Pim Verbeek began his Socceroos career with his hands deep in his suit pockets and a quizzical expression on his face, and that’s how many of us will fondly remember the Dutch coach.
Verbeek sadly lost his long battle with cancer overnight, passing away aged just 63.
It was a sad end to the life of a coach who brought us some of the best – and the worst – of the Socceroos during a colourful three-year spell in charge of the national team.
“I have to be very careful about what I say because if I say anything about the A-League, people start telling me I abuse players and the A-League,” began one of the all-time great Verbeek rants.
They were to become something of a trademark for the quick-witted Dutch tactician, who often acted as though mincing his words to the media might take away precious time on the training pitch.
And there were a couple of players, and no doubt a few members of the media too, who felt the cold stare and pointed barbs of a typical Verbeek tirade.
But to reduce the Dutchman’s Socceroos career down to just some withering remarks – or one disastrous night in Durban – would be to do him a disservice.
Because anyone who crossed paths with Verbeek will point out he was actually one of the warmest, most humble people around.
He had a deep, lifelong love of football and he used it judiciously in his later years to travel the globe.
He understood Aussies too, even if we ourselves didn’t seem to understand that at the time.
From the minute he sung the Australian national anthem in front of Simon Hill live on Fox Sports, Verbeek was one of us.
He got results too, starting with a 3-0 win over Qatar in a World Cup qualifier at Docklands, memorably beating his home nation The Netherlands 2-1 in a friendly in Eindhoven and celebrating Australia’s passage to the 2010 World Cup with an unforgettable 2-1 win over Japan in front of almost 75,000 fans at the MCG.
But it was obviously that trip to the World Cup in South Africa – and in particular one fateful night in Durban – that overshadowed much of his Socceroos career.
If there’s a suggestion that homegrown coaches like Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold simply ‘get’ Australian sporting culture, then perhaps what Verbeek brought was a more rounded – some might say cynical – world view.
(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
He made it clear he didn’t have much time for the A-League and having been employed to coach Australia’s national team, he probably felt he didn’t need to.
And when Australia lined up in Durban, media reports at the time suggested Verbeek sent the Socceroos out without a recognised striker, even though Tim Cahill played at the point of attack.
But it was the manner of Germany’s 4-0 win, in a game in which it felt like the Socceroos were trying to play with ten men behind the ball at all times, that did for Verbeek’s reputation in the end.
How different would that reputation be if Cahill hadn’t been sent off in Durban though? Or Harry Kewell hadn’t been controversially dismissed after just 24 minutes in the subsequent 1-1 draw with Ghana?
Tim Cahill gets sent off. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
It’s worth remembering Verbeek finished with the same number of World Cup points as his predecessor Guus Hiddink, only for Verbeek’s side to be knocked out on goal difference.
But his contribution to Australian football was much more than mere points tallies.
He took charge of our first qualification campaign through Asia since joining the AFC and made us believe we could match it with the big guns. He downed European opponents.
And he did it all with his own unique charm and effortless style.
You know you’ve made a contribution to a nation’s culture when you’re parodied by one of its favourite comedians.
Vale Pim Verbeek. You will be sorely missed.
geno
Roar Rookie
Great guy, but let's not forget he was completely out of his depth at both world cups with either South Korea and Australia!
Punter
Roar Rookie
Kevin De Bruyne scored a screamer for Man City today.
anon
Roar Pro
We've only gone backwards since the days of Hiddink and Verbeek. We've only ever achieved anything with a European coach. He only spoke his mind with regards to the A-League.
Brendon
Roar Rookie
We all heard those rumours. Unfortunately with Pim's death I doubt any players from that team will put it on the record.
Brendon
Roar Rookie
Verbeek was terribly maligned as Australian manager. Not to say some of the criticism of Pim wasn't warranted - his complete disregard of the A-League smacked of European, old world football elitism. As for that match against Germany, I remember looking at the line-up before the game and thinking "WTF is Verbeek doing???" I think Verbeek biggest flaw was that he seemed to regard the big European countries unbeatable and footballing countries like Australia just too inferior to compete. His A-League views tie into this mindset. Unfortunately Verbeek was never the guy that was going to lift Australia. He was great at getting Australia through the 2010 qualifying, our first in Asia. Theres no superpower European or South American nations in Asian qualifying so Verbeek was great getting us the wins. But Verbeek received just not fair criticisms but nasty personal attacks from jingoistic and obnoxious Aussie football fans.
Baggio
Guest
Holman had a lot of critics, but he was at his peak at this wcup and played well, including that screamer v Serbia.
Baggio
Guest
Actually I was right. We won 14 straight which was a record, before the Iran games in 97.
SamW
Guest
The loss to Germany 4-0 hurt us. But then the Germans also beat England 4-1 and Argentina 4-0 in that World Cup. Still commendable that we got the same number of points as in 2006
Marcel
Guest
Vale Pim. Lots of people have spoken today about his qualities as a man, something that never really came across in the media. As for that night in Durban...it's worth remembering that both Argentina and England also received 4 goal pastings from a German side that I would consider the finest Ive seen since the 82 Brasil squad
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Didn't injury keep Brosque out of the 2010 World Cup? Even so, I could never understand why Brosque was overlooked for guys like Holman.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The reason Australia lost to Germany is not because of tactics and by such big margin is because of too many of the so called Golden Generation who were past it, Chipperfield, Moore and Grella. They succeded in the next two matches because they brought in Carney and moved Culina back. Verbeek does get the credit for getting rid of them, this rebellion story makes no sense because the players would not have replaced the old guys, they thought they were the best. The biggest mistake of 2010 was not taking Brosque, if they took Brosque they could have made it out of the group stage and further. Brosque has outperformed every old past it Golden Generation Socceroo being super effective in his mid 30's and he is older than Holman who was one of the so called stars of 2010.
Baggio
Guest
Yes you are right, I think it ended up being a 16 game unbeaten streak, which was a world record at the time. I think I remember the home based team beating Norway, NZ and South Korea in a friendly tournament and totally forgot about the 6 game Oceania qualifying tournament. Saying that, our record versus Asian opponents was ordinary with 1 win, 2 draws and one loss during that golden patch, which included victories of 2 European teams away, WC qualifier Tunisia 3 nil away, Uruguay, Mexico and drew with one of the greatest Brazilian teams off all time. So maybe El tel would of struggled qualifying through Asia as well (particularly away from home).
Griffo
Roar Guru
I’m pretty sure Arnie wanted a squad for Olyroos selection and experience for this game but we know how this game (and Olympic qualification) turned out. Not the first time the game underestimated opposition...
Griffo
Roar Guru
We got Pim after Dick Advocaat reneged on the job post 2007 Asian Cup. Rather than Advocaat spending eight months in Europe, Pim spent more time here with family. A-League-based youth development was still in a dark age and the Golden Generation still had the 2010 World Cup in them. Holger didn’t renew squad either which Ange needed to do post-Holger regardless but had more players ready by then. Perhaps more an Ange on the Australian football culture PR front in 2007 - Arnie 1.0 wasn’t ready, nor it at the time - but Pim got results, but not how we liked at the time. A different Derbin result (1-0 or 2-0, maybe) vs Germany and probably round 16 as for Guus 2006...
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Very sad and his straight talking did not go down to well with many ... From all accounts he was a very decent person and that IMO is quite important. As a coach he was the wrong choice, the mistake most in the media and many in FFA senior roles was to assume Football had made it and Football could be treated as if it had been healthy for decades not less than a hand full of years... His defensive style, his dry and dismissive personally was not what we needed at the time... but none of this was his fault, he did what he was employed to do and that was to get us to the WC... The sulking SBS had at the time... that they were the true home of Football and had been left out did not help neither and was terribly managed by FFA.... It was a time when we where just out of the NSL & SA ... FFA & Hal were very very very young and needed guidance and help but as is often the case internal power players and ego's got in the way and every move he made was under the spot light with often blow torches applied to the belly of FFA at the time. Pim did a lot for us, he had an ageing team, but in his directed sole goal of making the WC he took no risks ... and it was not his task to develop Australian youth... A time of lack of vision by FFA, bitterness by many traditional media stakeholders [not only SBS] .... a total over estimation of where Football actually was or sat within thee Australian sporting environment and into this arrives a straight talking, decent man, allocated a sole task of making the WC. RIP Pim, you did what you were hired to do... and have suffered the blame that should have gone to Frank Lowy and were caught up with an SBS ego driven agenda... sad to see him go so young...
Kannga2
Guest
“ failed to qualify, nothing else matters “ postecoglu qualified but comes under massive negative scrutiny As for El tel , an exciting and deveststing time. I think we had very high hopes for Verbeek team , because he was Dutch , and us Aussies have loved the Dutch from Ajax to Guus . Unfortunately Verbeek played a dour game, because he probably did not believe in his players enough, or maybe us fans overestimated the teams collective ability. Still a win over Serbia is a great result in the World Cup . Will we get to see another win at the World Cup in the next 30 years ?
Nemesis
Guest
"We went on a 13 or 14 game winning streak under el tel" Not quite accurate. We didn't lose for around 15 consecutive matches. We didn't win 13 or 14 in a row. And, 6 of those matches were against Oceania opposition. Having said that, there were terrific results in friendlies and, of course, a very good run to the final of the Confederations Cup.
RIP PIM A New 1
Guest
I will be parking a bus in front of the cemetery gates in his honor
Baggio
Guest
To be fair, he did play an almost a-league 11 v China in a world cup qualifier at a packed anz stadium in 2008 and we lost (only time we have lost in a wcq on home soil in 37 years). As we all ready qualified for the next round, he could of played a more expansive game. A-league standard was awful back then (ver slow and possession based), it has improved in leaps and bounds since. Could he have done better, probably??? Terry Venables was excellent with nsl players. We went on a 13 or 14 game winning streak under el tel, many of these using locally based players only in friendlies. He made nsl players look like world beaters eg Ernie Tapie, Craig foster, Bingley etc
Dasilva
Guest
First RIP Pim Verbeek and he did coach the second most successful World Cup Socceroos team However regarding his comments on the A-league I thought they were self-serving to the extreme. I have no problems with him saying those comments if he doesn’t pick anyone from the a-league The problem was that Pim Verbeek was responsible for coaching an All-A-league Socceroos due to matches held on non-FIFA dates What do you know a demoralise a league team lost 1-0 to Kuwait at home Instead of the media discussing about tactics and scrutinising the coach they were focus on the standard of the a-league. Essentially verbeek managed to manipulate the media to reduce scrutinise on his performance to the detriment of the teams performances. For contrast Graham Arnold coach an all a-league side to win at home 2-0 against Kuwait in 2006 The rule of coaching is you don’t publicly slag off your own team. He knew he would be coaching an all a league side in the future. You don’t publicly rubbish the team you are coaching