After spending a month back in Australia on holiday and recently arriving back in Sweden, I was reflecting on the differences that were noticeable in the football landscape in my home country from when I had left it eighteen months previously.
The first difference I felt was when I found myself watching my A-League team the Melbourne Victory from the palatial new surroundings of Telstra Dome. The last Melbourne game I saw was in my reserved seat on the halfway line at Olympic Park against a team who now no longer exist (Auckland). While the crowd for the game I recently saw at Telstra Dome wasn’t the biggest one for the year (25,489) it is still a number that compares very favourably and dwarfs many established European league crowds. So watching a Victory game at Telstra Dome was a novelty for me and quite a nice difference to experience.
Another difference I noticed was the amount of media space being given to football in the mainstream press. Football articles were given much more prominence in the newspapers at least, although it must be said that the usual suspects such as channel 9 often ignored to mention any football related matters at all in their sports “bulletin.” Leading on (perhaps) from this point, many of my friends who had never in the past talked about football had seemingly developed an appreciation of the game in the months since I had left. Another nice difference to experience.
The first difference I felt was when I found myself watching my A-League team the Melbourne Victory from the palatial new surroundings of Telstra Dome. The last Melbourne game I saw was in my reserved seat on the halfway line at Olympic Park against a team who now no longer exist (Auckland). While the crowd for the game I recently saw at Telstra Dome wasn’t the biggest one for the year (25,489) it is still a number that compares very favourably and dwarfs many established European league crowds. So watching a Victory game at Telstra Dome was a novelty for me and quite a nice difference to experience.
Another difference I noticed was the amount of media space being given to football in the mainstream press. Football articles were given much more prominence in the newspapers at least, although it must be said that the usual suspects such as channel 9 often ignored to mention any football related matters at all in their sports “bulletin.” Leading on (perhaps) from this point, many of my friends who had never in the past talked about football had seemingly developed an appreciation of the game in the months since I had left. Another nice difference to experience.
But one difference that had surprised me but probably shouldn’t have was how cagey and, to be frank, negative so many people were about Australia’s chances to qualify for the World Cup. I would estimate that 90% of people whose opinions I canvassed about what they thought our qualification chances were gave opinions that indicated they were doubtful that we would be making it to South Africa in 2010.
It got me thinking about what had happened since the World Cup in Australian football. I must admit for me personally, I am still stuck in a frame of mind that came about from seeing the Socceroos live in all the World cup games and being so proud of the way we acquitted ourselves as a team (and proud because I had always been of the opinion that with the right coaching, we were always capable of such a performance). I went from Germany to living in Sweden where I have been able to watch high quality football from around the world both at the ground or live on TV every week (not at some un-Godly hour). Being immersed in a culture that loves football as much as I do honestly makes day-to-day life pretty easy to live and it is easy to forget about the struggles that football has in my native country (that is why it was great to finally read Johnny Warren’s biography on the plane back here). I still feel like an excited child waking up here every Saturday morning knowing that I will be watching top quality football from all of my favourite leagues during that day and not having to sacrifice hours of sleep to do it. People over here don’t get how hard it is to watch football in Australia.
Which is why for me Australia’s Asian Cup campaign, while being extremely disappointing, was played out on my computer through highlights and newspaper articles due to the time difference and the impossibility of watching matches due to lack of coverage and work commitments. The failure subsequently did not have as deep an effect on me as it so obviously had on my compatriots. From all reports, watching our players being given a footballing lesson by Iraq and seeing Arnold and Kosmina in charge of the debacle on the sidelines erased the feel-good factor many Australian football fans had about their team. And with good reason. It was a humbling experience if there ever was one.
I talked in an earlier article on this blog about why it was crazy for Australia to not have hired a manager of international pedigree after the World Cup. So many of us could see the malaise that has afflicted the game since the World Cup coming and this is why so many of the Australian footballing community are looking at what is admittedly an extremely tricky World Cup qualifying group with what I think is too much trepidation (or should I qualify this by saying an unhealthy amount of trepidation).Thankfully I have a cure for the pre-match jitters that so many are feeling at the moment: watch all or at least some of Australia’s World Cup games again.
Let me explain. I would have gone to the World Cup with my good friend and fellow WhenBallMeetsFoot columnist Martin Cassidy but for Martin sadly being denied tickets. On coming back to Australia a few weeks ago I set aside a day with him to watch all of our World Cup games again as, not only did I want to re-live this experience with him but I also wanted to get a feeling for what it really was like in Australia during that time and hear the always excellent commentary and analysis from the truly world class team at SBS (Australians, you really are spoilt having such a station).
Well, let me tell you it was quite a day. It really brought back the emotions of that time but what really stuck with us both upon watching it again was how well impressively we played. How composed we were in possession, how we kept possession even against the likes of Brazil and Italy. The list could go on and on about what impressed us, it really was such a joy to watch again and made us realise what a great job Guus Hiddink did with our boys in such a short time.
Which is why I believe you should take some time out to watch a game from our World Cup campaign in the next day or so (the Italy game if you’re pressed for time) if you are feeling pessimistic about our chances against Qatar at Telstra Dome. I promise it will make you feel better as you will see us matching it with the best teams in the world (with all due respect to Qatar, they are teams well ahead of them), and most importantly you will see us when we have an internationally experienced Dutch manager. Granted Pim Verbeek has had precious little time with his squad, I still feel so much more confident with him in the dug-out than Arnold and believe that he will get our team playing well enough in a relatively short period of time (as Hiddink did).
The long journey to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa begins against Qatar tomorrow but I believe that it is wise to look back on those glorious days from the last World Cup in Germany to restore the confidence that has been lost by our fans in the Socceroos under the helm of Graham Arnold. Hopefully, and much more importantly, Verbeek has been able to restore the confidence of our players since he took over as well…
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