First of all, let me tip my cap in the direction of Kevin Airs, who put together this wonderful review of the Germany-Australia game which sums up my position on the game just about perfectly. I think Pim’s a good manager - but he got this one terribly wrong, and we paid a hefty price. Not that it was all his fault, mind you. Cahill’s challenge, whilst not warranting a red, was exactly the sort of thing he was warned about in the lead up games; our ageing backline could have been outpaced by a dead cat; and some of our players evidently thought the aim of the game was to pass the ball to linesmen and members of the crowd. But from the moment I saw the opening lineup flash up on the big screen, I and most other Aussies present at Nottingham’s Walkabout Inn knew we were in for a long night.

With that out of the way, I want to now outline what this match signals for Australia overall, and the ridiculous expectations of some Socceroos fans.

Let’s start with the result itself. Now, in my wildest dreams I’d hoped that the Socceroos could snatch a point and really put the cat amongst the pigeons in this group. In the usual bravado and banter going on between Australian and German supporters at the Walkabout, there was plenty of “We’re going to beat you”, “No, we’re going to beat you” happening back and forth - as you do, with any sporting event (though slightly ruder terms were used on the night). Realistically though, everyone knew this match was going to end in a German win. I’d hoped for 1-0; I got 4-0. Oh well; shit happens, and onto the next game. We were, after all, facing a three time world champion.

Alarmingly though, some of the attitudes from Socceroos fans around the place don’t seem to take this into account. In the last 24-48 hours I’ve seen, read, or heard fans saying things like:

  •  There was no point in getting to the World Cup
  •  Pim Verbeek is the worst coach Australia’s ever seen
  •  Joel Griffiths and/or Scott McDonald would have made all the difference
  •  The team may as well go home now

Now, I’m kind of hopeful that these comments are all over-the-top reactions from people who’ll regret them upon re-reading them a second time. I really am - because if they’re not, these so-called ‘fans’ are living on a different planet to you or I. 

Let’s begin with the coach. As I said earlier, I put myself in the pro-Pim camp despite the claims of 'un-Barcelona-like' football. Sure, he made a cock-up against Germany, but like Airs says, he got us to the World and Asian cups and that’s what was asked of him. Look at Greece in the European Championships before last; they got the win, but it wasn’t pretty. Would we turn down that same result in the Asian Cup? Oh, yeah - we probably would, what with these pesky Asians all being so inferior and all, we should be flogging them 10-0. Sorry, forgot about that bit.

Uninformed opinion bordering on racism aside, not even Guus Hiddink could have got a result last night. Maybe he could have somehow restricted it to 2-0, but even that I doubt, for two key reasons:

  1.  Guus is one of the world’s better coaches, and a class above Verbeek and many others at the World Cup, but he’s no guaranteed success. The shock exit of Russia to Slovenia proves that much.
  2.  People tend to forget that the Germany 2006 side was at its peak when compared to the side we have now. We had an important target man in Viduka, who was a once-in-a-generation talent, another one of those in Kewell on the wing, and the budding and the (at that stage) somewhat unknown threat of Timmy Cahill in the middle. Add in experienced squad players, plus defenders and midfielders young enough to get to peak physical condition, and it all came together for a really good run. No such luck in 2010, as our defensive line showed on Sunday.

As for the cup not being worth it, Jesus-H-Kennedy! Not to come across as old here, but do you kids have any idea what’s happened to past generations of Australian players and fans involved the game? Does Iran ‘97 ring any bells? Argentina ’93? I guess Scotland and Israel in the 70s and 80s would be asking too much, then? In any case, the fact is that surely nobody involved with the game in this country in any way, shape, or form could possibly make these comments and not feel guilty about them the next day. Don’t think I didn’t see those tweets or facebook comments, people. You know who you are...

We’ve got two matches left, and six points on offer. Serbia and Ghana will both be tough but with a bit of a lineup adjustment and a fresh approach from the Aussies, neither are impossible tasks. Neither can be classed as in the same league as Germany, and we beat the Africans as recently as 2008, and drew with them two years earlier. The Socceroos will put the German game out of their minds and start afresh, and so should we. 

Finally, the McDonald/Griffiths/Player X factor. Yeah, Pim sprang a (stupid) surprise in playing a 4-4-2 instead of the 4-5-1 (though admittedly the ITV lineup still listed it as the latter). Perhaps if Beauchamp had been playing instead of Moore, we’d have had a little more defensive pace. Whatever. It still wouldn’t have changed the result - we’d have maybe conceded a goal less, but the Germans still would have won. McDonald’s international duck would have continued (16 games, 0 goals; put it down to whatever you like but Dario Vidosic has scored one inside his first seven games, and he’s not even a striker) and Joel Griffiths, well - let’s not even go there. The fact is, no matter who we played it wouldn’t have changed the fact that the Germans out-passed, out-ran, and out-thought all eleven (eventually ten) players on the pitch. The reason? Simply put, they’re better than us.

Is this so hard to accept? A country that has won the World Cup three times, the European Championship three times, and Olympic medals. That has been playing the game professionally for nigh-on 50 years, and produced names like Matthäus, Völler, Kahn, Beckenbauer, Klinsmann, Vogts, Klose, Ballack, and many more. Really, who are we by comparison? While the way we lost to Germany was disappointing, the result shouldn’t have us all threatening hara-kiri or burning effigies of Pim in the street. As I’ve said before we should be justifiably proud of our footballing heritage and our fighting spirit, but we also shouldn’t forget our place. 

That place is not yet amongst nations like Germany - and they showed that in spades on the weekend; serving up a nice tall stein of reality for our players and pundits alike. People wonder why some of the lads were taking things a bit lightly after the game - perhaps they have a better understanding than you or I; they are the Ford Falcon to the German’s Porsche supercar, and they understand this. It would be nice to compete on the same level, but they know we don’t belong there - not for a little while, anyway.

The loss hurt, for sure. But let’s remember we’re not here to try and win the thing - we’re here to do Australia proud, and there’s still time for the boys to do that. Hell, the fact we’re even there is reason to be proud when you look at our historical record in the tournament, but alas our expectations have shifted so much since entering the ‘easy’ Asian qualifying system that we now feel a sense of entitlement to the World Cup.

Alas, I fear this could be our downfall in the next four years or so. The Golden Generation has been and gone. Kewell is now crocked, Cahill will probably be so in four years time, and our defence may very well have gone senile by then. It’ll be a drastically different Australian team, and it certainly speaks volumes that the new ‘it’ kids are hardly kids at all. When Mark Viduka left to play with Zagreb, he was barely 20. He was 23 when he arrived at Celtic. Harry Kewell was only just out of diapers when he left to join Leeds. These days, the ‘young stars’ of the Socceroos are ex-A-League players, one of which doesn’t even currently have a club. They’re aged 22-24, and they’ve not hit it big yet by any stretch of the imagination - nor will they for some time, or so it seems.

The names constantly thrown forward as the saviours of the Socceroos - Carle, Milligan, Bosnar, Griffiths, McDonald - sure, these are all good players at some level or another, but they’re not a patch on the class of 2006; or perhaps scarily, even this year’s squad. There is no more Golden Generation, people - this was it. As underwhelming as it might seem to you, guys like Holman and Valeri - both in their mid twenties - will form important parts of Socceroos squads going forward.

I hope it won’t be the case, but if people fail to take heed of reality today I fear it may be all too clear in another four years time - and ‘merely’ qualifying for the World Cup won’t be taken for granted as much as it has this time around.