When you are a parent there are some things you tell your kids: “Don’t give up. Stick it out. Fight it out to the end. You can do it.” All of that great advice we say to kids to help them achieve their goals, Ange Postecoglou did the opposite.
The result? It left us as a nation licking our wounds as we managed just one point out of nine in our group at the World Cup.
Postecoglou, when given the Australian coaching job in 2013, was asked to find Australia ‘a style’, a ‘playing philosophy’ as these modern journalists like to call it. An ‘identity’.
What Postecoglou did was find out what he thought the Australian way was, and to go with that. The Australian way is to ‘have a go’, so that’s exactly what he did.
None of the Pim van Beek ‘play it safe’ style of management, this was ‘let’s attack from the opening whistle’ style of football.
It drew its critics.
Ange didn’t have much time to prepare at the 2014 World Cup, and despite being in front on the scoreboard against the Dutch in the second game briefly, the tournament finished in a predictable three losses.
He followed it up with a win on home soil in the 2015 Asian Cup. Anything less would have been deemed a failure, but he passed.
He spoke on the ABC’s Australian Story later that year and said his dream was to win the World Cup. He was dreaming big.
By 2017, Australia had qualified.
It wasn’t easy, but by the time the Socceroos had played Honduras off the park twice in two matches, Ange had a decision to make.
Take the team to the World Cup, or call it quits?
The case against going was Ange was tired of it all. He was tired of the media pressure, in which some people ridiculously called for him to say what he was planning to do even before Australia had qualified for the World Cup.
It highlighted how poor football journalism actually is in Australia.
Ange was sick of the pressure and spotlight. He had given Australia a chance at the World Cup, and it was like him saying, ‘if you all think you can do it, then do it, and see how you go.’
(Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
If that’s what he was saying, then we found out the hard way.
The case for him staying and taking Australia to the World Cup was the old ‘parent to child’ talk. Don’t give up on your dream. Do your best to the very end. No matter what obstacles you face, you can get past them.
You know the ones we heard growing up (if it wasn’t your parents it was the parents from the Brady Bunch), and now the ones we give ourselves.
The ‘you can do it’ before your son goes off to do a maths test. ‘Just do your best’.
Ange gave up. He didn’t face the obstacles. He didn’t push through the hard times or chase his dream. He gave up on it all, and to be frank, let us all down.
Instead, we were left with a late ring in. Bert van Marwijk made the final of the 2010 World Cup, let’s try him.
He set us up well. Gave us a good structure with the right defenders and midfielders. When it came to the crunch, however, after we didn’t get close to scoring from open field against France, he just stuck to the same old same old.
And we got the same old.
We had a striker on the bench who came into the World Cup with eight goals in 15 matches for Hibernian FC.
He sat there and didn’t play a minute.
Instead of Jamie MacLaren, he gave us Tom Juric, ineffective in two matches as a substitute and again incapable as a starter against Peru.
Daniel Arzani had to start in the second and third matches but didn’t. Instead, van Marwijk opted for the big-hearted but less talented Robbie Kruse.
These were basic errors. Too basic to advance at a World Cup.
We needed an Australian who understood Australian football. Instead, we got a Dutchman who understood football well enough, but not us.
We needed someone who was willing to chase his dream. Someone whose head and heart was in it for this country. Someone who cared for the result and this nation.
Instead, we got someone who took a job for the summer.
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