Reflecting on the Socceroos' 30-man squad

Most suspected that Australia manager Ange Postecoglou would select a young side for the upcoming World Cup, but few perhaps were able to envisage the aspect of the 2014 Socceroos.

There are only a few readily recognizable faces in the squad, with Postecoglou true to his word in selecting ten players of his initial 30 from the A-League. As expected, there was no room for longstanding captain and lightning rod Lucas Neill, while the recent international exiles of Emerton, Holman, Schwarzer and Ognenovski mean the Aussies will fill their gold kits with an almost patriotically green squad.

Five Socceroos survive from Australia’s watershed 2006 campaign – Luke Wilkshire, Joshua Kennedy, Tim Cahill, Mark Milligan and Mark Bresciano – and they will be expected to provide most of the veteran professionalism required to extract the best from a group described best as youthful and perhaps even naïve.

Asia’s brotherhood of ageing bruisers are now no more than a bolded entry in gilt-edged history books. Australia is looking to the future with a special focus not on the 2014 World Cup but on success at next year’s home Asian Cup.

Bresciano, resident Old Man
courtesy: en.wikipedia.org

Pete Smith suggests this squad is nothing if not fresh and links to the Golden era of Socceroo football all but gone. Postecoglou has opted for dynamism and exuberance – especially in defensive positions – and a squad unjaded by long exposure commuting globally to represent a nation with only a passing interest in local football.

This is probably the best squad Postecoglou could select. The team also accurately represents Australia’s standing in the football world – there are big gaps between some numbers in FIFA’s rankings. Locals also seem happier with this lineup of exciting question marks than one highlighting staid veterans.

Featuring only two players from Europe’s big four leagues, whoever comprises the final 23-man roster will hardly be hampered by expectations. These Socceroos are also unscarred by past unrealistic hopes engendered by a wonderful run under Guus Hiddink, the ravages of age on bigger bodies or more recently, thumpings against quality opposition. What they have is pace, a new identity based around Postecoglou’s preferred passing game and a typical Australian passion for the contest.

While mandated by his superiors (and common sense) to empower a new youthful team, Postecoglou’s quick revamp may have hastened the departure of players like Schwarzer and Holman who may have played a key role in Brazil. Without these battle-scarred troops, the coach risks marking another band of younger, more impressionable players in the toughest slate of matches any team will play. With the Asian Cup (and the 2018 World Cup) more realistic targets for Aussie success, failure at the upcoming tournament might have longstanding consequences.

The flip side of callowness is a youthful confidence that serves sportsmen well. While there are only weeks to go until the tournament, Postecoglou must use that time to make sure the coin comes down on the right side for his young Socceroos.

Farewell, Harry Kewell, and thanks

Harry Kewell is soon gone and Australian football will be the poorer for it. His precocious incision single-handedly brought about many of the supreme highlights the sport has offered the Great Southern Land, and he was in 2012 voted the greatest ever Australian player.

He was his nation’s great football enigma: the most talented, technical player his land has produced, yet so different from his peers in both aspect and attitude. No other Australian has won both the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup; in an era in which Australia’s best players all performed in top leagues, Harry Kewell at Leeds United and then Liverpool was the world’s focus point – it was he who boasted to the world that Skippies could play this game.

As Bonita Mersiades tracks excellently in The Guardian, Kewell began his career revered by the Australian common man, a true underdog story that youngster capable of bedazzling older, more cynical men. Then followed something of a symbiotic disdain between him and the nation of his birth – he felt the nation’s expectations too great, we (often unfairly) thought him something of a drama queen.

Australians had never had a player like Harry Kewell before. We’d been involved with several wonderful players – Christian Vieri, Mark Bosnich and Craig Johnston spring to mind – but never a truly elite Socceroo who could win World Cup qualifiers from his own left peg. And an Australia less familiar with the particulars of soccer didn’t exactly know what to expect from a gift completely unlike the blunt but effective objects we were used to.

Sporting a slight British twang that noticeably increased the longer he was in England, Harry played for Australia, but for so long was not truly of Australia. This verisimilitude defined Kewell as a Socceroo – an otherworldly weapon, a blade of valyrian steel available only at great cost. Even repatriated to the antipodean fold in his waning years, Kewell remained easily identifiable by virtue of his talent, temperament and attitude. He remains the best player his country has produced by some margin.

Despite spending his peak years rarely suiting up in gold (13 Australia appearances between 1998 and 2005) the Socceroos have never looked better than when boasting Kewell on the left and Brett Emerton on the right of midfield. Injury permitting – always the caveat with Harry – when the games mattered, he played. And invariably contributed.

The pairing of Kewell and Emerton is not coincidental. The duo were reared within earshot, left Australia to play in England at about the same time and were two of the first picked for any Socceroo manager for over a decade. They are mirror versions of one another – one less talented but hardworking and utterly dependable; the other more fragile yet eminently capable of ripping open any game.

This is the defining Harry Kewell paradox, and his legacy: Emerton, a technically inferior but hardworking player who embraced Australia wholeheartedly wouldn’t lose you a match, is remembered more fondly than Kewell, who would win those games for you amidst hubbub often of his own manufacture.

Thank you, Harry Kewell, for those intricate memories that stretch from Iran to the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. Your body has earned this break.

Socceroo @HarryKewell announces his retirement from football! #ThanksHarry pic.twitter.com/2SueCftN8P
— The Socceroos (@Socceroos) March 26, 2014

More answers than questions for Socceroos

Usually, surrendering a 4-3 loss to opposition of a similar caliber to yourself throws up more questions than answers. Any answers that prove self-evident are also generally detrimental: player X can’t be trusted in a two-man midfield, tactics Y are ineffective against good teams or striker Z has no business even being considered for competitive international football.

Australia’s 4-3 loss to Ecuador in London on Wednesday actually saw the opposite occur. The three biggest questions facing the Socceroos concerned one of Mat Ryan or Mitch Langerak succeeding Mark Schwarzer, how would the defence would cope without the presence (or spectre) of Lucas Neill, and whether new coach Ange Postecoglu’s rejigged midfield and forward corps could produce goals relying on players so recently of the 99^th-ranked A-League.

Ninety minutes and seven goals revealed enough about Australia’s progress under Postecoglou for football fans in the Antipodes to be excited by the upcoming challenge of Chile, Spain and the Netherlands. Most of this good humour follows the success of players disdained by previous regimes (including Ivan Franjic and Matthew Spiranovic), the faith shown in youngsters Curtis Good and Massimo Luongo, and a gameplan that’s more than “don’t screw up”.

A few extra days of preparation and more game time for the likes of Rogic and Leckie means the also-rans of the late Osieck days may be a thing of the past.

More obviously, the Socceroos appear to have a vision for the future under a long-term coach, rather than the aspect of a team managed purely to embellish a resume.

The talent gap between Australian and their groupmates means that World Cup progression will be almost impossible. However, using that tournament to prepare for more accessible fish to fry – specifically, the Asian Cup at home in 2015. A result for Postecoglou in Brazil would be a return to the Australian teams of the past that were tough to beat and an inspired showing against class opponents.

The team are unquestionably in better shape than at the time of Holger Osieck’s departure late last year. The team now plays with a vision for future success rather than a fear of current failure.

Bayern Munich: What's down is up

While listening to the lastest ESPNFC podcast, Iain Macintosh threw in an interesting posit on German football that deserves some investigation.

His theory, which is his, was that Bayern Munich win a few Bundesliga titles in a row, are unseated and then use this opportunity to reimagine themselves as a bigger and better club. Furthermore, he thought this provided hope for 2015 and beyond to shrewd local clubs with great youth development.

Taking a quick look at the list of German league champions reveals the basic mechanics of his dictum are correct: Bayern have won the league eleven of the past twenty seasons and look certain to do so again in 2014. Their longest title stretch spanned the three years from 1999 to 2001.

The flip side of this theory is that despite making the Champions’ League final in 2012 and winning it in 2013, this has actually already occurred and this is the more powerful incarnation of Bayern intimated by Macintosh.

Bayern’s past re-envisionings have come in the face of slip-ups (coughKlinsmanncough) or the local competition advancing their players or tactics beyond them. Looking back over seasons 2012-14, we can suggest playmaking and personnel developments at Borussia Dortmund was responsible for their title victories – meaning Bayern Munich’s success in the One Competition to Rule Them All actually occurred during some of their “down” years.

The logical progression from that position is that Pep Guardiola is actually not involved in the finishing steps of a rebuild, but the earlier ones.

The greater revenue brought about by Champions League success and the increasing importance of globalizing a club’s brand allows a club having a less successful local year (in which they proceed deep into European competition) to repopulate themselves with the likes of Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski. Such a large difference – such as a 4:1 spending difference over the past four years between the best two clubs in the nation – is increasingly hard to bridge with tactical and developmental innovation.

Macintosh’s dictum is a true statement. However when applied to the 2013-14 Bundesliga, it is less a statement of potential future challenges than a monochromatic commentary on the future of the Bundesliga.

Markus Rosenberg donates big to charity: precedent or perception?

When we think about footballers and money, it’s usually because the most interesting ones make a lot of it. Like, a lot lot. And the more I think about what footballers have to go through what with the tabloids, existential uncertainty and with respect to the overall revenue sharing picture, the more I think at least a portion of this is justified.

You rarely hear about the philanthropic works of footballers, or at least they are rarely highlighted when compared to the frequency of “pay me more to show me respect” stories. Sometimes, even, stories of athletes and their charitable interests sound downright shady. The most high-profile examples of laudable footballing charities include Craig Bellamy’s academy in Sierra Leone and almost the entire Football League’s involvement in the Kick It Out program.

Sweden striker Markus Rosenberg made a wonderful gesture today by donated his Midlands’ home furnishings to a local charity upon mutually leaving West Bromwich Albion. The charity, Sue Ryder, provides care for those who suffer from debilitating and terminal illnesses. It doesn’t matter if this gesture was a caring gift or a player just wanting to get out of town in a hurry, those who come out of this the best are seriously ill people who need help because of the circumstances they face.

In any case, congratulations, Markus Rosenberg and thank you. Good luck in Sweden.

We often criticize players for self interest in what is supposed to be a team game. But that team game requires a player to highlight his own performance in order to attract financial rewards or perks, a situation easily mistaken for narcissism. Football stars have long been unfairly perceived as heroes but as stories of excess overtake those of community contribution that view has become embedded with real life grit – many are now more can’t-look-away antiheroes than Supermen.

Fans get our information from sources that suit us and take into account that information’s credibility, brevity and spin. Even though newspapers and the internet can publish in colour now, the shorter-format written word can’t help but be more monochromatic. The result is the perception that all footballers are indolent, uneducated egotists who are often very good at making us happy.

Part of this is very much down to the altered view of reality that is created by the locker room. In England this most often manifests in examples of luxuriant spending perceived as far more newsworthy by info-peddlers than community projects that are brought about by high wages. It’s possible that players giving the inside of their house to charity doesn’t happen very often. But, it’s just as possible that it does and we just don’t know about it. Taking cues from TV and cinema, the press assumes we like our heroes dirty.

There is space in the world for clean cut figures to idolize in the sports arena. This act by Markus Rosenberg is a generous (but not heroic – Jason McCartney, that’s a sporting hero) one and hopefully one that starts a trend towards footballers monetarily contributing back to the communities that earn them such attention.

Postecoglou must be new Socceroo manager

Holger Osieck ended his association with Australian soccer an unpopular coach whose side capitulated 6-0 twice in succession.  If anything is liable to have a manager fired, it is a pitiful loss against reasonable opposition and the German was dismissed in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s match against France.

According to the normal chain of events, speculation is gathering as to the identity of his successor with the most high-profile names being Socceroo Swami Guus Hiddink, ex-Chile and Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelo Bielsa and – for some unknown reason – Roberto Di Matteo.  Were Australia focusing solely on the World and Asian Cups of 2014 and 15, an “impact signing” excelling at tournament football – and hopefully at pulling strings at European clubs – would seem a wise investment.

However, none of the three “names” above would be inclined to hang around to create a platform for future development; to an ambitious non-Aussie, the most appealing aspect of the Australia job is almost certainly its potential for a quick profit. 

Australia has lacked footballing identity since the 2010 World Cup. Until that time, the boys in Gold were a lineup of predictably loveable maulers: their backline boasted Craig Moore, Lucas Neill and Scott Chipperfield while the midfield was manned by uncompromising sorts Brett Emerton and Vince Grella.  The team’s only lightweight, Harry Kewell, flitted about behind man-mountain Mark Viduka and his unsettlingly-physical Boy Wonder, Tim Cahill. 

With the Green and Gold army clamouring for generational change and the press conferences of some of the Socceroo elite seemingly endorsing such claims, Football Federation of Australia Chairman and all-around-Daddy-Warbucks-figure Frank Lowy has narrowed the association’s focus and suggested the biggest hire in Australian soccer is likely to be from the FFA’s back room, the A-League. 

The Australian national team needs to be the pinnacle for any Australian footballer. While the A-League has strengthened, the player pathways that produced the Golden Generation that peaked in 2006 have become overgrown.  A strong Socceroo side with structures based around player development both at home and abroad is an absolute necessity for football to become more deeply rooted in the antipodean sporting consciousness.  The coach best able to implement such a program must be employed.

For the first time in a generation, an Australian is almost certainly the best person for the position.

Lowy has effectively narrowed the field to three candidates – Tony Popovic of nascent Western Sydney Wanderers; former interim Socceroo manager Graham Arnold, now of the Central Coast Mariners; and Melbourne Victory kingpin Ange Postecoglou.

All the candidates present convincing resumés despite high-profile failures.  Of the three, Arnold probably comes with the most baggage due to his underwhelming Asian Cup leadership of 2007; however, he has developed a consistently good Mariners outfit despite a tight budget even by A-League standards.  His appointment may be seen as a reward to a company man. Popovic has a jaw-dropping level of natural talent for management and served an impressive apprenticeship before taking a journeyman bunch of Wanderers into the league finals in their first season.  Questions remain, however, as to his experience.

Even with these negative aspects, were Arnold or Popovic to earn the position, Australia could feel confident about the Socceroos’ future. 

However, the most compelling choice is Ange Postecoglou.  After turning the Brisbane Roar from also-rans into dominant Premiers, he is currently re-shaping the A-League’s biggest club into a younger, more vital side; his modus operandi is to turn young footballers into disciplined and productive units.

This is based in part about his coaching philosophy: his teams hold the ball and use it rather than Osieck’s haphazard, “needs-must” approach.  In an age where Australian youngsters have struggled to claim positions for the National side, pragmatism has few uses even focusing solely upon next year’s Cup.  If a player – especially a youngster – knows ahead of time what is expected of a Socceroo, he is in far better position to prepare.

Despite the short lead-in to the World Cup, the FFA is in an enviable position.  They can finally choose a manager to mould a team with the future in mind rather than employing someone they hope is able to bring about short-term results.  The Round of Sixteen would of course be nice, but the Socceroos can no longer afford to focus on the twilights Schwarzer, Neill and Cahill.  The outlook must now be on the retirements of James Holland, Tom Rogic and Matthew Spiranovic.

Man United's Januzaj makes right choice: not to choose

The international break approaches us like the semi in Duel – from a speck in the distance, it sneakily becomes overwhelming. Today’s World Cup Qualifiers include important matches between the Euro 2012 hosts in Kharkov and a Sweden/Austria matchup that might determine Group C’s playoff entrant, while the contest in Mexico City could keep the hopes alive of both Panama and Mexico.

The European confederation enters the week’s festivities in a curious manner: five separate national Football Associations are “keeping tabs” on a single player, Adnan Januzaj, a winger helping to dispel Manchester United’s Moyesian malaise. It emerged on Monday that all of the Belgian, English, Serbian, Turkish, Albanian and embryonic Kosovar Associations feel as if the Premiership’s most babyfaced star might be tempted to play for their country.

It’s not unknown for a player to choose his nationality based upon his residence or passport in many sports, but football is undoubtedly the most high-profile. To take two higher-profile examples, Croatia forward Eduardo spent the first sixteen years of his life in Brazil, while James McCarthy was born and raised in Scotland but represents Ireland, the country of his grandparents. Tug-of-loves in International football occur about as regularly as they do on Coronation Street.

However, Januzaj’s situation is different. The player is only eighteen and hasn’t represented any country in youth football; although on the exterior it feels … unwholesome for him to play for the Three Lions after two years in the country, should he feel the appropriate affinity for England, Januzaj should be entitled to cast his lot in forever with them, after he has served the requisite time. The same goes for Belgium, Serbia, Turkey (who are notoriously convincing) and even Kosovo, pending … well, a bunch.

Adnan Januzaj should be absolutely allowed – and encouraged – to choose whoever he wishes. Unlike days past, nationality is a now a fluid concept; perhaps even it is a decision that young men should take more seriously than who they play their club football for. What would have the impact been on Wilfried Zaha – and the Ivory Coast – had he opted to play from them instead of England? For Januzaj there might be even more stark implications, what reaction would there be from Kosovars should he choose to play for Serbia?  Choosing a nationality, even just for a chance to play at the World Cup, should not be easy. Therefore, Januzaj is wise to take the time he needs rather than accepting whichever call-ups hit his door first.

The same choice has recently been faced by the likes of Victor Moses, Wilfried Zaha or Raheem Sterling. If only they had the foresight and wisdom to simply make a statement to the effect of Januzaj – I’ll play for who I like, when I’m ready – they might have saved themselves a significant amount of confusion. 

Olympics no place for International Football

The United States attained a decisive qualifying victory and the Dutch became the first Europeans to begin planning in earnest for next year’s samba fiesta.  Meanwhile in Asia, Jordan enters a World Cup Playoff against the fifth-placed South American team as they hope to make their first entrance on the world’s gaudiest platform.  World Cup qualifying week has come and gone.

Mexico’s El Tri, adrift in the CONCACAF by 3 points, have decided that the manager who brought them Olympic success last year was better placed than former boss Jose Manuel De la Torre to successfully close what has been a dire qualification process.  Hope comes from Luis Fernando Tena leading a similar cadre of players to success in London against what passed for quasi-imposing opposition; the ascension is a direct result of success in a lesser tournament.

That it is seen as a lesser competition is precisely why football should not be an Olympic event.  As the United States proved so emphatically against El Tri, the World Cup is the ultimate prize for any nation fortunate enough to have a federation; the same can’t be said for an Olympic tournament.

The Games provide highs across the board for and from all nations: Bermuda’s yachting, South Korea’s unturnoffable archery and Equatorial Guinean swimming.  The two-week festival of sport should be the pinnacle of so many disciplines, ranging from recently-reinstated wrestling to (sigh) BMX racing.  Nothing compares with Olympic gold for athletes who race down ski-slopes or swim 5000 metres in open water – whereas, were Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lucas Neill or Landon Donovan presented with choosing between Olympics and World Cup, the smart money pictures them holding a golden cup – not medal – aloft.

The second-tier tournament argument is only helped by the restrictions imposed upon competing national squads.  Current Olympic regulations for males allow 3 players per nation above age 23, in effect creating a pared-down World Youth Cup – a tournament that only occurred two months ago with France victorious.  In every sport, Olympic champions are crowned the best in the world – except football.  Try matching the victorious Mexico XI from last year against Spain of 2010 and witness an unmediated slaughter. 

This varies subtly from sports like basketball.  Despite the highest standard of play occurring in the NBA, the national team from Senegal can’t qualify to play in that competition; a player must aspire to represent his country in the Olympics or FIBA Championships rather than against the New York Knicks or Toronto Raptors.  While individuals yearn for a training camp with even the poorest franchises; a nation’s collective consciousness dwells in the Olympics.   

It may be the epitome of pie-eyed optimism, but the Olympic Games should be the pinnacle for national sport.  The World Champions of football – the most global and widespread of all games – are determined at the World Cup and not the Olympic Games, creating redundancy in and already-bloated schedule. 

Concern about capturing a TV audience is misplaced.  The familiarity of football would be replaced with the unique nature of a carnival that only happens once every four years; a carnival that produces compelling sport in every event from volleyball to the modern pentathlon.  If London did nothing else (and it did), the Games shone a light on the tremendous stories that the Games regularly produce.  Football has enough of those tales – it’s time to allow other sports to enjoy their summer unshaded.

Pim Verbeek finally shows he has balls by criticising mess he left

Former Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has been quoted in Qatari media as saying Australian football faces a bleak period as the brightest stars in Australian football history are slowly extinguished.

Well, you'd know, Pim.

His Aussie tenure was marked by Viking-style honesty. Did you ever meet someone so honest that every conversation you had with them ended up revolving around your faults? That's honesty to a fault, and that's Pim Verbeek. And despite their limitations, players like Danny Allsopp and Archie Thompson were hardly likely to produce positive results after such brutal “encouragement”.

How's that "promotion" to Morocco's U-21s working out, Pim?
Courtesy dohasportsplusqatar.com

While his latest assertions verge towards the correct – developing Australian footballers aren't of the same quality as those of fifteen years hence – Australia should still qualify for Brazil if their squad is managed adeptly.

Part of the blame for this dearth of top-end talent can be laid at Verbeek's size twelves. The Dutchman controlled Australia for three years, culminating in a morbid showing in the group of terminal illness at the Big Dance in 2010. During that time, he was relentless in his beliefs: not living in Australia, playing defensive formations and deploying far-flung experience at the expense of A-League promise.

The defining moment of his tenure in Australia wasn't a match, result or player evolution but a formation. In the Socceroos' ignominious defeat to Germany in their first match in South Africa, the team lined up in a 4-6-0 with untested Richard Garcia leading the line from the centre of midfield (and playing hideously out of position).

The Green and Gold Army was not only content but joyful at his departure. His time at the top left football in Australia without a legacy; in a period in which Australian soccer should have been building on the wonderful success of their 2006 World Cup campaign, his refusal to integrate local youth into an aging team was not only short-sighted but almost wilfully negligent.

His half-hidden attempt to parlay short-term Socceroo success into a bigger job was hardly surprising, but still disappointing because he was bequeathed a good team with a chance to establish something of real substance.

Perhaps Verbeek now feels able to comment because he recognises some of the same traits in Australian football as he, it's one-time figurehead, displayed as boss.  Yes, the country's footballing stocks are going through a changing phase, but as a smaller football nation that's the norm.  It's also a phase that was delayed nearly four years during his time in charge.

Lookalike: Giorgos Karagounis

This is the kind of lookalike that could only come from a football-loving powernerd who boasts a vast familiarity with the works of deceased Gallic graphic novelists.

Greece captain Giorgos Karagounis scored the opening goal of Euro 2004, has captained his nation many times and is only four caps from becoming Greece's all-time leader in games played.  Despite advancing years, he's still the most crucial link in the Greece midfield.  He represents Greece better than their politicians.

And, he couldn't look more stereotypically Greek; the proof comes from Goscinny & Uderzo's 1968 masterpiece Asterix at the Olympic Games.  I think he's the second spartan from the right.

click to enlarge

Original photos above are thanks to: sportcafe24.com and asterix.com

Book Review: Sheilas, Wogs & Poofters - Johnny Warren

by Ben Roberts

This is my second foray into Australian football literature, the first having been spectacularly less than impressive. The good news is that the now decade-old 'Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters', a seminal work by the late and revered Johnny Warren is far better.   The bad news is that Warren fell into the standard traps of all passionate Australian soccer figures.

Cover image thanks to amazon.com.au

Warren had an amazing playing career, as he grew up in 1950s Australia where soccer was third or fourth on the list of sporting priorities for most - particularly "Anglos" such as Warren.  As is obviously - but fairly - portrayed by the title, a fair amount of tasteless stigma was also cast at those who played the sport.

Given the options available, Warren managed to forge a club and international career that deserves celebration. Representing the St George (Budapest) club with great distinction, Johnny Warren had to prove himself able to transcend ethnic boundaries; this culminated in 40-odd matches for Australia (including the 1974 World Cup) and showed bagfuls of dedication in an era where football hardly provided a glamourous lifestyle.

The matches played by the late-60's and early-70's Socceroos deserve legendary status, not just for the achievements of the team but also due to the scenarios in which they played. 


The Friendly Nations cup was played as an olive branch to the Vietnamese by Western anti-communist forces and is an amazing tale for the conditions (warfare) that the tournament was played within. As well, Warren eulogises some of his contemporaries who should receive more credit for their skills by those who believe that legendary status in Australian soccer began with Viduka and Kewell et al.

For the non-devoted supporter of soccer in Australia, there are two general criticisms that are aimed at the sport in this country. Firstly, the sport is constantly racked with infighting and controversy. Secondly, that the sport needs to stand on its own two feet and fight for its place in the recreational landscape; rather, it constantly complains about the level of media coverage afforded Australian Football or Rugby League. In the last third of the book, Warren spirals violently into into these two criticisms and his argument never recovers. If those in charge of the sport (ed: I'm looking at you, Ben Buckley) believe it is the best sport, they need to rise above internal strife and complaints about the competition and simply generate a product that engages and attracts the masses.

This book is recommended for a good summary history of the sport in Australia and an interesting life story that is at the same time stereotypically Australian.  It  is, however, very different from your usual sporting heroes.   

Three stars.

Alternative XI: Footballing Autofills

The fantastically funny Dave Gorman podcast features a segment called “Autofill your boots”. In it, a listener is invited to answer quiz questions which have been autofilled by Google's search engine algorithms.

It works like this: if you type the querulous words “Can you” into Google's query box, it suggest the next most likely conclusions to your request. These autofill answers are predicated by one's location and often by search preferences. As you can see below, the most popular completions in the case of “Can you” include “run it”, “feel the love tonight lyrics”, “freeze cheese”, “get mono twice”, “overdose on vitamin c” and “print from an ipad” amongst some other more unsavoury inquiries. Dave then asks the challenger if you can, in fact, contract mononucleosis twice.

 This parlour-game derives from Google's reputation alongside Wikipedia as the font of all knowledge, arbiter of all sexual health questions and the bane of pub trivia masters everywhere. When we enter certain football personalities into Google, the autofills can amuse, tell a sordid tale, sum up or even reveal a public concern for their (potential) religious views or sexuality.

So, without any further introduction, here's the Autofill Eleven – with subs included.

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.

Harry Kewell the answer to A-League's Marquee question?

The Hyundai A-League - and by extension, the Football Federation of Australia - reels from one crisis to another. If it's not declining crowd numbers, owners threatening to close stands rather than see empty seats, franchises folding, disastrous World Cup bids (corruption or not) or even stars entering fan forums, then it's clubs failing to take advantage of the league's generous marquee player policy.

Of course most of these problems can be traced back to one thing - A-League clubs are struggling to make ends meet. Football ranks a clear fourth on the Australian football consciousness behind Australian Rules, Rugby League and Rugby Union. Therefore the sport tends to pick up hard core fans, bandwagon supporters leftover from World Cups and the occasional family based around a growing number of Soccer Mums. This is to be expected however, having remained unchanged for five yeras - and the sport, though not making quantum leaps in popularity, forms a much greater part in the nation's sporting psyche.

The A-League now allows each club three marquee players, ostensibly top-end guys whose wages are not counted towards a team's salary cap: an International Marquee player, a Marquee Australian and a Marquee Youth player. These rules exist in theory to both lure top end talent and protect young assets. While this is a generous format, the FFA (who administer the A-League) does not contribute to the players' salaries, the result of this being A-League clubs draw five to ten-thousand fans per match are forced to pay players like Sergio Van Dijk, Robbie Fowler and his Perth Glory replacement Liam Miller serious dollars.

In business, organisations almost always must spend money to make it. It's the way the world works - wise investment brings about fiscal rewards and peace of mind. It was thus when Dwight Yorke signed for Sydney FC for the A-League's first campaign - he signed for the lifestyle, found the football to his liking, led Sydney to the A-League title and secured a move back to the English Premier League with Sunderland. It was coincidence that he (along with the Victory's Archie Thompson) was the first big name to join, but he is now the A-League's definitive Marquee Player and the benchmark - for better or worse - by which all subsequent imports are judged.

Yorke's situation was the perfect combination of circumstance: famously involved in a big club (Manchester United), with a sparkling, eloquent public profile and due to Trinidad & Tobago's 2006 World Cup campaign, still with reasons to perform other than personal pride. That Manchester United connection created a 10% increase in crowds across the league - Yorke was a man the crowds came to watch. Subsequent marquee signings like Robbie Fowler haven't had the same impact either on the pitch or as a league ambassador.

Approaching the A-League's seventh season, the ten clubs employ a grand total of Three Junior Marquee players, four Australian Marquee players and two (!) international "stars" - New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz and former Dutch U21 International Van Dijk. The Australian Marquee players are Archie Thompson, Mile Sterjovski, Nicky Carle and Jason Culina. Culina perhaps aside, it's difficult - impossible, even - to see any of those six transferring to a high-level club abroad.

The marquee player must in future be modeled on Dwight Yorke. He shouldn't be the only prototype as South Americans also could well check the requisite boxes, but it must be remembered antipodean crowds have a far greater knowledge of European football than the Samba style (no, not Christopher). Not only must such a player sparkle on the pitch, but he must be able to provide a lift to the league in the media.

Some players linked to out-of-cap positions - like Harry Kewell - could perform those functions; others however, most notably Serb striker Mateja Kežman, are a risky proposition. Melbourne in particular has a large Slavic population and could provide a slight bump in local crowds but club executives must ask themselves if a player such as serial-mover Kežman could warrant such spendthrift expenditure - does his one season at Chelsea, four at PSV and cups of coffee at Fenerbahce, PSG and Atletico really provide the league-wide PR lift the A-League so desperately needs? While his age and skills could well justify the salary slot he'd take up, would his name inspire the Rugby League fan to join? Or the AFL nut?

Australian soccer consciousness, so far increased since the magical 2006 World Cup, is still really in its infancy. It is so far behind that, for better or worse, it takes big names, not just quality footballers, to get the alert sporting landscape to attend. And with the local clubs haemmorhaging money, is it in fact prudent to spend $40,000AUD a week on a player not a "sure thing"?

The FFA must step in and contribute. Perhaps it could facilitate local teams signing the fading superstars of the game, if only on one-season deals. Though the game's governing body is skint from a highly unsuccessful World Cup hosting bid, contributing a small percentage of an international marquee player's salary to each team strictly for that purpose could be an option.

While Australian "marquee" players aid the competition, the league now understands it is names who will grow the sport. Of Australians, only Kewell could fit that bill. It takes money to make money and as abhorrent as spending more money sounds to leaky propositions such as Central Coast and the Gold Coast, prudent investment may be the best way forward.

Would Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero, Shunsuke Nakamura or even Theofanis Gekas be interested in a final payday? Even though Clarence Seedorf and Florent Malouda have suggested a desire to play in Brazil, both have the requisite stature and ability for them to be attractive targets for Aussie clubs. Perhaps with all six the answer would be negative, but certainly they would be players of whom League chiefs should be aware.

The A-League is a good league. By inspiring the masses - and cashing in on their attendance - it can become very good.

Bombs sent to Lennon's home casts sad light on Scottish football sectarianism

Neil Lennon is as an abrasive manager as he was a player. Perhaps his three most obvious qualities are his forthrightness, his Northern Irish heritage and his love for the green and white hoops of Glasgow Celtic Football Club. With the latter goes a certain antipathy - antagonism, even - for local Old Firm rival, Rangers. But when bombs are sent via post to his home, all perspective has been lost and football becomes a pawn in a much larger game.

Lennon, who as a player asked and gave no quarter, is in his first full season managing his alma mater and finds himself successfully beginning to move the club on from Tony Mowbray's disastrous reign. He hasn't taken any backward steps - neither have supporters from the green half of Glasgow - but has found himself under literal fire in ways his immediate predecessors seem to have (mostly) avoided. Also targeted in this most recent campaign were two high-profile Celtic supporters.

Lennon and his family have moved from their property and are living secretly under twenty-four hour guard. For football to come to this doesn't make a mockery of the sport - when violence, or intended violence begins, the game becomes a canvas for much larger social issues and casts a sad light on the religious divide between opposing sectarian factions in Glasgow. Traditionally, but this is far from a hard and fast rule, Celtic are known as a "catholic" club and Rangers a "protestant" one.

For decades the Old Firm derby has been amongst the most hotly contested rivalries in Europe, both on the field and between supporters. But when a man's life is endangered simply because of his status as manager and his inflammatory remarks about football, then any sense of perspective has been thrown from the nearest window. Has Lennon actively harmed anyone with words or deeds? Or has his legal representative, QC Paul McBride? Each may speak their mind and express their views as is their right. But words should never be the catalyst for actions such as this.

It has been said that sport is for everyone. It can be all-inclusive and has the ability to bring together opposing sides and even heal emotional wounds. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Christmas Truce football match between Allied and German forces during World War One. If the English and Germans could put aside their differences in such a climate, how can a game be taken so seriously as parcel bombs, bum-stabbings and other acts of violence? It seems some people just use sport and the tribalism bred by it to be extremely crappy to one another.

One February 2006 episode of the British television series Life on Mars said it best, an episode revolving around 1970's football violence between blue and red halves of Manchester. After an organised brawl, Detective Sam Tyler chases the instigator into a corner and explains the consequences football sectarianism so clearly you can't miss his foreknowledge of the Hillsborough and Heysel disasters.

If you wish harm to a man, in cold blood, because his football - and perhaps religious - sensibilities differ from yours, then you don't deserve the enjoyment and escape of sport. Football is wonderful, but it's never that important.

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens: Scoring Stat Leaders

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens, parte troix. We've probably done enough statistical analysis for one day, what with the five tables in the post below, but if you're interested to hear what we have to say on the subject of Scoring Stat leaders in the European football, then take a peek at Soccerlens to get your fill.

The football year, 2010

Best Moment: The final moments of the World Cup quarter-final between Uruguay & Ghana. The entire sequence, including Suarez's deliberate handball, Gyan's penalty miss and then his successful taking of the first penalty in the shootout was drama of the highest quality.

Best Team: It comes either from Spain or Barcelona, no matter what Inter Milan and their Champions' League medals say. My pick is Barcelona simply because the style of football they've produced consistently over the past twelve months has been a cut above almost anything we've seen before. Their dismantling of Real Madrid earlier this month was both beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Worst Team: Not so much "worst" as "worst performance from what should have been a good team". This award goes to Italy for their poor World Cup. Even England's desolate form looked good when compared against the reigning world champs and new manager Cesare Prandelli inherited not winners, but a team in need of rebuilding.

Best Manager: Usually the best managers are those which manage the best teams. There are few exceptions here as Pep Guardiola, Vicente Del Bosque and Jose Mourinho all have adequate claims. I'm going to opt however for Ian "Olly" Holloway from Blackpool who's overseen their transformation from Championship relegation candidates to mid-table Premiership sporting a squad made up of also-rans and journeymen.

Best Game: Without question the match in which Barcelona destroyed Real only a few weeks ago. There's a good chance that the best team in Europe waltzed over the second best with nary a second thought. Honourable mention: The Ghana/Uruguay World Cup Quarter-Final.

Player of 2010: Again, surely must come from Spain. Wayne Rooney or Diego Milito could have been in this race given they both started the year on fire but struggled with injury and form since the 2010 Champions' League. As for the best player of 2010, you could pick any of Andres Iniesta, Xavi or Lionel Messi. It's your pick, and I won't complain about any of 'em. Honourable mentions: Diego Forlan and Thomas Muller both had outstanding World Cups.

Signing of 2010: Rafael Van der Vaart has been a revelation since signing on for Tottenham in the Premiership. Another Dutch master who didn't fit at the Bernabeu who then has flourished after being sold.

Worst Signing: It could well be Antonio Cassano, who's recently moved from Sampdoria to AC Milan. Honourable mention: Javier Mascherano's transfer to Barcelona seemed to be Los Catalans aiming for names, rather than skill-sets. With both these signings however, time will tell.

Person who most lived up to his imaginary middle name: Sepp Blatter. I can't write what I really think of his autocratic style of government at FIFA. Honourable mention: John Terry

Most stubborn resistance to commonsense: That Arsene Wenger is yet to replace his strictly-average goalkeeping platoon of Lukas Fabianski and Manuel Almunia is what keeps his rival managers happy and giggling.

Second-most stubborn resistance to commonsense: FIFA's refusal to abide any signs of progress, especially regarding Goal-line technology.

Goal of the Year: Glentoran's Matt Burrows, amidst a veritable snowstorm of contenders.

Un-goal of the Year: Khalfan Fahad's side-foot for Qatar against Uzbekistan in the 2010 Asian Games earned him instant notoriety and (probably) the worst miss of 2010.

Craziest statement: Blatter's gaffe concerning homosexuals "refraining" last week was an extremely poorly-judged piece of social commentary masquerading as a joke. Honourable mentions: Most other statements issued by Sepp Blatter; Mario Balotelli saying that only Lionel Messi was a better player than him, Steven Gerrard calling Joe Cole "better than Messi".

Poorest Managerial Fit: Roy Hodgson at Liverpool. He's a remarkably talented manager but already the seeds of his dismissal have been sown. Honourable mention: Rafael Benitez's horrible stint in charge of Inter Milan.

Harshest EPL sacking: Although Sam Allardyce may have other ideas, there's no question Chris Hughton has been the hardest-done-by manager in the Premiership this year.

Most obvious money-grabbing tactic of 2010: Wayne Rooney's five-day turnaround in October where he went from demanding a transfer to signing the richest Man U contract ever. With those actions, he went from fan favourite to pariah, and rightly so. Honourable mention: Blatter's acceptance and backing of the Qatari bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Explosion of 2010: Gareth Bale's emergence as a world-class left winger, where he's taken apart several outstanding defences throughout the course of the year. Honourable mention: Antonio Cassano's tirade at Sampdoria president Riccardo Garrone.

Implosion of 2010: France's World Cup squad became more and more farcical as the tournament progressed. It was incredibly amusing, especially given that Nicolas Anelka was at the hub, a man who it's very difficult to like. Honourable mention: football owners, left and right, whose teams were simply not set up to cope with the global economic downturn, eg. Sacha Gaydamak's reign at Portsmouth.

Hero of 2010: Owen Coyle has transformed Bolton from relegation candidates to real possibilities for Europe with much the same squad as predecessor Gary Megson, all with an affable and approachable attitude and a pleasing style of game - the kind of man you'd want to have a beer with. Honourable mention: Jose Mourinho (!) for masterminding Inter's Champions' League triumph over Barca.

Villain of 2010: (tie) John Terry and Luis Suarez. John Terry for his off-field exploits (allegedly) with Wayne Bridge's ex; Suarez could be considered either hero or villain for his actions during the World Cup quarter final, but after recently biting an opponent and earning a seven-match ban sees him firmly planted in the villain category. Honourable mention: Roy Hodgson, who's worshiped by Fulham fans and ridiculed by Liverpudlians.

Too late a call-up, too short a season

The story of behemoth Aussie Central Defender Sasa Ognenovski is a curious one. The thirty-one year old epitome of the word "Colossus" was recently selected on the five-man shortlist for the Asian Footballer of the Year award due to his performances for Seongnam in the K-League and made his Full International debut.

After a career in the Australian NSL and it's associated minor leagues - and a cup of coffee with Panachaiki in Greece - Ognenovski was among the earliest players selected for the fledgling A-League's first season in 2006-07 and proved a rock in defence for the Queensland Roar. After eighteen months he moved to Adelaide to compete in the Asian Champions League where his star shone brightly. Given his gargantuan frame and above-average athleticism when compared to his opponents, the Big Fella excelled in Asia and suddenly became the hottest property in AFC football and was the subject of bids from two K-League squads.

He chose Seongnam over FC Seoul and has recently led that squad to the Asian Football Confederation Champions' League title. For some reason though he remained unable to crack the Australian international squad even when that team had to be comprised of only Asian-based players. Recent national managers - yes, Pim Verbeek, I mean you - ignored him despite dominant form and a paucity of other options while searching for a foil for Lucas Neill at the heart of the Australian defence. Given his excelling in Asia, it was puzzling to watch clubless and speedless Craig Moore partner captain Neill at this year's World Cup but by not calling the leviathan up sooner Verbeek had left himself no option. It's no coincidence that Australia was exposed for position in South Africa: without pace Moore couldn't get to the right spots and without the requisite size Neill struggled to deal with opponents in the air.

There's no question that Big Sasa's an Aussie but snub after snub despite his good form brought the 6'5 defender to despair and nearly to accepting a call-up from the Macedonian national team, the country in which his parents were born. Indeed, Macedonia wanted him and he was voted in 2008 that country's second best player behind Inter Milan's Goran Pandev. It took a nomination for AFC Player of the Year to secure his international bow and thankfully new coach Holger Osieck last week stopped the rot to give the 31-year old his first Cap in the Socceroo's 3-0 loss to Egypt.

A mistake, surely, and one that's now been rectified, at least in part. But given 33 year-old striker Kevin Davies made his debut for England last month and The Leviathan's relatively late start in the big-time, there remains hope that Ognenovski will prove as effective in International Competition as he has in Asia. His hope - and probably the Green and Gold Army's - should not be to just play in the 2011 Asian Cup but to to emulate Moore and partner Matthew Spiranovic or Rhys Williams at 35 years of age to the 2014 Brazil World Cup.