If Harry Kewell and the Socceroos are to make it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they should follow our “Five Step Guide To World Cup Qualification”
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STEP THREE
Overcome Pim Verbeek's Inexperience
So, what do you know about Pim Verbeek? He’s Dutch, right? He worked with Guus Hiddink, right? He coached Korea to third at the Asian Cup, which means he’s better than Graham Arnold, right?
What you need to know is this: as good as a coach Verbeek ultimately proves to be, right now he is somewhere he has never been before.
Up until he took the reigns at South Korea for the 2007 Asian Cup, his CV was looking more and more like that of a ‘career assistant’. In the previous ten years, he had worked more as an assistant coach, at a better standard, than he had as a head coach.
In this role of assistant was where he had his biggest success, particularly alongside Guus Hiddink in 2002 with South Korea. As far as his record as head coach, his tenure with Australia stands head and shoulders above any of his previous stints.
To clarify, we are not suggesting the pathway to the position of head coach should not involve being assistant. Obviously, Verbeek will have picked up a thing or two as Korea successfully navigated their way through qualification to Germany. The fact remains though he hasn’t endured the pressures of qualification as head coach before in his career.
Worryingly, his greatest head coaching achievement to date, third at last year’s Asian Cup, raises some concerns about his abilities to match it with the world’s top echelon of coaches.
The highly fancied Korean team won just one match (excluding their two penalty shout-out wins), a 1-0 win over Indonesia. They lost to Bahrain – group rivals for Australia this time around – and scored just three goals, including none in the knock-out stages.
Discipline could also be a factor. Despite being a straight talker in his media interviews, he has been known to turn a blind eye when his players get in trouble. Star striker Lee Dong-Gook and goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae went out drinking at an Indonesian karaoke bar a day before the loss to Bahrain in the Asian Cup.
While the players were given lengthy suspensions three months after the fact, Verbeek continued to select them during the tournament. It will be interesting to see how Verbeek deals with any possible disruptions within the Aussie squad.
FourFourTwo Says
So far Pim has done everything that has been asked of him, making the next round of qualifying with a game to spare. But now the stakes are higher and Verbeek will be learning on the job in trying to lead a team to the World Cup finals.
STEP FOUR
Making Home Field Advantage Count
When the qualifying draw was announced, it was obvious we were in the easier of the two groups, avoiding the likes of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the two Korean nations.
Less fancied countries Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan aren’t expected to provide much of a fight beyond their home matches. We’ve beaten Qatar in the previous stage at home and away, and we had the better of Bahrain in qualifying for the 2007 Asian Cup. Question marks do remain over the Uzbek trip, but there’s no doubt that in Australia these three teams will be offering long odds to even get a point from us.
However, all of these nations possess the ability to surprise us. They are here for a reason, having proven themselves in the previous phase.
Uzbekistan won its first five matches, including a 3-0 thumping of Saudi Arabia, to ensure progress. Bahrain won its first three matches, including a 1-0 triumph over Japan. Qatar was even more impressive, progressing through Australia’s difficult group past the more favoured Chinese and Asian champions Iraq. The two matches against Australia were the only two that they lost.
Each country possesses a handful of match-winners capable of nicking a goal or getting their team a result. Powerful Uruguayan-born striker Sebastian Quintana scored three goals in three games for Qatar at the Asian Cup, and tricky former Asian Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim came on and scored against Australia in the previous stage.
A’ala Hubail from Bahrain was top scorer at the 2004 Asian Cup as a 22-year-old when Bahrain made the semi-finals, and his goals were enough for 1-0 victories over Oman (away) and Japan (home) in the previous qualification phase.
Uzbekistan, too, may prove to be a banana skin. The majority of their defence and goalkeeper have played or are playing their club football together at Pakhtakor Tashkent, giving them a massive advantage in terms of teamwork and communication, highlighted by four clean sheets from six games in the last phase.
In addition, their talismanic striker Maksim Shatskikh, forward for Dynamo Kiev, already has two goals in this campaign. (When FourFourTwo met him in 2005 and mentioned Australia, he laughed a most Soviet laugh out of sheer arrogance... or possibly miscommunication.)
If any of these players can come to Australia and snatch a surprise winner – far from impossible against Australia’s unsettled defence – it could turn the group on its head. Make no mistake, losing concentration at all during our four home matches will put our ticket to a third World Cup finals at risk.
FourFourTwo Says
Mental discipline from the players is going to be key. This is where the 2006 World Cup veterans must step up, to not only make sure they are prepared but to make sure the younger, less experienced Socceroos are ready to make visiting teams suffer.
Overcome Pim Verbeek's Inexperience
So, what do you know about Pim Verbeek? He’s Dutch, right? He worked with Guus Hiddink, right? He coached Korea to third at the Asian Cup, which means he’s better than Graham Arnold, right?
What you need to know is this: as good as a coach Verbeek ultimately proves to be, right now he is somewhere he has never been before.
Up until he took the reigns at South Korea for the 2007 Asian Cup, his CV was looking more and more like that of a ‘career assistant’. In the previous ten years, he had worked more as an assistant coach, at a better standard, than he had as a head coach.
In this role of assistant was where he had his biggest success, particularly alongside Guus Hiddink in 2002 with South Korea. As far as his record as head coach, his tenure with Australia stands head and shoulders above any of his previous stints.
To clarify, we are not suggesting the pathway to the position of head coach should not involve being assistant. Obviously, Verbeek will have picked up a thing or two as Korea successfully navigated their way through qualification to Germany. The fact remains though he hasn’t endured the pressures of qualification as head coach before in his career.
Worryingly, his greatest head coaching achievement to date, third at last year’s Asian Cup, raises some concerns about his abilities to match it with the world’s top echelon of coaches.
The highly fancied Korean team won just one match (excluding their two penalty shout-out wins), a 1-0 win over Indonesia. They lost to Bahrain – group rivals for Australia this time around – and scored just three goals, including none in the knock-out stages.
Discipline could also be a factor. Despite being a straight talker in his media interviews, he has been known to turn a blind eye when his players get in trouble. Star striker Lee Dong-Gook and goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae went out drinking at an Indonesian karaoke bar a day before the loss to Bahrain in the Asian Cup.
While the players were given lengthy suspensions three months after the fact, Verbeek continued to select them during the tournament. It will be interesting to see how Verbeek deals with any possible disruptions within the Aussie squad.
FourFourTwo Says
So far Pim has done everything that has been asked of him, making the next round of qualifying with a game to spare. But now the stakes are higher and Verbeek will be learning on the job in trying to lead a team to the World Cup finals.
STEP FOUR
Making Home Field Advantage Count
When the qualifying draw was announced, it was obvious we were in the easier of the two groups, avoiding the likes of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the two Korean nations.
Less fancied countries Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan aren’t expected to provide much of a fight beyond their home matches. We’ve beaten Qatar in the previous stage at home and away, and we had the better of Bahrain in qualifying for the 2007 Asian Cup. Question marks do remain over the Uzbek trip, but there’s no doubt that in Australia these three teams will be offering long odds to even get a point from us.
However, all of these nations possess the ability to surprise us. They are here for a reason, having proven themselves in the previous phase.
Uzbekistan won its first five matches, including a 3-0 thumping of Saudi Arabia, to ensure progress. Bahrain won its first three matches, including a 1-0 triumph over Japan. Qatar was even more impressive, progressing through Australia’s difficult group past the more favoured Chinese and Asian champions Iraq. The two matches against Australia were the only two that they lost.
Each country possesses a handful of match-winners capable of nicking a goal or getting their team a result. Powerful Uruguayan-born striker Sebastian Quintana scored three goals in three games for Qatar at the Asian Cup, and tricky former Asian Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim came on and scored against Australia in the previous stage.
A’ala Hubail from Bahrain was top scorer at the 2004 Asian Cup as a 22-year-old when Bahrain made the semi-finals, and his goals were enough for 1-0 victories over Oman (away) and Japan (home) in the previous qualification phase.
Uzbekistan, too, may prove to be a banana skin. The majority of their defence and goalkeeper have played or are playing their club football together at Pakhtakor Tashkent, giving them a massive advantage in terms of teamwork and communication, highlighted by four clean sheets from six games in the last phase.
In addition, their talismanic striker Maksim Shatskikh, forward for Dynamo Kiev, already has two goals in this campaign. (When FourFourTwo met him in 2005 and mentioned Australia, he laughed a most Soviet laugh out of sheer arrogance... or possibly miscommunication.)
If any of these players can come to Australia and snatch a surprise winner – far from impossible against Australia’s unsettled defence – it could turn the group on its head. Make no mistake, losing concentration at all during our four home matches will put our ticket to a third World Cup finals at risk.
FourFourTwo Says
Mental discipline from the players is going to be key. This is where the 2006 World Cup veterans must step up, to not only make sure they are prepared but to make sure the younger, less experienced Socceroos are ready to make visiting teams suffer.
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