Australia Stutter In Seoul

September 8, 2009

Australia would be concerned after their 3-1 loss to South Korea. The Socceroos were wobbly, unsure and overly cautious and made a mockery of their FIFA ranking of 14. Pim Verbeek has much to think about between now and next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

On the one hand, the big names of Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill and Harry Kewell weren’t there, but is the gap between Australia’s best and the next best that great? Apart from the aforementioned trio, the likes of David Carney, Scott Chipperfield and Luke Wilshire weren’t playing and so it was really a lightweight Socceroos side taking on South Korea.

This was a chance for the likes of Scott McDonald, Josh Kennedy, Vince Grella and Brett Holman to shine and they failed dismally. What this means is that there is going to be extra weight carried on the shoulders of Cahill and Kewell. It is time for someone to put their hand up and to say they will shoulder some of the load in South Africa. Someone needs to become a foil and not just a passenger. If the Socceroos will want to advance out of the Group Stage they will need better. Much better.

Australia has an upcoming friendly against the Netherlands and the Socceroos are going to have lift their game dramatically if they don’t want to embarrass themselves.

This has already happened with the Asian Cup qualifying and now there is no way Australia can rely on the domestic players if it wants to qualify for the Asian Cup. It only has one point from two games after drawing against Indonesia and losing to Kuwait. Its next game is against Oman in October and the Socceroos have to win that. If it doesn’t, its qualification hopes will be in tatters as will a lot of soccer betting. A win will steady the ship remarkably. Still two of its final three games will be away and neither of those will be easy.

What the Socceroos are finding is that as they progress the bar of expectations rises, but this isn’t a bad thing. They should want to succeed and not just cruise. They have never had things better. They play more often than they ever did and get together more often than ever before. It is only natural that people will want to see them do well. This pressure is what comes with being a good team.

David Wiseman writes about the Socceroos. When he doesn’t do this, he is thinking about his Melbourne Cup betting.

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