing else matters other than football, and where parents don't think it's enough to drop littly johnny off at a half hour training session each week, thinking the job starts and ends there (while they go back home to watch the NRL match of the day).