Day 13: Advance Australia Where?

So, that's it. A bugger really, but it turned out better than it looked like it might at the start. Pride has been restored. The impressive win over Serbia, following the gallant effort against Ghana has repaired much of the damage caused by the humiliation in the opening match. But despite that, we are heading home and the next era of Australian footballs begins.

It is a time to reflect, and a time to look forward...

The Reign of Pim
After the mess of the '07 Asian Cup the FFA needed to ensure qualification for South Africa. They knew that despite the initial success of the A-League, the gains made from the Germany '06 campaign would be squandered unless the national team was on the world stage again in 2010. The majority of the squad from '06 would still be around, so a rebuilding was not required. They just needed someone who could get the results. Initially they lured Dick Advocaat, but although his late withdrawal left a nasty taste in the mouth of the FFA they opted for another Dutchman, Pim Verbeek.

Put simply, Pim did the job he was employed to do. He was criticised for his formation, his gameplan and the lack of flair in our play, but he received little praise for successfully navigating us through our first Asian qualifying campaign. He got into hot water when he described Archie Thompson and Danny Allsop as "absolutely hopeless" and bemoaned the poor standard of the A-League - a view which was proven correct when a Socceroos outfit made of A-League players was embarrassed by Kuwait in an AFC qualifier in Canberra - but again he got no acknowledgement for the work he did with several A-League coaches while in charge of the national team.

He also displayed that he is a man of his word. When challenged by TV-pundit Simon Hill about not singing the national anthem, he vowed to learn the words if qualification was acheived. He kept his promise, and even took up Hill's challenge to sing it to the nation. The result was two of the best minutes of Australian television ever put to air.

He also successfully secured qualification to the Asian Cup in 2011 - often with a "second-string" team - an important factor which will be discussed more later...

At the finals he made one tactical error, but unfortunately it was a complete fuck-up and it cost us a place in the Round of 16. In the opening game, knowing that victory was unlikely and that the more important games were to come, his plan was to soak up the German pressure, and then try to nick a result by using the pinch-hitters he had saved on the bench. Clearly conceding a goal in the 8th minute, and having Cahill dismissed by on over-zealous referee were not part of that plan, but it seemed that playing a poorly executed offside trap was. To his credit he did not lay blame on his players though, and was humble enough to take total responsibility. Professional to the end.

Good luck Pim.

The Future?
The Asian Cup is only seven months away, and its importance should not be underestimated. Winning the title will see us compete in the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil. As we found during qualifying campaigns in '93, '01 and '05, South America is a whole new ball game, and any opportunity to play meaningful games in the cities and stadiums that will host the finals the following year must be pursued.

The FFA must put every possible resource into the tournament. The '07 campaign was a disaster as much for the off-field penny-pinching as it was for the sub-par performances from the players. The mistakes of poor preparation and care-taker management can not be repeated.

The first step clearly is the appointment of a replacement for Pim, and quite a few names have already been rumoured.

Some, such as Ossie Ardilles or Ricki Herbert, are just fanciful and ridiculous while others such as Sven Goran Erikkson or Paul Le Guen would be a terrible mistake given their recent track records. The suspicion is that the preference for Dutch influence will be continued, putting Leo Beenhakker, Marco van Basten or Frank Rijkaard in the picture. Johan Neeskens would probably tell Ben Buckley to get fucked given his treatment by the FFA when Hiddink departed, so he can probably be ruled out. Carlos Alberto Parreira is also a candidate for his South American and Asian experience.

If it were my money I'd opt for Rijkaard. It is his groundwork that Barcelona are now flourishing on, and he'd be ideal to take an established but aging squad into a major tournament, and then gradually inject some youth (and style!) in the lead up to 2014. Of course, he will be difficult (ie. expensive) to tease away from Galatasaray, but with a contract of $6M allegedly on offer then anything is possible.

And as for the players? Well, while many of the current squad may not be around in four years, now is not the time for them to all step aside. Schwarzer and Chipperfield should be encouraged to stay on at least till next January, and others should be phased out if and only when their logical replacement becomes apparent - and for some positions this may not occur until after 2014. In fact the only member of this squad who should be left out of considerations for the Asian Cup is Craig Moore, with the first job of the new manager being to sort out which combination of Neill, Milligan and Beauchamp is most reliable.

However there are two senior players who have question marks over them after their performances in recent times. Vinnie Grella and Jason Culina.

Grella is slowly but surely turning into Kevin Muscat, and with Jedinak and Valeri emerging as genuine talents then he is on shaky ground.

Culina was poor in South Africa, and his gripe seemed to be that he was played out of position. Well Jason, this ain't the A-League - it's the national team, and if you're playing under a Dutch manager, then putting in the type of shite you delivered over the past two weeks simply because you aren't versatile enough to adapt to a position on the flank will end your international career pretty damn quickly.

The only other change needed is in the leadership. Lucas Neill has served the team well, but he probably wont last until 2014. Also, the bleating and whining displayed by the team, and the apparent perception that "the ref's are out to get us" is perhaps subconsciously linked to his foul on Fabian Grosso against Italy four years ago. The leading candidate should be Luke Wilkshire. He was a standout throughout the recent campaign, and was one of the few who did not drop their head in the rout by Germany. He'd be ready to take over now, and perhaps there is no coincidence that he did some relatively high-profile media/charity work while in Africa.

Roll on January!