Due to time constraints and leave, a few things went without comment towards the end of last year.
Such a surprise to see him suddenly go like that - especially after announcing earlier in the year that he'd beaten the cancer. The re-occurrence of the cancer didn't in fact kill him. It was a complications associated with it that flooded his lungs causing him to suffocate, which strikes so suddenly and swiftly, and often to such cancer patients.
While full of admiration of many of Warren's thoughts and certainly his ambassadorship to the game, I felt he lost the plot in recent years with some comments. Almost to the point of him sounding really bitter. Especially his Asian push and "lowering the bar" regarding Oceania World Cup spot. Keeps forgetting that Asia don't want us and never have wanted us, and that Oceania is a full member so has the right to a spot. While he has a point in that we don't offer Asia anything, we had nothing to offer other than this spot. Having it might have attracted other teams to this region or encouraged Asia to merge. It was just so un-Johnny to comment on such ignorance.
There was his passion with Brazil too - repeatedly comparing us to Australia. Why don't we do this, or do that. We're not Brazil. Soccer's only the number 4 sport here. Brazil has a culture that's far more entrenched and ingrained - even more than something like Australian rules football and cricket is here. That went hand in hand with the thinking we should aim to winning the World Cup. Only 8 years ago, teams even like Scotland frightened us.
The most disillusioned comments came when he criticised our youth development - but fails to see that our Socceroo teams each four years are more talented than the last. At youth level, one or two years of lacklustre performances do not destroy a youth program.
It just seems Johnny's emotions got the better of him recently. Maybe it was the progress the sport was already making in this country that provoked him to look higher or more fanciful. It was a sad demise in more ways than one.
Australia's 2-2 draw in their international match against Norway at Craven Cottage this morning continued their unbeaten run in England following earlier "home" games against Jamaica and South Africa as well as last year's win over England in London. It also comes after Australia defeated Norway 1-0 in Sydney in 1997 as the only other match between the two teams.
The Socceroos came from behind to take a 2-1 lead through goals to Tim Cahill and Josip Skoko before a 72nd minute equalising goal from Norway. Cahill scoring his seventh goal in just his fifth match for Australia.
"For us, having matches like this are invaluable because we don't often get to play against quality sides. Our qualification process for the World Cup is very different to everyone else and to have the opportunity to play against a good team like Norway is great," said coach Frank Farina after the game.
"This was also the first time we have had a number of the players in the system which we are trying at the moment and that was perhaps the most pleasing aspect out of the game."
Those meandering comments hide the real relevance of this match - meaningless. It was a really scrappy affair and in no way did it approximate the intense nature of World Cup qualifiers. As a fan, it's also just so hard to get exciting over any friendly any more. Winning or losing, it still comes down to those two games to qualify for the World Cup.
Australia 2 (Tim Cahill 44', Josip Skoko 58') - Norway 2 (Steffen Iversen 40', Morten Gamst Pedersen 72')
Team: Mark Schwarzer; Lucas Neill, Tony Vidmar, Tony Popovic, Stan Lazaridis (Danny Tiatto 54'); Josip Skoko, Marco Bresciano (Vince Grella h/t), Tim Cahill (Scott Chipperfield 77'); Brett Emerton (Ahmad Elrich 77'), Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka.
Last December, the Australia Soccer Association became the Football Federation of Australia, or Football Australia for short. About time. Now this call for a change is something Johnny Warren has advocated for such a long time. If he's left any immediate legacy to the game, this name change is it.
As for the "Socceroos", it's not an official nickname. I don't have too much of a problem with it, though, rarely use it. It's in use for this website primarily as a unique identifier for search engines to capture the site. In general use, the name will take care of itself depending on whether the public and media find there's no blurring of the football and soccer names. I don't think we need to be so precious in our obeyance to the "football" word to officially denounce it or anything. It has significant history behind it too - dating back to Australia's goodwill matches in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Here we go again. Oceania, which echoed sentiment of Football Australia and national coach Frank Farina, are pushing for the World Cup playoff match against the South American team in November to have the home leg in Australia played last. There's an entire editorial in the features section about why this is such folly, but in short, in any sport, any advantage that is on offer, it's taken first. In football, it's magnified given the away-goals rule that can ruin your home match in an instant.
The talk that it was too tough for Australia to "protect" a 1 goal lead in Montevideo is bunk when they couldn't protect a 2 goal lead against Iran at home in 1997, let alone even win a home non-Oceania playoff qualifying match at home since the 1974 did against Iran. Australia achieved that in Melbourne in 2001, though. Then to suggest (as Les Murray did) that Australia could have overcome a 2-0 deficit in Melbourne had they played home last - against the South American team with the best defensive record, mind you - is preposterous. Australia didn't lose in Montevideo in 2001 because their lead wasn't big enough. They lost because they were stupid and didn't defend. Even with that, at 2-0 down, Australia were only inches away from qualifying on a couple of occasions with narrowly missed chances.
An obsolete final, suppose it was to be expected. Obsolete nations in the Obsolete Football Confederation contesting the Obsolete Nations Cup final. It must be a huge embarrassment to the region, not just an indictment level of competition, that Australia dismissed the Solomon Islands 11-1 on aggregate by, according to Brett Emerton, playing in the third gear. Pity that the same teams will match-up against next year to decide Oceania's entry to the final World Cup playoff. Can't wait.
Most notable feature of the final was Australia trialing a new 4-3-3 system. It worked, but that's the Solomon Islands. It seems a good idea because it solves the Kewell and left-wing dilemma. Jury's out until tested against stronger opposition.
The win meant Australia qualified for the Confederations Cup in Germany next year. The draw early in the week saw Australia pooled with Germany, Argentina and Tunisia. The other group contains Brazil, Greece, Mexico and Japan. Bizarrely, coach Frank Farina felt Australia had the tougher draw, but on form, match-ups with corresponding teams in each group, would see all in the second group favoured. That is Brazil would beat Argentina, Greece (Euro champions) beat Germany and Mexico beat Tunisia. Australia plays Germany in the first match of the tournament before facing Argentina. There's no reason why the team can't beat Germany, who have had appalling form over the past few years. Important thing is having the matches.
The new national soccer league was launched with 8 teams announced: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, NSW Central Coast and Auckland. It's scheduled for August 2005 and seems a good platform to build upon. The only niggle is only 21 games - each team playing each other three times. Despite the Australian Soccer Association deflecting the criticism, it's way too low. You can't have professional players inactive for so long. It's even less than the AFL season. Playing each other four times for 28 games seems so much more logical. It's not too late to change this. Hopefully common sense wins out.
There's also talk of Asian links, with even Asia enthusiastic themselves, realising Australian involvement would benefit them commercially and improve their standard of play. Not just at club level, but national teams in Asian Cups. But seriously, why give them that? Being part of Asia is worthless if it doesn't also include World Cup qualification. That's the most critical factor in any link to Asia, but the thing they're most reluctant to provide. Disconcertingly, the ASA still sees our future in Oceania. The priorities are all wrong. So too the mindset. The objective must surely be full integration into Asia or nothing. If Oceania is to go it alone, then encourage Asia to petition Fifa with Oceania and their half spot to gain a joint full spot for Asia (5.5 instead of 4.5) at the World Cup, then combine the qualifying. Their desire is for 5 spots, this way they get more. They'd be no worse off than they are now. Unless they fear two Oceania teams qualifying from the combined region. But if the fifth best Asian team can't beat New Zealand....
Much publicity surrounded England's David Beckham and his deliberate foul to gain a yellow so as to serve his suspension in a match he knew he'd be too injured to play. Of course, Beckham should have kept his mouth shut with his confession, but the scenario has been exploited many times before. However, the problem is the rule itself - one that doesn't reward the team that suffers the infringement, but a future undeserving opponent. I've advocated previously that match suspensions should be replaced with an immediate 15 minute suspension from the actual game - a "sin bin" of sorts. The player is punished immediately and the opposition gains a significant benefit. It would also be the quickest way to stomp all the niggling fouls out of the game. At present, a yellow is meaningless, and referees don't even bother offering one most of the time.
Simply stunned beyond belief is what I was when I heard this news.
Just when you thought all the insanity was purged from Australian soccer's governing bodies, stunning news during the week reported that Gerrard Houllier, recently sacked coach of Liverpool, knocked back a $20mil deal over 4 years to become Australia's technical director.
What the hell is the Australian Soccer Association thinking? This guy should be shunned. His record at Liverpool was nothing short of appalling for such a great club, he instilled a mentality that mediocrity was acceptable, was never able to accept responsibility for his actions and only succeeded for so long because he was a master con-man and self-promoter. The only legitimate trophy he won as a coach was at Paris St Germain - the richest club in the league where he effectively bought the title.
At national level, his only experience was as technical directorship of France whereby he over-saw two failed World Cup qualifying campaigns. Most of France's 1998 winning World Cup team were nurtured prior to Houllier's reign. Houllier's work is only now coming through. No need to mention the recent Euro 2004 or World Cup 2002 French debacles. Thing is, in France and continental Europe, no one rates him, so why does the ASA?
At least the ASA has done something right. And that's procure a three-deal pay TV television deal to televise the new national league competition when it finally gets off the ground next year. It's an exclusive deal and will see Fox Sports broadcast four live matches per round, all finals live, a weekly highlights package, support shows and delayed coverage of national team games. The exclusive live broadcasts of these national team games will be sold separately to a free-to-air TV station. While it's disappointing club games won't be seen on free TV, it's hard to go past the phenomenal level of live coverage and support shows.
Yep, Oceania's equivalent to the European Championships, Copa America, etc, has just been completed, yet you wouldn't really know too much about it unless you lived in Adelaide and saw a live game. Just another blight on this obsolete region when the major confederation championships get no air-time. Sure this is a broken record, but where's the future?
However, some interesting facts did arise:
Australia won easily despite drawing 2-2 in its final game to the Solomon Islands whilst using an experimental side.
Vanuatu disappointed.
New Zealand lost to Vanuatu.
Vanuatu finished last in the group.
Tahiti's totally regressed from having some potential 10 years ago.
Solomon Islands finished second in the group, which qualified them for the final to determine the Confederation Cup representative and also the Oceania Final Playoff to decide the team to play the fifth best South American team for a spot in the 2006 World Cup.
New Zealand's now eliminated from the World Cup.
Can Australia be accused of cynicism when it knew at least a draw to the Solomons would see them finish second and therefore avoid New Zealand?
Hell no! But one thing's for certain: the likes of Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka will no doubt miss yet another Oceania playoff.
But that's life in the Obsolete Football Confederation.
With that, I'll be on leave for 5 weeks in the US and Canada. Wonder if anything exciting will happen back home?
In their first home games in two and a half years, Australia lost both matches to 2006 World Cup third place-getters Turkey in a lacklustre manner. The first match in Sydney last Friday night was riddled with silly mistakes that caused all three goals in the 3-1 loss, whilst the second in Melbourne on Monday night saw many chances missed in the 1-0 loss. Poor refereeing didn't help either, with pedantic decisions in Sydney and unfavourable decisions in Melbourne. Indeed, the goal conceded in Melbourne came direct from a free kick awarded after a Vince Grella tackle appeared to miss a Turkish player who fell like he'd been shot. In Sydney, Schwarzer's goal-keeping errors caused the first and third goal, while Tiatto's collision with a defender coughed the ball up, allowing Turkey to pounce for Sukur's first.
The talk of this series was all about learning. And Turkey's propensity to milk free kicks and disrupt any Australian impetus with delaying tactics and rough tackles was where the greatest lesson lay.
Australia played with a 4-5-1 system in the first half in Sydney, which proved abysmal, with Turkey running rings around the Australian team. Too fast, too sharp and too slick. After the break, Max Vieri made his debut as coach Farina reverted to his more traditional 4-4-2 formation. It proved a boon for the struggling team with Bresciano soon winning and converting a penalty as Australia dominated until the Tiatto mistake. It was a bad night for Tiatto - returning after a long break from the team and injury with his club team - who missed passes, lost possession and ultimately finished with a broken jaw after colliding with Schwarzer in the scrimmage that caused the third Turkish goal. Schwarzer was also injured in that incident with bruised hip.
Melbourne saw a much improved all-round performance, with replacement keeper making barely a save. In contrast, Turkey's Rustu made several solid ones and the Turkish goal saw several other near misses. However, while the chances did come, most came from broken play and Turkish errors. It was still disappointing in how often Australia lost the ball and fell down badly with final passes and unable to find players in space. Too often passes were played to players under tight marking. In contrast, Turkey was always quick to switch the ball wide - often finding a player in plenty of space and creating dangerous situations.
Australia was without many first choice players - notably Viduka and Kewell - bit it was the defence that proved most exposed. Australia's second choice defenders are not up to scratch - at least in the formation played with Vidmar as stopper and Colosimo at fullback. Also as stopper was Laybutt, who was often caught out for pace and often under pressure to make a good pass. Lazaridis played his usual solid game, but spent too much time with defensive duties to make any impact up forward in Melbourne.
On a positive note, Max Vieri - the brother to Christian - proved an excellent coup for Australia. Strong in the air and on the ground, he was clearly Australia's best striker. Also is the continued progression of Marco Bresciano - who proved the best player in both games and a constant menace to the Turks. Had several shots saved, set up other chances, and his set-pieces are dynamite. His fellow Serie A midfielder, Vince Grella, and replacement for the ageing Paul Okon, was no where near as impressive unfortunately. Jury is out if that is the type of player Australia even needs in the team.
Final mention in the crowds and ticket prices. Prices were outrageous, ranging from $45 to $77 to $100 - double what they should be. I only bothered going because several friends wanted to. While 28,000 at each game was a good response, that must be tempered with the knowledge that at least 70% were Turkish fans. Marco Bresciano was disappointed there were not more Australian fans, but what else can you expect?
"I thought we played extremely well. We came back from the first game and it was important that we did improve. We created a lot of opportunities, but unfortunately couldn't put them in the back of the net"
On the upcomingOceania Nations Cup / 2006 World Cup qualifiers and Australia's opening game against New Zealand. "We've taken a lot out of it, not only for individual players, we've given them the opportunity against a very good side and they've put their hand up to say that they deserve a spot in the squad. "And there's the little tactical ploys...things we can pick out of the two games that will help us further on."
Farina on Max Vieri being every bit an international player, and on Marco Bresciano's efforts on the left.
"I think Bresc had our best chances. He made some absolutely fantastic little runs in behind. He had two or three clear-cut chances so that’s an option for us, and he does ever-so-well tightening up the midfield. Max is very competitive, he looked very sharp. He showed us that he can hold the ball up, he also showed that he can make runs into deeper positions and compete with the best."
Game 1: Australia 1 (Bresciano 49 pen) - Turkey 3 (Umit Ozat 42, Hakan Sukur 69, 75) Crowd: 28,326
Game 2: Australia 0 - Turkey 1 (Nihat Kahveci 44) Crowd: 28,953
Australia: Zeljko Kalac; Simon Colosimo (Jade North 77), Tony Vidmar, Steve Laybutt, Stan Lazaridis; Brett Emerton (Ahmad Elrich 77), Vince Grella, Josip Skoko, Marco Bresciano (Scott Chipperfield 85); David Zdrilic (Ante Milicic 63), Max Vieri (Mile Sterjovski 63).
Turkey: Rustu Recber (Omer Catkic 46); Umit Ozat (Koray Avci 66), Bulent Korkmaz, Serhat Akin; Ibrahim Uzulmez (Deniz Baris 46), Ibrahim Toraman (Tolga Seyhan 75), Serkan Balci, Okan Buruk (Fatih Akyel 46); Nihat Kahveci, Hakan Sukur, Tuncay Sanli (Murat Hacioglu 46).
After missing out in 2006, South Africa finally got "their" World Cup. This is despite Fifa proclaiming Egypt had the best bid and Morocco deserving it most. As most will remember, South Africa supposedly lost out for 2006 because Oceania president Charles Dempsey abstained from voting as his confederation asked. South Africa lost by one vote to Germany. This website was scathing at the time of such a proposterous notion, and many of the arguments then still apply. Again the vote was not unanimous, with rumours that the African confederation did not even vote for South Africa. And surely such factors like helping the South African economy and social problems are irrelevant in a decision that should be decided solely on the best bid. Africa was due for a World Cup and South Africa is no doubt the best option in terms of marketing and global appeal, but the procedure to award it just reeks of further Fifa corruption and president Sepp Blatter's ego stroking and political point-scoring.
Has Fifa president Sepp Blatter yet to submit himself for drug-testing? Not since he suggested enlarging the goals has he ever formed such a preposterous idea as this latest - forcing all drawn matches into penalty shootouts to ensure a winner. His logic is that fans need to see a winner and a loser. While that has some merit in a primal sense, in football, besides the fact that a draw is a perfectly legitimate result, there's actually no mechanism to fairly ensure a winner. Hello Montevideo, where a draw would have seen Australia qualify the World Cup.
Imagine under this new scenario that scores were level and Uruguay then went on to win the shootout, which would actually tie the series! So that would create more anomalies, to which more regulations would be required. Would goals in penalty shootouts also count as double? So that if Australia lost 5-4 they'd qualify, but a greater loss and they'd lose on aggregate goals?
Maybe that's being a touch facetious, but already it seems some games would need to be excised from such a rule to prevent such ludicrous scenarios, or a normal time win made more valuable than a shootout win. But that would be another nonsensical regulation just like the away goals rule. Which, incidentally, like aggregate goals and golden goals, was brought in to avoid shootouts!!!
Plus, we're still to note that penalty shootouts are inherently flawed in their design with regard to the impossibility of accurately refereeing goal keeper movement before the ball is kicked, therefore increasing the luck element that's already too pervasive in the system, and diminishing the skill level required to excel at the game.
Even in theory, the proposal is nonsensical. So why bother? Thankfully worldwide condemnation has seen the idea smashed to oblivion, so before Septic Bladder gets any more crazy ideas, maybe he should ask himself why the sport is already by far the most popular in the world and still growing?
In a month when Australia defeated South Africa and World Cup third place-getters Turkey were announced to play two games in Australia, the biggest storm came when Harry Kewell, through medical advice, ruled himself out of playing friendly international matches that required more than two hours flying time ever again. Such journeys inflamed his chronic ankle injury and increased the risk of real injury during a game. For serious matches, Kewell will fly in earlier and be prepared to miss club games if required, but obviously that's too much a demand during mid-season and with mid-week internationals such as the recent game in Venezuela.
While Australia's national team doctor has diagnosed Kewell's injury concerns and also that such a condition is not unheard of before (Michael Voss from AFL team Brisbane is but one that has a similarly restricted flying plan), the real controversy came when the Australian Soccer Association's new chief John O'Neill dared to send an independent doctor to verify Kewell's injury. Apparently the current doctor is seen to be too close to the players to make an objective decision. This led to an amazing outburst from Kewell, who described the state of Australian soccer as a shambles. "As far as I'm concerned they cannot do any worse than what's gone on in the past," Kewell told The Daily Telegraph. "You don't have to be a genius to improve on where we're at now because Australian soccer is a shambles."
About O'Neill meeting Kewell in London to discuss those injury concerns: "As far as I'm concerned I never wanted to meet anybody in the first place. It's their way of trying to get through the back door to set something up. I've told my agent (Bernie Mandic) to tell them I only have one boss and his name is (Socceroo coach) Frank Farina."
"I have a great relationship with him and he's always given me his full support. As for what anybody else thinks, I couldn't care less. They can play their silly little games. I'll just get on with playing football to the best of my ability."
"If that's not good enough I'm more than happy to be thrown out of the team. I'm not in a rage over anything the ASA does. To say otherwise is totally wrong. I couldn't care less what they do."
Kewell continued, adding that he hopes O'Neill is consistent with the new ASA mandate that all players are treated equally in the future: "I'm pleased to hear that. It's about time too," he said. "Hopefully, when they say I'll be treated the same as everybody else, that will include not sticking my image up on poxy looking promotional posters and telling TV sponsors I'll be back for Micky Mouse matches that will help fill ASA's pockets with money."
Stern stuff. And it seems Kewell got his way because there was no private meeting and only a general address to all the players before the match. So it seems Kewell's stance on long-haul friendlies will remain. From a philosophical point of view, ASA should abandon such games anyway. Sure there's a premium on taking as many opportunities for games as possible, but what's the point if players arrive tired, injured or simply just inconvenienced and in the wrong frame of mind. And the bottom line is, they are just "friendlies". That sentiment will become more severe as the novelty increasingly wears off with these types of matches.
As for the match, Australia extended their recent good record with a 1-0 victory. Marco Bresciano was the man again when he volleyed in a shot from just inside the box after Viduka flicked it up over his head from a throw-in. It looked almost like a set-play. While it was great to get a win, truthfully, the match was quite a loose affair and a myriad range of results between 3-0, 0-3 and 3-3 could have been on the cards. Both teams went at it hard, but it lacked the intensity of real tough match. Australia was caught out far too often with South Africa's speed, and were incredibly lucky not to concede at least one goal. Poor South African shooting saw to that. In the scheme of things, especially with regards to the qualifiers against the fifth South American country, quite pointless.
The only note-worthy element to take was the debut of Tim Cahill - a benefit of Fifa's rule change that allows players to switch countries if they hadn't already played for another country and senior level (Cahill played for Western Samoa as an U17 player) - and the call-up of Max Vieri, the brother of leading Italian striker Christian. Max qualifies for Australia thanks to be being born here and plays in Serie B for Napoli. While he spent the game on bench, his presence will add depth to Australia's striking ranks.
On the same evening, the Olympic team drew 0-0 with Greece in Athens.
Australia will play it's first home matches in almost three years since the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay when World Cup third place-getters Turkey will play a match each in Sydney and Melbourne on Friday May 21 and Monday May 24 respectively. Australia then goes onto the Oceania Nations Cup and stage 1 of World Cup qualifying to be held in Australia between May 28 and June 6.
Naturally, the talking point with regard to the games against Turkey is whether Australia will be fielding its best team. Coach Farina will call-up the best team, and with the matches being just after the European season ends, there should be no excuses (like middle of holidays for example) for players to attend. Even Harry Kewell should make it without the need to rush between venues. Just curious how ASA's players' commitment stance will cope given that the automatic Fifa 5-day club ban will be quite meaningless with no club games on. For the integrity of the matches to and for respect of the Australian fans, there must be a full strength team.
While Channel 7 will take precedent in telecasting the bulk of the Olympics, especially prestige events like track & field and swimming, SBS has signed as co-host and will focus on showing longer-duration sports like football, basketball, hockey, etc, in their entirety. Great news as the nation will have free access to see all the Olyroos games in hope they can supersede the efforts of the 2000 Olympic team. For those with poor memory, that shouldn't be too difficult considering the Olyroos lost their first two matches to Italy and Nigeria - mostly through shocking defensive errors - to be eliminated on the first full day of the games.
Sure this is off topic here, but a huge controversial moment that does beg comment. What does Ian Thorpe's elimination from the Olympics 400m freestyle event with soccer? Well, let's just say that Swimming Australia's policy reeks of Fifa's treatment of Oceania in terms of World Cup qualifying.
Forget the disqualification of Thorpe for falling the pool, the fact there's only one selection trial is a joke. It's just arrogance and luck that nothing's gone wrong before with it. Imagine if a virus hit the team meaning nothing but crap swimmers qualified? It hasn't even been a success like officials so pompously espouse. In the 14 years of the system, Australia has returned a below expected gold medal tally at those three respective Olympics covered. Only one in Barcelona, two in Atlanta (New Zealand won the same amount) and five in Sydney when there should have been 10.
Selection policy is not the only cause of such poor results where one-off freak performances can block consistently fast swimmers from qualifying, but the fact that the trials are held so far out from the Olympics gives the remaing world knowledge of Australia's benchmark that can then be adjusted accordingly. The girl that broke the world record in the 100m freestyle has now just put the world on notice to train harder and better. They have 4 months to close the gap.
There's also the possible concern of Australians having to "peak" twice so highly within a year. Many don't reproduce their trials form at the Olympics. In fact, recent history suggests they don't.
If Lisbeth Lenton fails to win gold in Athens, it won't be a precedent for such an upset either. In fact, Australia could count at least three golds at Sydney due to showing their hand so early: Hoogenband over Thorpe in the 200m free; Hyman over O'Neill in the women's 200m 'fly; Frolander over Klim and Huegill in the men's 100m 'fly; and, maybe even one of the relays. All failed to re-produce their best times. If they had, they'd have won gold. In contrast, the Americans have their trials just 3 weeks before the Olympics. The Dutch a month before. Of course, people like Thorpe - say, any immediately past world champion - should gain an automatic selection provided they can meet a specific time within a given few months prior to the Olympics. Or maybe there should be two selection trials?
Bottom line is that something needs to be done to ensure a more equitable and fairer system. Like Fifa has an obligation for the 32 best teams from each region to qualify for the World Cup, Australian Swimming has an obligation to pick the best possible Olympic team. Without Thorpe in it, then the tax-payer is being gypped and the quality of team and the competition itself is undermined.
Sunday April 4 marks the end of an era. The end of the National Soccer League. While the era is one that's gone without progress and been mired in it's only myopic inauguration failings, it's an era that will be remembered for how not to see up a national sporting league. Those that formed it erred grossly with their vision of using state league teams with minor, tribal and ethnic supporter bases as national teams - a policy that could never work. Especially with a relegation system that replaced such teams that might have attracted a few extra supporters in their national league existence with other state league teams with even smaller supporter bases that then had to build a bigger base to sustain itself. Even if they were broad-based teams, what hope was their to build a base when relegation was an ever-present concern.
Anyway, the league will close and will be replaced by a new eight-team league in 15 months time - scheduled to start July or August 2005. Each of these cities will have one team - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Newcastle and Auckland (New Zealand) - with the final team to be selected from the later submissions for another area (like Wollongong, Canberra, North Queensland or Hobart). Each of these teams will be broad-based so as to maximise demographic appeal. Each will have a 5-year guaranteed tenure and all regions outside Sydney and Melbourne will have exclusive territorial rights in the event the league expands - as it's expected to do relatively quickly - to 10 teams.
The idea the smaller number of teams in the new league is to help the quality of play and so that the league can build to a point that it will attract older overseas players back to play. Time will tell. Pity that there will be no local football league for 15 months. Thankfully few people will notice the difference.
If only Australia approached the game against Uruguay with the same attitude as the game against Venezuela last Thursday. Coach Frank Farina declared pre-match that he'd approach it like a first leg qualifier. Of course, this approach should be the same for a second leg qualifier. Probably it will be. Because this defensive approach and 1-1 scoreline would have seen Australia qualify for the World Cup over Uruguay in 2002. Of course, Uruguay was a much tougher team than Venezuela - a team that really had one decent shot on goal, and was riddled with poor passing. If they finish fifth in South America, it will be amazing.
That shot actually gave the equalising goal. Arango, their most dangerous player, scored in the 92nd minute with an unmarked back-post volley from a cross. This came with Venezuela a man down, though, pushing up late against a tiring Australian team, and after Australia took the lead on 18 minutes when Agostino poked in from a metre out when Zdrillic's header from a corner rebounded off the post. To concede so late was a disappointment given that Australia looked comfortable for most of the game. And that's despite seven first-choice players not making the trip. Australia made the better chances too, and really should have gone two-up. Zdrillic missed an open header in the first half after a nice build-up involving debutant Elrich, then a more difficult header from a corner in the second half. Thankfully I never saw Venezuela's equaliser because I fell asleep before the replay finished on Thursday night. But in the context of a World Cup qualifier rehearsal, 1-1 must be taken as a great result regardless.
What we saw on Thursday was a far more tactically astute performance of the team compared to Uruguay. There Farina openly admitted Australia needed to score - that's despite them already have the lead - and foolhardily remained stringent to that gameplan when defending in numbers was the obvious tactic to assume at the start of the game. He openly admitted in a media interview with regards to Olympic qualifiers that his approach to a game remains the same for the entire duration. What nonsense. Things obviously have changed in that regard because the Australia we saw on Thursday adapted to the varying stages of the game most proficiently: the surprise early goal, losing Lazaridis to injury, having control, and defending against an onslaught. Most pleasing was the ever-present extra men behind the ball when things looked dangerous. Venezuela were stifled so easily and resorted to long range shooting. Now, with that attitude, there's no way we'd have conceded that first goal against Uruguay, and given their eventual fatigue that set in as early as late in the first half, we probably would have won the playoff. We certainly would have played it smarter!
Of course, this match also highlighted the other extreme of playoffs and the sport: good fortune. Australia scoring was a surprise. It could just as easily have happened against Uruguay. What Australia needs more than ever next November year is some luck.
Venezuela 1 (Juan Arango 92') Australia 1 (Paul Agostino 18')
Australia - Mark Schwarzer (gk); Kevin Muscat, Craig Moore (c), Tony Popovic, Lucas Neill;
Mile Sterjovski (Steve Laybutt 92'), Simon Colosimo, Marco Bresciano, Stan Lazaridis
(Ahmad Elrich 28'); David Zdrilic (Nick Carle 83'), Paul Agostino (Tony Vidmar 62').
Cautions: Colosimo 19', Muscat 54', Neill 80'
The major talking point about this game was the Australian Soccer Association's new hard-line stance against players failing to turn up for their matches. Several players, notably Kewell, Emerton and Skoko, provided sick certificates and were excused from suspension. But not Viduka or Chipperfield, who had the ASA enforce the Fifa ruling banning them for their next club match. Both had requested clemency based on compassionate grounds - Viduka because he just spent 3 weeks in Australia by his sick father's and wanted to return the favour to his club Leeds, whilst Chipperfield because he missed his flight connection to Venezuela so returned to Switzerland to be with his new born child - but those went unheeded, much to the grievance of the footballing community.
While ASA's new stance is welcomed, as stated in the previous news item, it would have been preferable - given the tight scheduling of this match that would always cause problems - to delay the policy for at least one match. Thankfully the talk about Viduka retiring from football is unfounded, so no damage is done. But it is a warning that while players love to play for their country, they can't be expected to jeopardise their club careers. Some compassion for players' welfare and better scheduling is all that's required.
Australian Soccer Association (ASA) chairman, Mr Frank Lowy, has announced the appointment of John O’Neill as Chief Executive Officer for an initial three-year period with an opportunity to extend it a further four. As many may know, O'Neill was the architect behind Australian Rugby's resurgence from a bankrupt, lifeless, unrewarding entity to a hugely profitably and professional organisation. With a background in banking, he's regarded as one of the most capable and respected sports administrators in the country and will also be managing director of the new domestic league when it's launched next season. Frank Lowy, for his part, will chair both boards, which seems odd considering the ASA has reinforced the need to keep itself and the NSL separate. Whatever. It's the results that will count.
O'Neill will face challenges that will require new approaches to solve. He's already endorsed the ASA's new edict that will take the dilemma out of playing for Australia for players based overseas by stoically announcing that it's country first, club second. That's all very well in the Rugby world where there's dedicated international and club seasons and players play in their home country, but it's an entirely different proposition for football. While there's never been a problem for official games like World Cup qualifiers, friendlies always have caused problems and the ASA plans to enforce existing Fifa regulations that ensures players are released for their countries else they'll face mandatory bans for their next club's next game. While players can be called for 5 friendlies per year, previous administrations have been reluctant to enforce selection and deferred to player's wishes not to antagonise their clubs and therefore their careers by flying them half way around the world for "trivial" matches.
It will be interesting to see just how flexible this new stance will be, because its first test will come in two weeks with the game against Venezuela in Caracas. A mid-week game bookended by heavy club games, players are already grumbling about the tight schedule, with the most noted being Harry Kewell. Kewell's made it known he won't travel around the world mid-week but will always be available for friendlies in Europe and serious games and has stated that the scheduling of this Venezuela game is in defiance to a promise by previous administrations to players that matches won't be scheduled so poorly. It's an attitude that's provoked thoughts that he may just retire from international football, but truth is, he's not the only one complaining. Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton and Mark Schwarzer in England, Marco Bresciano and Vince Grella in Italy, John Aloisi in Spain and Josip Skoko in Turkey are all under pressure from their clubs to stay, and such a heavy hand by the ASA could see more than just Kewell retire. No, while players will probably tolerate this game against Venezuela, any increased frequency in such poorly scheduled matches will ultimately see Australian soccer as the big loser. There's no doubt that players love playing for Australia and always want to, but some respect must given to their clubs and their careers. That's only being fair and realistic.
This club versus country problem is just getting so big now that extends far beyond Australia's recurring dilemmas. South America's unwieldily schedule of World Cup games is already causing clubs problem with the number of times they are called away from their clubs. The recent African nations championship caused problems, so too will the problem extend as more and more players play outside their home countries. The solution is at Fifa level, and it really is becoming more and more a case that the international games must be stripped out of the club season and with those weeks gained, a dedicated international season can be incorporated at the end of the club season and maybe a short one during the winter breaks when most leagues close. That'll end the club versus country war because no club games are on.
There were some nervous moments, but Australia's U23 team overcame the threat from New Zealand to win 3-1 on aggregate during the week. The win was set up with a 2-0 victory in the home leg with two goals in the last 15 minutes, much to the relief of all concerned. With 16 corners to nil, and so many shots and near misses, it could easily have been much more. Of course, it easily could have remained 0-0.
Even still, in New Zealand, the 1-1 there would have been enough to qualify, thanks to the away goals rule. When NZ scored just after half time, things did look iffy, and they went close twice in trying to level the scores. But the playoff-killer away goal was always a threat to NZ, and when it came 15 minutes before time, it was game set and match.
This was the first time Oceania had direct qualification for the Olympics, and it proved quite farcical. Australia - without any real preparation - overcame the island teams in their group without conceding a goal, whilst NZ, in their pool, had a tougher time. Needing to beat Vanuatu in the final match, they trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes, eventually took the lead, then were the beneficiaries of an incorrect offside decision that ruled out a late goal from Vanuatu. It remains to be seen just how well Australia will do at the Olympics on such a flimsy qualifying campaign. But regardless of that, the qualifying campaign engendered little excitement, produced poor football, and really highlighted the absurdity of Oceania having a direct spot. And since a confederation has a right for direct qualifying, it therefore highlights the absurdity of Oceania. But now is not the time to go over old ground.
Game 1: Australia 2 (McKain 77', Elrich 83') - New Zealand 0
Game 2: New Zealand 1 (Smeltz 51) - Australia 1 (Griffiths 71)
The Socceroos will be back in action during February and March, but already the country versus club battle is on with the game against Venezuela. While it's on a Fifa international date, it's mid-week and totally unrealistic for players to travel so much in the space of a few days. Of course, under Fifa laws, the clubs have no say and Australia can call them up. But that's a poor attitude to take and most national teams are more considerate to agree to a club's and player's wishes in such circumstances. With it therefore being doubtful Australia will field a full strength team, what's the point with the match? The sooner they cancel these midweek games and create an international season at the end of the club season, the better.
In an interview in 4-4-2 magazine, Harry Kewell's comments in saying he'd rather win a championship for Liverpool rather than play in the World Cup for Australia, and felt his career would not feel incomplete if he never played in a World Cup, drew the predicable oohs and aahs from the media. It's something that I'd have shirked at years ago. But lets be realistic. First, Harry's probably not interested in just making the World Cup anyway, he'd want to win it. Second, in a four year term, Harry's with his club 99.9% of the time and Australia the rest. That constitutes about 2 weeks every four years of real games and the handful of friendlies. With such little activity with the national team, it's not surprising where Harry's allegiances would be. His club is his day to day life blood where he devotes virtually all his energies, whereas Australia's some far-flung dalliance. That's the reality. Obviously he still loves playing for Australia, but it's no wonder his priorities are more with his club when so little of his life is directed towards the green and gold. All things considered, it's remarkable that players are as loyal to Australia as what they are when they get such little action in return.
Naturally, this caused a ruckus, coming from the Fifa president. Quoted: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts". He may have a point. The volleyballers do look good. On the other hand, looking at Australia's basketballers as an example of dressing sexy, they look terrible in those skin-suits. The women from other countries in more traditional gear look far more sexier and elegant. With football, I'm more inclined to believe the same applies. Female soccer players already look sexy. Leave them alone, Septic Bladder. Comfort should actually be the main concern. Worry about your own ugly appearance and your putrid executive committee first.
Domestic soccer in this country - will it ever be a force? Well, if the Australian Soccer Association's blueprint for its new "Australian Premier League" can manifest itself, maybe. The major component is the budget clubs will need to field a team - supposedly to keep players here longer and to entice some back from the lower domestic leagues in Europe. The breakdown:
* 10 teams, with 3 from Sydney, 2 from Melbourne, 1 from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and New Zealand, and 1 from one other regional centre like Newcastle or Wollongong.
* Current NSL will be terminated at the end of the season with all clubs needing to re-apply for the new league. New entities obviously also allowed. All will be chosen on businesses merit.
* Five year guarantee provided, but will all clubs will have to generate revenue of 3.5 to 4.5 million dollars in the first year rising to 5.5 million in the fifth year. They'll also have to pay 1 million to join and a further million to capitalise.
* Most significantly, the league will run as a separate entity.
The big query is the amount of revenue needing to be raised, especially considering that most current clubs operate under $2 million. With no TV deal set, income streams will be impossible to meet. It will be interesting to see ASA's approach if it does not get the minimum 10 teams to meet their standards. Do they lower the standards.
Regardless, it seems unlikely will burst into a huge success immediately. The TV deal is crucial, but a TV channel will need to offer $20 million per annum to make the league viable. That's an extraordinary amount given that the most attractive component of the deal - the Socceroos - will see minimal return given that the team is consigned to low-key friendlies, most in outside prime-time TV schedules, with only the South American home World Cup qualifier they only real game on the horizon for the next few years.
The dilemma is that the league needs to be exposed, but the channels that have the capacity to pay the millions are reluctant to show the NSL, regardless of its form. ASA chairman Frank Lowy also sees this similar malaise as well as the probable slow evolution of the new league. With that in mind, the realisation would be that SBS should be given the opportunity to provide the new league the proper exposure it will require, even if the new business standards have to be slightly compromised. After all, any exposure is better than none at all, and you know that with SBS, the coverage of the league will be the most expansive of any of the other free-to-air carriers.
The Olympic team kicks off their qualifiers on Jan 14 against the might of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Papua New Guinea. One has to laugh at theworldgame website about which team would provide the toughest challenge. While quite farcical, these are one-off round robin matches, so a loss to Fiji - not entirely impossible - and Australia is out. Winning the round robin will see Australia play the winner of the other group home and away on Jan 26 and 30.
Group A (Sydney): Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands
Group B (Auckland): New Zealand, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.
So it looks like Australia is in the "group of death" with Fiji and the Solomons, while New Zealand's only possibly threatening encounter is against Vanuatu. But where's Tahiti? The third strongest team in the region is fielding no team. And Australia and NZ will be fed the minnows of the Cook Islands, Tonga and the two Samoas? Supposed weeding them out in preliminary qualifiers would do little purpose as it would only leave a couple of teams for the big guns to play. Suppose it's just another example that highlights the farcical concept of Oceania.
Most curious about these qualifiers is the fact that it's the first time Oceania qualifies direct, which has finally twigged the media to the hypocrisy of Fifa regarding the senior World Cup spot. Sarcastically, the media posed the possibility that Fifa's politically ways don't extend down to the Olympics. Truth is they do, but the likes of Europe and South America have a low regard for any international matches other than the World Cup, so don't bother showing their greed. But of equal curiosity is why those media that condemned Oceania having a World Cup spot (like SBS's Les Murray and Johnny Warren), are also not against that for the Olympic team, or for any other national team level for that matter. Again, just a sign of hypocrisy and ignorance.