Lucas Neill is the new Harry Kewell

Pick one: Sydney Olympic of the New South Wales Premier League, or Watford, promotion contenders in England’s League Championship.

Yup, Lucas Neill has landed on his feet.

Maybe.

Ageing Australia captain Neill needed a club in the worst way in order to lead the Socceroos to this year’s World Cup. There are zero bones about this – seventy-four games for six teams in four years since the last Cup is a telling statistic. Neill was, and perhaps still is, in serious danger of missing Ange Postecoglu’s squad after vehemently criticizing Australia’s young players following ex-manager Holger Osieck’s departure in October.

This week, he has been cut by manager Ange Postecoglu from the Socceroos’ squad for a warm-up game against Ecuador while simultaneously batting seemly eyelashes towards former club Blackburn Rovers and hometown Olympic.

Only in Australian gold does he still command respect for his abilities, if not for his personally-vaunted natural leadership. If he places so much currency in that leadership, it speaks ill of his stocks in this trait that each of his last four teams have not seen the same value. Many younger Socceroos would not share his own lofty opinions of his charisma.

After long stints at Millwall – a club with a long fondness for Aussies – and similarly-inclined Blackburn Rovers, Neill has become a shiftless free agent, roaming the globe in search of game time and ready coin. In the eight years since his defining day in the gold and green, Australia’s most publicized player has played for nine clubs with declining influence. Such has been his difficulty settling down that there have been few stories reporting on-field performance and many on possible landing spots, dressing-shed schisms and how – or if – he fits into a new generation of Socceroos.

Since the South Africa 2010, the defender has only managed over twenty games at one club, rocking up to 39 matches alongside compatriot Harry Kewell at Galatasaray during 2010-11. There is no coincidence that Cimbom’s assistant manager at the time was Guus Hiddink’s sidearm and noted Neill fan Johan Neeskens.

There’s an odd symmetry to the link-up with Kewell, for Lucas has now replaced Kewell as Australian football’s story-for-hire.

Kewell, the captain’s contemporary for Australia, Galatasaray (and nearly Liverpool), has a reputation for making the game all about Harry: overblown and poorly-timed injuries, startling recoveries, a soap-star wife, will-he-play-in-Australia questions, will-he-play-for-Australia questions, an ego with its own gravitational pull and, buried beneath those B-list celebrity trappings, sublime talent.

After making a name for himself as a hard-bitten defender capable of playing both on the right and centrally, Neill has become a similar figure of parody. His presence in the game is now less about his times on the pitch than when he is removed from it. The questions surrounding him are not as lurid as those flung at Kewell, but instead wonder if Neill can successfully contribute to a dressing room, if his inflated opinion of his leadership abilities are to his (and others’) detriment and if he even demands a place on merit in a Socceroo backfield.

Amidst all this, if he is match-fit, Neill probably still has a role to play. With Rhys Williams missing the tournament, Neill may be the best central defender Australia has to offer to a terrifying group in Brazil. He has an amount of that chest-out, chin-up defiance made so popular by John Terry that if not encumbered with egotism might prove invaluable in an Australian squad likely to include several players at their first Cup.

Watford will provide fourteen potential opportunities to prove to Postecoglu that he can contribute tactically and physically rather than solely with his Spartan brand of leadership.

Kruse and Williams to miss World Cup; Socceroos further taunted by Satan

Australians are used to the heat, but even those enduring eternal damnation in the fires of Hades might posit that this January has been atypically warm. While the Australian wilderness bakes, new Socceroos manager Ange Postecoglu must be sadly regarding his kitchen’s increasing temperature: first, he was dealt a truly petrifying group and in the past ten days, he has lost two key players for the onrushing World Cup.

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Striker Robbie Kruse and midfielder/defender Rhys Williams have both suffered with season-ending injuries, blows which may perhaps define the World Cup for their countrymen.

The pair, Australia’s most eligible leaders, were the fresh faces of Postecoglu’s new Socceroos. The manager’s initial remit was to overhaul a staid national setup, with the two players most liable to benefit most from a divestment of “leadership” were Kruse and Williams. Mainstream Australia could identify with the pair – good players in excellent competitions, with the bonus of representing the Socceroos for long enough to be recognizable while not being members of the burnished Golden Generation.

The enforced withdrawals remove a vast element of class from any potential World Cup squad. While the A-League – and, indeed, most Asian football leagues – are improving in quality, there’s little question that the cream of Australian footballers ply their trade in Europe, and are regarded by Skippies with a certain amount of expectation. With Kruse and Williams sidelined, more of that responsibility sits awkwardly on the shoulders of unproven midfielders Tommy Oar, Tom Rogic and James Holland.

There is likely one silver lining from a dark week in Australian football: the squad that Postecoglu will select for Brazil will likely be comprised of very familiar names – old ones yukking up proto-retirement in the Emirati leagues (you’re excluded, Mark Bresciano), and younger players who appear in local competitions. That group includes interesting names such as left-back Ivan Franjic, Robbie Cornthwaite, Aaron Mooy and “Viduka-lite” Tomi Juric.

The post-World Cup boost Australian soccer received in 2006 was palpable around the then-nascent A-League, even though only one local made the squad. With half the squad in the general vicinity and a more unified outlook brought about by Postecoglu’s share-the-wealth game plan, Australian football can look upon the past week’s terror as an opportunity – albeit a sad one – to expand its brand and showcase the talent on display at home.