The Darkest of Days for the Socceroos

I was there at Stadium Australia on that famous night in 2005 to experience the Socceroos’ greatest and proudest moment. With a win against Uruguay in the World Cup playoffs, we had not only beaten one of football’s super powers but also qualified for our first FIFA World Cup in over three decades. The “golden generation” was at the peak of it’s powers and Australia was the envy of all other lower tier football teams around the world. A few weeks ago, after back to back 6-0 defeats, the Socceroos’ hit rock bottom and arguably had their darkest moment.

Facing Brazil and France is not an easy task by any means but after two performances that can only be described as embarrassing, the FFA decided to wield its axe and sack Socceroos coach Holger Oesick. When I woke up the morning after the match against France and Oesick had been sacked, the media was going into overdrive. The top news of the day was the Socceroos’ shocking result and sacking of the coach. Just about everyone, especially those involved in football, had a comment or opinion on what happened, what should have happened and what will happen next. Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater absolutely grilled the team, the coach, even the FFA in the post-match discussion on Fox Sports. They summed it up best with quotes like these:

"This is an embarrassment,"

"In the end it was lucky to be six. It should have been more.”

"It was a disgrace."

“Some players in that team need to look themselves in the mirror and say: am I doing the right thing by going to a third World Cup.”

“If you’ve got a good coach with players like (Shane) Lowry, (Matthew) Leckie, (Mark) Milligan, Rhys Williams, (Ryan) McGowan (at centre-back) …  that gives them good structure, you won’t get beaten 6-0.”

The players in the Socceroos team from 2006 were the definition of discipline, passion, organisation and hard work. The current team is completely disorganised, they lack passion and take the Australian shirt for granted. Where did it go so wrong for the Socceroos in the last seven years? Did we employ the wrong coaches? Did we choose the wrong players? Did we use the wrong tactics? Are we playing against the wrong opposition? The introduction and development of the A-League was supposed to improve the quality of Australian football so that we could build on the events of the 2006 World Cup. The reality is that Australian football has been in a steady decline and an improvement is nowhere in sight.

I did not watch the matches against Brazil and France due to the time difference (4:30am Sydney time). I did of course watch the highlights, which were more than enough to paint a picture of what the current team is serving up. Waking up in the early hours of the morning to watch those performances would have been torture. I’ve now had a lot of time to think about what is wrong with Australian football, our main problems and possible solutions.

The biggest problem holding the Socceroos back is the slow introduction of new players to the team and the pressure of needing to keep playing those from the “golden generation”. It’s hard to believe how many players from the 2006 World Cup are still being selected for internationals. In the recent call up for the matches against Brazil, France and Canada there were at least five players that were involved in the 2006 World Cup campaign and a staggering twelve that were involved in the 2010 campaign! The Socceroos seem to be living in the past and although experienced players are necessary, only two or three of these are required to guide the younger players.

Many people argue that we haven’t been producing enough talented players that can push the older players out of the squad. The truth is that Australia has produced talented players but they haven’t been given a chance, we continue to persist with the old guard. The coach and national selectors are in charge of selecting the players and they should be held responsible for their selections. For proof of the talented players I’m talking about, we need to look no further than the 2011 U-20 World Cup, held in Colombia. In that tournament Australia was placed in a very difficult group and even though we finished bottom of the group, we had very good performances. We drew 1-1 with Ecuador, narrowly lost 2-3 to Costa Rica and held our own against Spain in a 1-5 loss. Those performances were nowhere near as embarrassing as the consecutive 0-6 losses the Socceroos produced. From the squad that played in that U-20 World Cup only a handful have played for the senior squad and only one player, Tommy Oar, has been a regular.

The other major problem is that the FFA tend to go with “quick fix” solutions when it comes to the national team, especially when hiring and sacking coaches. The constant chopping and changing of the coaching staff and the continuous trend to hire foreign coaches has left the Socceroos without an identity or philosophy. When we needed an expert tactician to defeat Uruguay once and for all in 2005 we hired Guus Hiddink, when we needed to play conservative football to get results we hired Pim Verbeek and last but not least when we needed to grind out results to qualify at any cost for next year’s World Cup we hired Holger Oesick. None of these coaches were here to instil their philosophy on which Australian football could build on. There was no plan to develop players or a long term idea for the future of the Australian game.

In the last fifty years the Socceroos have had only one Australian coach (excluding caretakers), Frank Farina. I was delighted when they announced that Ange Postecoglou would be the next Socceroos coach. This is not only because he is Australian but because he signed a five year contract, meaning that he has a long term plan on his mind to get the national side back on track. I’d love to see new players given a chance, tactics that play to our strengths and last but not least a philosophy that will give the Socceroos an identity to get that passion back and be competitive even against the top teams in the world.

Ange’s first match as Socceroos coach will be next month’s friendly against Costa Rica in Sydney. I am hoping to attend the match to witness the start of a new era, an era that needs to take the Socceroos to the next level and set ourselves up for the future. Not only because the World Cup is on next year, but to prevent further embarrassment on home soil at the 2015 Asian Cup. Hopefully the ghosts of post-2006 will finally be extinguished.