Vindicated: Postecoglou can rightly feel he has silenced the doubters. Photo: Getty Images
Socceroo coach Ange Postecoglou insisted in the run up to the Asian Cup that he should not be judged on the disappointing results of his team’s lead-up games but on their performance in the tournament itself.
The time for judgment has not yet come. That will be after the final on Saturday night, when definitive assessments of Australia’s achievements over the past few weeks can be made.
But as he prepares for the match with South Korea, Postecoglou can rightly feel he has silenced those small number of doubters who were starting to fret over the nation’s prospects as the tournament approached, ignoring his assurances that the warm-up matches should not be a measure of the Socceroos’ progress.
Postecoglou and his team have grown in confidence. Photo: Getty Images
The 2015 version of the national team has now, at the very least, matched the achievements of the 2011 collection who made the Asian Cup final in Qatar under Postecoglou’s German predecessor Holger Osieck.
That side had bigger names – Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer and Lucas Neill, to name just three – but came up short against Japan in the decider, losing in extra time.
If any extra motivation was needed for some of the survivors of that squad -Tim Cahill, in particular – then the memory of that heartbreaking last gasp loss should suffice.
Postecoglou has worked to develop the talent beyond Tim Cahill. Photo: Getty Images
But this does not look like an Australian side that needs the motivation of remembered defeats or disappointments to deliver on the biggest occasion most players have faced.
This is a team that is focused and determined, one that is embracing the realisation it has the chance to make a major statement, not just for individuals but for the game and the nation.
For the coach, that last point is important. For all of his image as a self-contained man confident in his own ideas and judgments, and for all the occasional prickliness, Postecoglou is, at heart, a football romantic and an evangelist for the game.
Socceroos Tomi Juric and Mathew Leckie scrap for the ball with United Arab Emirates players in the semi-final. Photo: Getty Images
He sees the bigger picture for a sport that has been a constant in his life since his family arrived in Melbourne as migrants from Greece when he was a youngster and he is determined to play a role in its growth.
For Postecoglou football is more than a means of expression, a pastime or a way to make a living. It is also a path to social engagement.
His personal background ensured that football was the way in which he, like millions of migrants, began to integrate into an Australian society that wasn’t, back in the late 1960s, always welcoming.
He understands its potential as a uniting force for the country as it also feels its way towards a greater engagement in the Asian region. It is the one code where Australians can compete with Malaysians or Chinese, Qataris or Indonesians and be on the same wavelength.
They might sound like lofty claims and of course geopolitics is not the thing that Postecoglou talks about. But in a real way that sense of national identity and the role the Socceroos can play in reinforcing it lies at the root of the his passion and commitment to the game and his team.
Postecoglou is determined that the Socceroos should not just win, but win well. That they play in a fashion that reflects an Australian mindset favouring adventure and aggression over caution and timidity, a willingness to take the game on and make your own luck rather than rely on a negative, spoiling approach or others’ ill-fortune.
He set that out as a template three weeks ago in Melbourne, before Australia played its tournament opener against Kuwait, suggesting that not only was the Asian Cup about winning silverware but winning new fans for the sport in the teeth of some fierce competition in the summer marketplace.
“Australian sporting teams, we want them to be aggressive proactive and take the game to opponents. We have scored more goals than any other team, we have only conceded twice. We want to be successful, but we also want to grow the game in this country,” he said while reflecting on the game shortly after the Socceroos had booked their place in the final.
His great success in his short tenure – it is only really 15 months since he took over – is to create a squad of players where the parts are, to as great an extent as possible, interchangeable.
Yes, there are key men and a core starting line-up – Mat Ryan in goal, Trent Sainsbury and Matthew Spiranovic at the back, Mile Jedinak in midfield, Tim Cahill and Robbie Kruse in attacking roles – but they are not indispensable.
Man of the moment Massimo Luongo has, in a short time, staked his claim to be a part of that core group with his industrious displays in midfield, as has Mathew Leckie, with his intensity and work rate in forward areas.
But there are a host of others in the squad who, as a result of the way in which Postecoglou used the lead-up games to create the right blend and build their self-belief, understand themselves as key parts of the whole, whether they start or not.
For example Alex Wilkinson, a regular during the World Cup, has shown no frustration at being left on the bench for most of this tournament and when called in to start against China because of Spiranovic’s suspension, fitted in seamlessly before making way again for the semi-final against the UAE.
James Troisi has been in and out of the starting line-up but always performed his role when needed. Veteran Mark Bresciano has mainly been a bench player this time round, while even Cahill, the great talisman of Australian teams, has been started on the bench and taken off early when games are done and dusted.
None has grizzled or complained, and Postecoglou has created an atmosphere where any number of players genuinely don’t know whether they will start or not.
The final against South Korea represents a fresh challenge as well as the opportunity for revenge following the group game loss in Brisbane. Far from being haunted by that defeat on a hot and humid night on an inadequate surface at Suncorp Stadium, Postecoglou sees it as a learning experience.
That night he rested Cahill, Kruse and Leckie – his first-choice front three – and experimented with Tomi Juric, Nathan Burns and Troisi. Still the Socceroos dominated much of the possession and, with an ounce of luck, would have had a share of the spoils.
Postecoglou and his team have grown in confidence since then and certainly don’t fear the Taeguk Warriors. South Korea have not conceded a goal yet in this tournament, but it might be a brave punter who would back them to keep that record intact at Stadium Australia on Saturday.
source:smh.com.au
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STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 