If there is one thing that the Socceroos are good at, it is that they are much funnier and comical than the best of clowns.
Australia are a massive joke in football and this tournament has undressed all their flaws. This team was talked up as brave performers in the World Cup by the Australian public but any football fan with some interest would realise the hard reality of them being a mediocre side in all aspects, most profoundly in technical ability.
The writing was on the wall and their performances in this tournament was one where it was not worthy of defending their title.
Milos Degenek had a massive brain fade but the whole team is no less incompetent dishing out the usual formula of being clueless in possession and impotent on the attack, rinse and repeat. Its all too easy to insist that the Arab teams sat deep and were rigid defenders, yet the Socceroos played a huge part with sloppy touches and poor decision making in passes biding their opponents to set themselves up and hold their ground.
They had no answers to solid defences and it didn’t help that there was no one to look to for creativity in the absence of Tom Rogic.
Excuses that can be made about players like Aaron Mooy and Daniel Arzani not being available are a cop-out which detracts attention from the poor squad depth and quality, and whatever difference they would’ve made would be inconsequential. Mooy was nowhere to be seen at the World Cup and Arzani only has the support of World Cup bandwagoners pumping his tyres up.
Basically, they are all of the same rubbish ilk.
Graham Arnold has made some questionable decisions, but the blame can hardly be centred on him when these are the same clowns that played for Postecoglou. Not even Bert Van Marvijk with his experience of managing at a World Cup final could do much.
Arnold can only do well with the cattle he has got. The crop that were on the field last night were the same lot that barely scraped through to the World Cup.
(Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
Thirteen years on since their move to Asia from Oceania and qualifying for the World Cup in 32 years, what was thought that Australia could be a force in football at the time. Now, however, the nation is heading towards a steep decline to the bottom. Hardly a breeding ground to produce skilled players, the A-League offers nothing but crash bang football played by headless chickens.
As seen time and time again, the quality of the competition is badly exposed in the Asian Champions League, regularly exiting from the group stages on the back of embarrassing defeats.
The signs could not have been more apparent where the majority of our local players that become stars domestically and make a move to Europe end up being back home in Australia in no time. If anything, the bulk of the Socceroos can barely get a start for their own club.
The returns for the national team inevitably becomes scarce producing forgettable games in 2018 World Cup qualifiers against smaller nations such as Thailand and Syria. Had it not been for the wise heads of Tim Cahill Mile and Jedinak there would rightly be a post-mortem on Australia failure to qualify.
In retrospect, it probably would have been much better if we hadn’t qualified at all. Most, if not all, of the criticism then weighed on Postecoglou’s shoulders when it might have been the case that his tactics were too good for the players rather than him failing to manage. Since his sacking, the narrative has changed from under-performers to improving underdogs in the lead up to and post World Cup.
(Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
Any deficiencies that plagued the playing squad have completely subsided as long as they are in a World Cup with a new coach. The opinion of the Australian sporting public is one of false hope and utter delusion and the footballing body have relished it and have become comfortable in their complacency.
A big misconception surrounding the footballing circles is that AFL, rugby league and cricket have some sort of hegemony over the sport talent poo,l yet football remains the number one most participated in sport in the country and it’s most likely that rates will climb up and up.
Yet for all their participation dominance across the nation, the glaring issue is that talented and skilful players come few and far in between. Much of the media barrage that was wrongly concentrated towards Postecoglou could have been directed towards the way in which footballers are developed from a young age such as focusing on ball work or physicality, the philosophy of the coaches and the pathways towards higher levels of training.
Unfortunately, Australians seem to have a strange mentality that physicality means everything in sport. It is regarded that midgets who become rising stars for being infinitely skilled and carry more game smarts will never make it to the top level simply because he is a midget.
As a consequence, the bulk of Australian football players are a product of this mind-numbing school of thought that still remains instilled in youth development.
This is in contrast to the methods which almost every football playing nation uses, utilised greatly by fellow Asian rivals and European teams where ball work always comes first and foremost for kids. Australia has a completely upside down mentality which can leave them only further behind the rest of the world.
South Korea were also a disappointment in the competition, but at least they’ve got a quality national team with rising stars and a domestic league providing talented individuals adding a boost for the long run. Australia has neither of those, but the slight positive out of this game is that this performance might just bell the cat for issues that deeper beyond the coach and selection of players.
Otherwise, qualifying for 2022 might be a bridge too far now that Cahill and Jedinak are no longer there to babysit them.
anon
Roar Pro
We need a northern European coach for the Socceroos. We've only ever looked good with a northern European coach. Graham Arnold is going to cost us making the 2022 World Cup.
anon
Roar Pro
Jedinak was part of the problem. Timmy got us to the World Cup single-handedly. One of the best Aussie athletes ever.
Will
Guest
Denmark and Peru were 'tough' really? The fact we could not score from open play as well? Where are going? Jeez how our standards have fallen in this country.
Kane Essey
Guest
Their are lots of Africans in Australia that play. But their are not as good as africans in europe and south america.Cause the coaching is not at the same standard as in those countries.
Barca4life
Guest
Based on the curriculum the first gen to go through the whole thing are the 2002 and 2003 kids, they would have been 6 or 7 when it got rolled out, the current joeys have a few but the next group who are u13 and u14 in that group will probably be more effective. But they are a fair way off we wont see them at senior level for the next 8 to 10 years at least, by the time the Socceroos team would have a new generation of players who would be the around 18 to 22 years old, how would be look like after that we won't know but the signs are not great. What the FFA need to do is create a better player environment for those u13 u14 curriculum generation that would be better exposed to better levels and better equipped for senior level sooner rather than later which is happening right now. Otherwise, we will continue to waste more talented players if the environment isnt sufficient enough and we would be asking the same questions again in 10 years time. I would incentivize youth development as NPL level with compensation fees and more consistent coaching, professionalize more academies at a-league level, aim for year round football from u12 and above, create a proper youth league and youth season like the old days where the u17s and u20s are playing 45 games per year from NPL and youth league level. And or course a national 2nd division and more professional teams to feed into as many players as possible, this of all course takes a vision and long term development which is lacking at FFA HQ.
Simoc
Guest
I like your writing style. I guess we like trying to build up how good we are but in reality the class isn't there. The A league games I've watched on TV are good especially featuring Melbourne Victory. But watching Manchester City play and then most EPL and Euro games make better viewing because of the speed and skill class of the players. The quality can best be judged in the dollar value of players in the football market place. So Australia played ok against France at the World Cup but one of their players market value might be as much as the entire Australian squad. The big deal for FFA is qualifying for the World Cup and being on the World stage. And that is where we are at and it is not likely to change at all in the next 50 years.
jbinnie
Guest
SP - You mention an inescapable fact in your comment and that is to question the effectiveness of our so called Grand Saviour,the hugely costly National Curriculum. Both the people who produced this document have long gone from our coaching bodies ,leaving their ideas in the hands of men ham-strung by the vastness of our participation numbers , not to mention the vastness between our footballing centres. I too have questioned as to why some people refer to the outcome of the NC will not show for a number of years due to the fact that in 2009 a 6-8 year old junior today would only be 15-17. Have we to take it that in 2009 the only "juniors" to be allowed to participate in the NC were 6-8 year old? My question to that is, what happened to the "juniors" who were aged 8 to 13 in 2009, did they have no exposure to the magic of the NC. ? These people would have us believe they did not get exposed. I say ,if not why not? You also mention kids losing interest. A few years ago I attended an Under 15 school game and finally asked an obvious fullback (across the touchline) why he stood at the centre line when his team was into an advanced attack position. Imagine my surprise when he answered me by telling me that his coach had told him that as a left back he did not under any circumstance venture into the opponent's half of the field. This was from a reasonably intelligent 15 year old player. Later on I approached the coach, a school teacher, and asked him from where he had gained his certification. Again imagine my surprise when I was told " off the internet". If this is going on around the country I am not surprised kids lose interest. Cheers jb.
Neil
Roar Rookie
Post Office Marine. I was in the stadium in 1997 against Iran. So I am so over this end of the world shit.
Stu
Roar Rookie
Though the Author's clearly cranky about our poor result, I don't think the subject matter he raises is off the mark at all. Simple basic analysis of the game even, leads to an irrefutable point that almost all these players exhibit a skill level that somewhere along the line took a major diversion away from acquiring the basics at a young age of mastering the use of both feet, mastering first touch, instep control rather than what they're all doing these days - this ridiculous outside of the foot first touch.. the list goes on. There are basic footballing skill sets (for those that know what to look for) that are mandatory for global excellence, and there isn't one Socceroo that exhibits them. Obvious eg.. look at Lionel Messi and how he can weave under pressure through the world's best defenders at full speed whilst controlling the ball with every spot on either foot, dextrously either way. That's the physical, and he almost never loses the ball while doing it. Admire his mental side too, when he knows when and where to enact a run to put the best players under immense, sudden pressure - our guys don't even make penetrating runs. It's not a fluke he humiliates all opposition players in every Euro game he plays.. Try to find even one of those isolated skills in one Aus player. They are nowhere to be seen. No fluke - just no culture here to develop immense skill sets. Based on our current real skill sets, we got the result we should have got from this tournament. Though the lads do their best, and perhaps the current curriculum is developing world-class players at the moment, being bundled out early of an average quality Asian tournament is exactly where our current curriculum places us. If not for the luck of a penalty shootout, they'd have been out even earlier.
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
You're right. What I was meaning to say was that the lower ranked Asian sides who Australia regularly face and are blindly expected to breeze over are catching up. Yes, we've always have had mixed results, but these days the preparation is better and the opponents are better known. The excuses for poor results are gone.
Admiral Ackbar
Guest
Too right Kangas. The kids that "are" fanatical enough to make it in top level sports in Oz tend to be of immigrant or lower social class backgrounds. They have to become football stars to get out of the ghetto. Most of the best young players in Oz are of African extraction, eg Awer Mabil, Kwame Yeboah, Thomas Deng etc
stu
Guest
The inference there is that the world is catching up on Australia?? Definately not an accurate assumption.
Matt H
Roar Guru
So in summary, you are taking this loss pretty well then.
AGO74
Guest
Granted 2007 was a failure but I think he’s referring to the 2006-2011 period when we: *qualified for 2nd round of World Cup being eliminated by eventual winner *qualified for 2010 World Cup easily and didn’t lose a competitive match in the process; *didnt qualify for 2nd round of World Cup but still beat Serbia and drew Ghana along the way; and *made 2011 Asian cup final and lost a thriller to japan. Take out the 2007 Asian Cup when you had an ill-prepared coach and a squad filled with hubris I’d say that period I note above is a fairly successful team over a 5 year period. At different times they also played some very good football too.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Can't say that I agree with much the article says. Far too many conclusions and sweeping emotive statements without supporting facts or evidence. It's barely an examination of Australian football but sure, you can't avoid the bottom line; we all hoped we'd go better at the Asia Cup, to the semis seemed a common expectation. Do we need wholesale changes? I'd have thought the coach needs a bit more time than the one major tournament. It's still four years to the next World Cup - plenty of time for Arnie to prove or otherwise his worth yet.
Richard
Guest
The general decline in Australian sport is apparent across the board. It must represent a widespread cultural malaise that rewards mediocrity and kids itself that ‘standards’ are somehow unfair and discriminatory. This article itself illustrates such a trend in suggesting that there are more than one Australias. That is, ‘Australua’ Is but one and grammatically, it’s a collective noun that takes a singular verb. Accordingly, ‘Australia are...’ is an ugly travesty indicating ignorance of the language that, alas, afflicts the entire media industry. The general decline of primary school teaching standards might explain such vulgarities?
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Summary of my yet to be published comment; - only a person with a very low football IQ would claim we are a laughing stock, or clowns - apparently Mooy, voted in the top 5 players outside the "top 6" EPL teams is "of the same ilk" as the rest of the "clowns"? - Arzani's talent lies in our imaginations - it wasn't Angie's fault he chose a system and tactics unsuited to the players he had available. It was the players for not being good enough. Heaven forbid a good manager would choose tactics based on players he had!! - A-league is "bash and crash". This comment shows the...ahem... "author" either doesn't watch the league, it doesn't understand football - claims development programmes are focusing on physicality not skill - claims the "Australian sporting public" think the NT are a joke. On the basis of watching 1-2 games of football a year - claims we are a joke but South Korea, who went out at the same stage have a positive future. So results don't matter??
SweatyProp
Roar Rookie
Totally agree. I would add that the quality of junior coaching across the codes leaves much to desired. Lots of coaching enthusiasm but a shortfall of technical knowledge and teaching skills. Lots of kids going round each weekend, few being well schooled and declining levels of fitness because it has been decided that fitness work is "boring". It is always interesting to see what happens to skills when player run out of gas. The FFA have long bragged about the participation rate but few players are being actively developed and maybe few want to be.
chris
Guest
John Duerden states that we aren't as good as what we used to be. Is he talking about 1974? 1986? Not as good as when exactly? Didn't we get knocked out at the same stage in 2007 with our so-called golden generation?
chris
Guest
Well said Fad. It's not easy reading something from an author clearly having meltdown.