Remembering Unthanked Socceroo heroes

November 15, 2005.

Six years ago Australian football changed forever. It was on that night that Guus Hiddink's Socceroos upset Uruguay to claim their first World Cup berth since 1974.

The team featured the best collection of footballing talent Australia had produced to that point, led by Mark Viduka and the genius Dutchman who inspired almost single-handedly an antipodean worship of the principles of Total Football. Many still speak in hushed tones of Hiddink's regard for Australia and his "constant contact" with the Socceroos he befriended during their star-cross'd '06 campaign.

SBS commentator Craig Foster tweeted about the that incredible evening yesterday, reminding us that the national anthem was booed, of Mark Bresciano's levelling goal, how much we feared Alvaro Recoba and finally, Mark Schwarzer's saves and John Aloisi's incredible penalty. It ranks as one of my top three sporting memories of all time - I can remember the friends I watched it with, how many beers I drank and ever half-cut scream of delight at Schwarzer's heroics.

Source: Twitter.com

 That wonderful night - friends and I ran down the main street of our town in our underwear, so happy were we - was one of the highest points in Australian football, rivalled by the 1997 Confederations Cup and matches against Japan, Brazil, Croatia and Italy at the 2006 Big Dance.

Though that evening at the Sydney Olympic Stadium was wonderful, the administration that went into November 15, 2005 was perhaps more surprising that a Socceroo upset victory. For so long split by infighting, the FFA had reached a turning point in the years prior. If Cahill, Kewell, Viduka and Moore was our "Golden Generation", then Australian football's dream management team backed that talent.

They may even rival Aloisi and Schwarzer as the real heroes of that night.

Chairman Frank Lowy and CEO John O'Neill were installed in the years before and it was Lowy's hefty billfold that funded the temporary acquisition of Hiddink, who was then managing PSV Eindhoven. Though he brought a World Cup to Australian Rugby Union, O'Neill has never administrated more masterfully than over that World Cup campaign. As any business entity goes, let alone the a race-torn and struggling sports administration, it worked superbly: Lowy provided the gift of vision, O'Neill got things done. This all allowed Hiddink to do what he was paid for: get the most out of his men.

After Lowy and O'Neill took office, they began by disbanding the ailing, nationalistic NSL and replaced it with the A-League. A complete re-boot was needed and the domestic game - while hardly thriving - is in much calmer (and less violent, except when Kevin Muscat and John Kosmina are involved) waters than ever before. The model ascended to such prominence in the next two years that the National Basketball League has recently followed suit in attempting to re-brand.

courtesy: free-football.tv

The pair also spearheaded Australia's move into the Asian Football Confederation. This was aimed at giving Australian domestic competition the chance to thrive in a stronger, more well-funded sphere of influence. Qualification wouldn't ride on a head-to-head versus New Zealand and then playing the fifth-placed Asian or South American team. As in business and politics, Australia now looks towards their nearest - rather than most phenotypically similar - relations.

This move brought about Adelaide FC's march to the 2008 Asian Champions' League final and empowered several fringe Socceroos to move to Qatar, China, Japan or South Korea for better remuneration than the nascent A-League could afford. Qualification for the World Cup is desirable; actually having a strong football fraternity is actually more crucial.

While we remember that wonderful night, it's also time to pay tribute to the visionaries behind it. If Hiddink is thought alongside Rale Rasic as as Australia's greatest coach, then O'Neill and Lowy deserve to be thought of with similar fondness.

John Aloisi: helping or hurting?

With A-League clubs beginning to convince the younger members of Australia's golden generation to return to antipodean shores, such moves come with a warning from the country's favourite penalty-taker, John Aloisi.

Aloisi, the first Australian to play in the all three major European leagues (with Cremonese, Coventry City and Osasuna), retired after one season at A-League new boys Melbourne Heart and did not have a happy homecoming after two years as Sydney FC's marquee player. Even though he scored a creditable 27 goals in 75 A-League matches, his time in Australia has formed an unhappy coda to a wonderful career.

His experience has apparently convinced Australia custodian Mark Schwarzer never to return to the A-League. This is presumably because he "copped it" from non-football types who expect their superstar striker - which was what Aloisi was paid like, at least initially - to score more than four goals every ten games. With soccer, the general complaint of those who don't follow it regularly is a relative lack of incident - and Australia have plenty of those fans. He was unable to bear the media and uneducated fan pressure which expected his building excitement around the league and his own play.

This is not his fault: he was the first striker from the 2006 World Cup squad to come home - Archie Thompson never left - and arrived in town at an age where his pace and skills were beginning to decline. Many of the expectations were not only unrealistic, but fantastical.

courtesy: theroar.com.au

The A-League has garnered significant publicity for a fledgling competition, and in a country where it's very much the fifth sport (or worse), it's only natural that attention falls on those players with the greatest reputations and past achievements. That much of the publicity surrounding John Aloisi (and his less-gifted, more brutal younger brother Ross) was more negative than positive (language warning) has apparently left Aloisi - now the manager of the Heart's youth team - feeling like it's important to shoo his Socceroo teammates away.

He's now warned Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell that they face playing with lesser teammates. This, combined with his almost vicarious words through Schwarzer, makes him the opposite of what he was paid for in Sydney and Melbourne - an anti-advertisement for Australia's premier football competition. His words - though almost certainly true - aren't constructive.

He is of course free to give his opinions - and some of his observations are astute. Kewell and Emerton are likely to be frustrated by some of the circumstances surrounding football in Australia. Both, however, are aware of any potential pitfalls, but have been offered terms (or family benefits) which can't be found elsewhere. Given his propensity for a life under the microscope, Kewell may find the going especially tough, while the reserved Emerton looks a virtual certainty to succeed at Sydney FC.

His messages are mixed and don't offer the A-League up as an enticing option for Australians or any other big names looking for a final payday. In fact, given his role in youth development at Heart (eeugh) he may be in the medium term, minimising his own future employment prospects.

The A-League is a flawed league - as are most, especially where football is not the nation's primary sport. Australia relies on big name players to generate interest in football between World Cup campaigns. It is simple enough for Aloisi to say as such, rather than elucidating further. He should inform his teammates and friends of what they should expect to encounter in a private, rather than a public forum.

According to Henry Ford, should a person be satisfied with a purchased service, they will tell a maximum of three people; if they are dissatisfied, they will tell a minimum of seven. Aloisi is following that rule of thumb. Bad publicity now outweighs the A-League's success stories in the national press. Further sideways aspersions from Aloisi is press attention the league can ill afford.