With Grella and the likes of Bresciano, Cahill and Culina forming the core of the side heading toward the 2010 World Cup, things are progressing well for the Socceroos. While there are high-profile hiccups on the Hyundai A-League front and debate continues to rage about our coaches, the Australian team is finally maturing into the world class side we all hoped it would. With the Socceroos showing Paraguay a thing or two and having been schooled by Master Hiddink, what style does Grella think we are actually playing?

“I don’t reckon it’s anyone’s style. We are combining different types of football together, which is not easy and I only think it’s going to get better. At some stages, we can lose each other because everyone goes back to their club and plays a different system. We then come back and change styles. It’s just our style now.

“We’ve got a lot of time still, but these next two years will be important. Once you get to the World Cup, there’s no more mucking around. You also have to give new guys a chance to break in. How many games they might need, I don’t know.

“(In new players) I always try and look at the attitude, the passion, the way they feel about being involved in the team… the way that they really feel it inside that they’re giving something to the team. If their intentions are good, then you wait for them. If they are making up the numbers and causing trouble then I don’t think there’s any room for them in the team. That’s the type of mentality we have in our team.

“The Asian Cup has got to be the goal for us, and obviously straight after that we’ve got the World Cup qualifiers. The team’s already got a pretty strong core, so you are only just joining on bits and pieces. We are in good hands,” he declares.

For Socceroo fans, being “in good hands” is all they’ve ever asked for. Being accepted into the Asian Football Confederation has been a godsend, with meaningful matches proving a plus for players and fans alike.

The new problem is that we don’t always get to see Grella and co in action – as witnessed recently against Asian opposition. Our first XI already had club vs country issues to contend with, and a busy schedule with the Socceroos has the potential to escalate things. Tim Cahill’s club boss David Moyes has already targeted the FFA with some choice words and Grella’s best mate Bresciano has weighed in saying, “The FFA want the best team to play too… we are all also looking at our own personal needs [so] it’s not an easy situation to deal with. The only way may be some players having to rest. I think a rotation policy would be a pretty good idea. Most of us have not really had a break for a couple of years. I think everyone deserves a break.”

Grella doesn’t necessarily agree with rotating players in the Socceroo set-up but presses home the real-time issues they face.

“It’s the constant time differences and your body clock. I think to play at this level the small things – your eating, sleeping patterns – they’re all over the place and it’s very hard to keep consistency. For example, we play Wednesday night, leave here Thursday afternoon, we get back on Friday afternoon and we play on a Sunday. Now, to be honest, what physical condition can you been in on Sunday at three o’clock? It’s very hard, but you can’t get around it. They (European players) have such an advantage doing a two-hour flight instead of doing a 26 or 27-hour one.

"Getting in the way" of Japan's Alessandro Santos


“Some people don’t really get that picture. You could tell them a hundred times, but until you can do it yourself or try that type of trip… I’ll get to Italy on Friday just before lunch, I’ve got about a one and a half hour car trip to Parma, I get out of the car, they’ll probably give me an hour and I’m training. And on Sunday I play.”

So do Grella’s concerns about rotating two Socceroo teams come down to a belief that the momentum and team performance may suffer?

“To be fair, I don’t know. It’s something that the coaches have to organise. I think it’s a big call and something that they really have to think about. I think the coaches have to study game by game and see how many points we’ve got, how many points we need, who the opposition is, where it is… So many things have to be thought about. This rotation thing… I’m not a big fan of rotation. If you look at the big clubs in Europe that play all those games they don’t do that much rotation and there is a reason for it.”