The Sun-Herald

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Verbeek: 100% un-Australian. 100% correct.

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek chose the week of Australia Day, the patriotic barbie-fuelled, zinc-creamed, celebration of everything under our Union Jacked Southern Cross to tell us that, actually, we're not that good.

"If you train for three weeks with Nuremberg or with Karlsruhe I have to be very honest, I still think that's better than playing A-League games."

Bewdy, Pim. Ripper. These Dutchies sure know how to spoil a celebratory party.

Or, if you prefer, Verbeek has given Australian football the slap in the face that it might need.

Right now, the A-League is an Australian Idol contestant that's been told by loving family and friends its entire life that, yes, you really do have talent.

Yes, you too, could be the next Kylie Minogue.

Harsh audition lights suggest otherwise, however. On current form, dreams of stardom will morph into a career fronting wedding bands and cruise ship cabaret.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that).

Yet, with a bit of luck and by listening to people who know about these things, you might be able to flip that raw talent into something very special.

First, though, you need a lot of hard work to make it to the top.

Let's go back a step.

In 2006, Archie Thompson was the A-League's poster boy.

Socceroo coach Guus Hiddink spotted some talent in Archie and, knowing Australia needed strikers for the upcoming World Cup, took the Melbourne Victory pin-up to Holland to spend a few months at PSV Eindhoven, the club that Hiddink also coached.

On a cold Dutch day in March, I stood on the sidelines of PSV's headquarters and watched as Hiddink and his coaches put their squad through a training session.

Phillip Cocu and Michael Reiziger, who included clubs like Milan and Barcelona on their CVs, were the old hands in a group of players that were hungry and desperate to be the best of the best on that morning.

Archie, it could clearly be seen at training, was a couple of clicks off PSV's pace.

It wasn't necessarily Archie's fault, either. He was the product of an environment where 60% is good enough to succeed.

This figure is the exact number that a former Socceroo told me was the level he needed to play at in Australia compared to Europe.

Hiddink agreed and one of the A-League's best talents barely played during his brief time in Holland.

Thompson then returned to Australia and scored 300 goals in the A-league Grand Final, or something. So there you go.

For players desperate to break into, or stay at, the top, in Europe, a training session is almost a matter of life and death. It can be a career maker or breaker.

I know this from scenes witnessed first hand while following Australian players abroad from Stoke to Munich to Parma to Blackburn.

But more shocking than Verbeek's forthright straight talk was the reaction from sections of the media and A-League apologists.

It was strange to learn that Australians appear so thin-skinned.

It's a similar mentality that blindly boasts Melbourne is "the world's most livable city" or Sydney has "a great lifestyle".

Yeah... nah... OK... whatever.

The main point was missed when Verbeek dropped his bomb.

Comparing the A-League to European standard is not the issue.

Importantly, unlike the parent of an Australian Idol wanna-be, Verbeek will not tell us what we want to hear.

In a world of smoke and mirrors and double-speak sports talk, the Socceroos coach is telling it straight. Which is a quality that Australians once held up as a virtue.

Ironically, Verbeek has quietly championed the local league with his selection of bolter James Holland and up-and-coming players like Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Bruce Djite, Stuart Musialik, and Mark Bridge but in a knockback patriotic fervour, you might have missed that.

If those guys listen to Verbeek, his influential technical Director Rob Baan, and the top Socceroos playing for European clubs, they too may make it past this audition stage.

"I am not here to please players," Verbeek told journalists in 2005 when he was coaching South Korea. "I'm not here to please anybody. I'm here to win the game."

If that's un-Australian, then I'm applying for a Dutch passport.

• by Matthew Hall at 03:33 AM
• Comments (28)

Saturday, January 19, 2008

A-League Anxiety: The Season That Was

Another A-League season is over. We've had some thrills, a few spills, a little drama and, occasionally, even some football.

Sport and a blog is a great cocktail for opinion (I take mine with an olive). So, after the third season of the A-League, this is what we do, and don't, know:

1. Teams that win the title have a shocker the following season. Hello Sydney and hello Melbourne Victory.

2. Unfortunately, you don't have to play the "best" football to be the "top" team.

3. Coaching sucks. In just three seasons, eight clubs (and I'm counting the Kiwis as one team) have had 20 different coaches (including John Kosmina, twice).

4. That includes Central Coast and Melbourne Victory who have had the same guy in charge for three seasons.

5. Which means that six clubs had 18 coaches!

6. Imported English coaches have been a failure in the A-League. Bye bye Terry Butcher, Richard Money, Steve McMahon, and Paul Nevin.

7. Coaches with Scottish backgrounds have been a success. Give us a wave Lawrie McKinna and Ernie Merrick.

8. Frank Farina is a better coach with young players in the A-League than he ever was with the national team.

9. Frank Lowy loves John Kosmina.

10. The competition's structure makes it difficult for coaches to develop and be anything more than conservative.

11. Which is why it's a disgrace that an up and coming young coach like Aurelio Vidmar was in danger of losing his job after just one season.

12. So, because coaches have to be conservative, many young players are struggling to get game time.

13. Like talented Kaz Patafta at Melbourne Victory.

14. This makes expansion of the A-League a very good idea.

15. But not in "markets" that already exist.

16. So, hello Townsville and Gold Coast.

17. And Wollongong, get your act together.

18. But we still don't need any second teams in major cities for a while. Seriously.

19. More teams = more games = better for everyone.

20. Especially Pim Verbeek who thinks the standard of the A-League isn't exactly world class.

21. He's right.

22. Don't take it personally but, really, he's right.

23. Training, competition within teams, matches, have to be far more intense.

24. No A-League player is good enough to get a start in the first team of an English, Italian, German, or Spanish top-flight side.

25. In fact, Sydney sold its best player to Sheffield United!

26. Where he can't get a regular game.

27. Conversely and perversely, the most technically gifted player in the A-League - Juninho - can't get a regular run with Sydney. Even if he is injured.

28. Which suggests the so-called "Marquee" player concept isn't really working.

29. Isn't that true Mario Jardel, Paul Agostinio, Stan Lazaridis, and Ahmad Elrich?

30. Ahmad Elrich??? Wasn't he the next big thing?

31. And someone at Wellington Phoenix thinks Elrich, their Marquee, is the best drawcard they've got?!

32. Only Dwight Yorke delivered in every department as a Marquee player.

33. Which means the concept works if it's applied properly.

34. Eleven imported Brazilians began the A-League season.

35. But just because someone comes from Rio doesn't mean they're any good.

36. Did you know Ned Zelic is now playing for Dinamo Tblisi in Georgia?

37. Is Hayden Foxe always injured?

38. Did Stan Lazaridis eventually find a natural cure for alopecia?

39. It's fantastic that it's young guys like Nathan Burns who are the most exciting players.

40. Nathan Burns is from New South Wales and should be a Sydney player.

41. Or at least signed to Central Coast Mariners or Newcastle Jets.

42. The same for Bruce Djite.

43. Central Coast Mariners grassroots and community work puts Sydney to shame.

44. Do Alex Tobin, Tony Vidmar, and John Aloisi know that Gosford isn't really a northern suburb of Adelaide?

45. Gee, David Beckham is popular, isn't he?

46. The fact that the top four teams were on level points going into the final round is a good thing.

47. Isn't it?

48. Now that we are in the play-offs, anyone who can confidently pick the Grand Final winner is making it up.

49. Do we support Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United in the Asian Champions' League?

50. Can next season start already?

There, I said it. I'm sure you all have something to add...

• by Matthew Hall at 03:50 AM
• Comments (11)

Saturday, January 12, 2008

You Are Pim Verbeek.

If you were the Socceroos coach, what would you do next?

Pim Verbeek has been earning his money over the past few weeks, scratching both his head and notebook as he works out what team to pick for Australia's opening World Cup qualifier on February 6.

Rather than Qatar, it's geography that's Verbeek's toughest opponent.

The match will be played in Melbourne. Unfortunately for Verbeek, the players he'd like to select live and work in Europe.

They can't get much time off from their day jobs because, due to a bizarre scheduling system, this game falls on a FIFA "friendly" date rather than a "competitive" game day.

This means clubs like Liverpool, Everton, West Ham, and Torino are compelled to release their Australian players for international duty only 48 hours before the game.

When FIFA drew up its Eurocentric regulations little thought was given to little old Australia and its World Cup qualifying campaign.

So Verbeek is faced with a choice of flying out Australia's best players from Europe but having little, if any, preparation time with his new squad.

Add jet lag, time zones, and 30 hours in the air and it's not ideal for your first game in charge.

Alternatively, he selects a "make do" side from A-League players, knowing that some don't come up to scratch.

Not ideal for your first game in charge, either.

Or he chooses the bulk of the side from A-League players and adds less than a handful of players from Europe, those who can a) add experience to the squad and b) get to the game on time.

It's a formula that even we park footballers can empathise with. We worry each weekend whether we have enough players to field 11-a-side or if our star player will turn up in time for kick off. Pim now has the same concerns as us.

The formula, though, is actually very simple. The hard part is the ability to make a decision.

Verbeek has publicly expressed concern about the number of mistakes - needless errors - that he has seen in A-League matches.

We can talk up A-League merits but the brutal truth is that it's as NOT intense nor competitive as ruthless European leagues.

Mistakes cost goals and goals lose - and win - matches.

At the top, games are decided by millimeters. The slightest margin in ability and, importantly, concentration make the difference.

As Verbeek has explained, many A-League players make poor decisions and basic errors.

With that in mind, the first piece of Verbeek's jigsaw puzzle will be his defence.

He will choose Mark Schwarzer as goalkeeper.

If Brett Emerton has a good travel agent and can get the right flight connections to travel from Blackburn to Melbourne and back with in a week, expect the Socceroos' best athlete to make the game as well.

Lucas Neill wants to make the trip and it's possible he will.

So, slowly, Verbeek is able to place talented and experienced players in key positions.

Locally, Craig Moore announced last week that he's available to play, which is a huge confidence boost.

Vastly experienced as a player and leader, Moore will make sure his teammates are 100 per cent focused for 95 minutes of a 90-minute game.

Expect Moore's long-time friend Kevin Muscat to play a role as well. He may be a mongrel but he can talk younger players through a game.

John Aloisi's decision to return to play in Australia means the Socceroos now have a proven international goalscorer on the doorstep.

There's your spine. Yes, there's no young guns there.

Verbeek might like a time machine to transport players around the world in a flash but his immediate policy is still all about going back to the future.

The challenge for younger A-League players is to demonstrate that they're good enough to fill the gaps.

Unless, of course, Verbeek shows that he's smarter than all of us and, like a magician, pulls some rabbits out the hat.

Let's hope he does. That's why he's coach of the Socceroos coach and we're still down the park. Or writing these blogs.

• by Matthew Hall at 01:40 AM
• Comments (36)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

The Second Coming of Kewell

Harry Kewell is back and returning to his part-time job: human headline.

Internet bandwidth fattened during the week with the apparent "news" - and I use the term very loosely - that Roy Hodgson, the new manager of English club Fulham, intends to make Kewell his first signing in the next few weeks.

Kewell, the legend goes, is washed up and finished at Liverpool. So what better venue to progress your career than quaint Craven Cottage, a ramshackle riverside stadium in London in danger of hosting second division football next season?

The internet being what it is, a platform for unchecked and unsubstantiated rumour mongering, Kewell was packing his suitcase and driving down the M1 from Manchester (where he lives) to London quicker than it takes to read this paragraph.

The January transfer window is officially Silly Season, a time of wild speculation, wishful thinking, and wish-wash.

But a few phone calls confirmed Hodgson's hopes as little more than all of the above.

As we all know, Kewell has experienced an extremely difficult three years with injury.

Lowlights included tearing his adductor muscle in the 2005 Champions League final against Milan. Some Liverpool fans demonstrated their smarts by booing him from the pitch as he hobbled to the sideline.

He recovered sufficiently enough, sort of, to play for Australia at the World Cup in 2006.

Watching him train away from the rest of the squad at the Socceroos training camp near Eindhoven before the tournament, however, you would have been extremely optimistic to think he would later score the dramatic equalizer against Croatia that got Australia through to the knock-out rounds. Or maybe just a believer in fairy tales.

It was thanks to the extraordinary effort of Australian physiotherapist Les Gelis and fitness coach Anthony Crea, part of the Socceroos backroom staff at the World Cup, that he got back on the pitch before his body broke down again after the Croatia game.

Happy endings were a long time coming in this story. Kewell's woes resurfaced after the Asian Cup (where he played more often than the Liverpool coaching staff were comfortable with but that's another story) but was sensibly nursed, rather than rushed as is often the case, back to fitness by Liverpool.

Liverpool might have Les Gelis to thank for that as well. Impressed by his work with Kewell, Gelis is now employed as a consultant by Liverpool.

Gelis told me recently that Kewell is now officially 100 per cent injury free. Like, really.

Gelis also said that he'd never met an athlete as focused and committed as Harry. If Kewell was expecting to be one minute late for a rehab session, he would text Gelis to let him know.

Facts make a mockery of the speculation and idle chat that often accompany Kewell.

Which brings us back to his future at Liverpool.

Kewell's current contract expires at the end of this season. That means he can now talk to any other club about new contract offers.

Fulham is not one of them.

In fact, Liverpool are keen to retain Kewell and, according to people close to the club, a new two-year deal is on offer.

Liverpool, unsurprisingly considering recent history, would probably like to make that contract based on first-team appearances but with coach Rafael Benitez's rotation policy currently the norm at Anfield, the club is struggling to get any players to agree to deals structured that way.

But stand aside for the twist in this tale. You may have heard about an Italian club called Juventus. They won Serie A and the Champions League a few times. It's a club also dogged by recent controversy and is also home to Australian goalkeeper Jess Vanstratten.

It's one of the biggest clubs in the world and within the corridors of its Turin headquarters there is serious discussion about bringing Kewell to Italy.

Seriously.

The idea has developed so far that the club would even tie his contract to a Beckham-like game between Juventus and Sydney at some point in the very near future.

(And, sorry Sydney fans, but this is as close as he will get to the A-League in the immediate future.)

The 83,000 or so filled seats at Homebush did not go unnoticed around the world. World Cup success and A-League potential now sees Australia considered as a viable market, ripe for plucking by big international teams.

So the question might now not be whether Liverpool want to keep Kewell but whether Kewell wants to stay at Anfield.

Hmm. Imagine that.

A hunch suggests, however, that Kewell wants at least one full season at Liverpool, a stint where he can turn on the lights, carve up the pitch, and show detractors, critics, and the skeptical (that means some of you) what the real Harry is all about, as well as pay back those at the club who supported him during tough times.

He might even help Liverpool win the Premier League next season.

OK, OK, I admit. That's a fantasy too far.

• by Matthew Hall at 03:41 AM
• Comments (54)