For Pim Verbeek, looking back is not an option. What's done is done.

Of course, he recognises the history of Australian football: the pain of 32 years of failure, the elation of finally returning to the pinnacle and the large shadow cast by his compatriot in taking the team there.

But worrying whether his team will progress further than Hiddink's squad did four years ago would only be counter-productive, for him as a coach and for the players striving to go one better. The past is in the past. It's time to look to the future.

"I'm not looking four years back," says Verbeek, when asked about his team compared to Hiddink's. "If you ask me which players were at 2006, I cannot tell you. I was not there and I'm not going to win anything by thinking about 2006.

"I have my own players in mind for selection and I hope they will all be there. The only thing I know is that a lot of my players - about half of them - were there in 2006, so they have the extra experience of knowing what to expect in a World Cup. That is very important."

Currently at home in Holland after a trip to Japan to meet up with the likes of Mark Milligan, Matthew Spiranovic and Josh Kennedy, we caught up with Pim to talk fitness, altitude, his final 23 and what he's enjoyed best as coach of the Socceroos.

How have preparations been going for the World Cup?
Preparations are almost done. The facilities, the venues, the training sessions have all been arranged now. All we have to do now is hope and pray that everybody stays fit for the finals. It's interesting that I don't have to do too much - it's just a case of picking the best 23 players. My biggest concerns are things I can't control: injuries, form, fatigue.
There's no guarantee that players who are playing well for their clubs now can do it at the World Cup. And it can work the other way around too. Players who are struggling now could play the best football of their lives in a few week's time. So that's always an issue but the advantage I have is that I have been with the team for two years now and I know my players very well. We also have quite a while to prepare the players, more than three weeks for camp. Normally we've only had a couple of days but now we have a lot of time to prepare our players physically, mentally and football-wise for the World Cup.

Last World Cup, Guus Hiddink went through a rigorous fitness regime leading up to the finals. Are you more conscious of the fatigue syndrome and working the squad too hard?
To be honest I have no idea what I'm going to do at the moment. We have to wait to see how the players feel when they arrive and see what they can and cannot do. One problem is that some players finish their seasons earlier than others. Some of the guys will be able to have a break but others will come straight to Melbourne from their last league game, so we have to be very careful in over-working the players. We only fly to Australia for five or six days before going to South Africa, so there's two very long flights and getting used to two time differences in a short space of time. For the players it's going to be a different lead up compare to four years ago.

It seems as though there's a trust factor for you with your players, when you mentioned them telling you what they can and can't do. Is that right that there is a very open relationship between you and the players?
I've never thought about it like that to be honest. My responsibility is to prepare the players to be 100 per cent ready. But there are 23 players and they cannot all prepare the same way - we have some guys who have played over 50 games this season and others who have only had 20. So we are waiting for the feedback of the players.
I make the decisions but it is important to find out from the men themselves how they feel. At the moment, we more worried about the physical side than the football side. We're not having as many discussions about the football at the moment as we more or less play the same system.

There are some good warm-up games against World Cup sides like New Zealand, Denmark and USA. How seriously do you take those matches?
As I said before this is a difficult question to answer as we have to see who is fit and can play. But what we use these games for is to bring the players to their physical and mental best before the World Cup begins. Football-wise I think the players know what to do and how to do it. I feel even though we haven't started training yet, we are 90 per cent ready tactically - the way we are going to play defensively and attacking wise. The last ten per cent is going to make the difference, in my opinion, and that is why we have three weeks to work on the finer details. Details make all the difference in the World Cup.

Those details will be on what I see in training. If things go well in certain aspects then I know we can leave them and work on other strategies and if something is not working well, then I know we need to spend more time on it on the training pitch. And that's what I see happening in those three games. What we work on in training will then be put into action on the pitch in those matches.

Of course the last thing we want is an injury so we'll be looking out for that too. Watching players in camp is a good way to see if they're ready and sometimes you have to take someone off or not play him at all because he's too valuable to you when you get to the actual finals games. You know he is going to start in the group games but you don't want to take a risk in one of the warm-up games.

Another aspect that is out of your control is the other teams in our group. Tell us how you scout the teams and then how you give that information to the players.
We have DVDs of all the teams in our group, including all their World Cup qualification matches. And of course we have a schedule of the games they are still to play before the World Cup, which is arguably more important to see how they will play. You get a better idea of who is playing well, what tactics they use and who the coach is likely to pick. I have scouts that I have used for the qualification campaign that will come to South Africa to do the same job.
For example, our final group game is Serbia and we can follow them in Europe in their pre-World Cup camps and twice during the group stages before we play them. So Serbia is not our first priority. Our main priority is our first game against Germany, so while we focus on all three teams as a staff, the only preparation I will do with the team is to get ready for Germany. For me there is no reason to start thinking about Ghana and Serbia, when Germany is up first. And there is still five days between our opening game and the Ghana game, so that gives us enough time to prepare. Ghana and Germany are going to play a totally different style of football, so it's not worth doing any sessions to prepare for Ghana until we actually come to play them. We will focus completely on the German game, the most important game.

There's been a lot of debate about the way we play but most teams in the world seem to be using a version of 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Why do you like to use this formation with the Socceroos?
More than anything, the formation fits the players we have the best. You have to look at who you have available and what their qualities are and then play them in a way that suits them. We have tried some other systems as well - we've played some 4-4-2 and we played a diamond for a few games but that was more to try something different as we didn't have all our players available. For me you should always look to the quality of your players and I think we have the players - and not just in the starting XI but in the whole squad - that means the best system is the 4-2-3-1.
Our players can play in different systems too, which is a definite advantage but I think we have the most success when we play with the two holding players. And a lot of other teams in the world are playing the same way so I think it makes it a little easier to do your defending job also.

What do you see as the key to the formation working?
The individual quality of your players. Defensively the organisation is very strict and everybody knows exactly the job they have to do. Attacking-wise you are more dependent on the quality of your players. If you have Josh Kennedy you are going to play differently than if you have Scott McDonald or Bruce Djite. So you have to find out which players are fit and playing well and adapt to the individual talents they have. When we have the ball, if players have the ability and space to do positive things, then they are free to do it as long as the organisation is intact.

Balance seems to be important when you look at your team selections.
If you have Bresciano, he is someone who doesn't like to play on the line, he likes to go inside and outside in a bit more of a free role. If you have a player like that then you can use him effectively on the right side or the left side. If you play with Harry, he is player who likes to play more on the line and that also has consequences. We are always looking for balance.

So choosing one player can affect the selection of the rest of the team?
The individual quality of your players can make a difference and that is what every team in the finals is looking for. If you have those kinds of players you can sit a little easier in the World Cup but not everyone is that lucky and you have to do it as a team.

One criticism of your tactics is a lack of a ‘Plan B', that you stick to rigidly to the one formation. What do you say to that?
I don't know. I haven't read anything. I don't know if people are criticising me or the system. I am the person responsible for the football part and my job was to qualify for the World Cup... and we didn't do that bad, did we? We scored the most amount of goals of every team in Asia in qualifying with only one goal against; we were unbeaten in the second stage. In most countries in the world, I would be a hero but probably in Australia people expect me to do more. Everyone is allowed their own opinion though and I have no problem at all if people think differently as long as they understand I am ultimately responsible. I have no problem because it's an easy thing to do... I do it myself sometimes when I'm sitting in front of the TV and I think, "Why is he playing like this?". Everyone has their opinion and ideas even if they have no clue about it, it's still good to have an opinion.

So for you, if ‘Plan A' is working so well, why have a ‘Plan B'?
I suppose so, I have never thought about it that way but you are absolutely right. Why change things if you don't know if the change will make things better - there is no reason to do anything different. Obviously sometimes you have to play with different players that might affect things, say if you're playing China away and you have no strikers in your selection because they are all injured, then it's difficult to play attacking football, isn't it? China away 0-0 is a decent result, don't you think? Maybe I should have spoken after every game about how fantastic we played and how attacking we were, blah, blah, blah, but I am a realist and my job is about getting results. Whether people like it or not, in the end that's what it's all about. I prefer 0-0 to losing 5-4 and everyone saying, "What a great game, you've scored four goals".

You have a lot of leaders in the squad. It must be good as a coach to know you have players like that to call upon?
The leaders are also the best players in the team, so they automatically have the respect of the rest of the team. But there are also some interesting young players coming through. We have an interesting mixture. One of the things about 2006 is that nobody expected anything from Australia but this time it's different. The standard now is that you have to go to the next round because that is what they did in 2006 and I think that it's a reasonable target. We're not going to South Africa because we're just happy to be there, we're going there to do as well as we can and hopefully that's better than last time.

Is there a big burden of expectation to get out of the group?
I do feel the expectation but that is part of the job. We're going there to do the best we can and hopefully progress past the Round of 16. And we mustn't forget that this isn't an easy tournament and we don't have an easy group so we need to be at our very best.

In your head now, do you have a number of players that you know are going to make it into the squad of 23?
It's not about the first 14 or 15 players because you already know what they can do. It's about the rest of the squad. I need to have three players to cover every position and even a fourth in the back of my head if something happens. Injuries are a big factor and one example is Paddy Kisnorbo. He has played all season, but he picks up an injury and we lose him for six months. I need to make sure I pick players who can turn out in several positions so you can make your team more interchangeable. It's always good to have a few players in your squad that can play in several positions.

So you prefer that versatility when choosing your other squad players?
Exactly. The best example of that is Luke Wilkshire who can play as a right full-back, central midfielder and right winger; a player like Brett Emerton can do the same. Of course they have their best positions but sometimes you have to play for the team in another place.

You have announced that you are leaving the Socceroos after the World Cup.What have you enjoyed the most about coaching Australia?
Being with the team. The atmosphere within the group of players and my staff has been fantastic and as soon as I arrived they became my friends and were very, very professional. There was never one problem in the two and half years I was there, not with the team or between individuals. I enjoyed the country too and the mentality of the people. It's been a very special part of my life.

Was there anything that you'd change looking back?
No, no, no, no, no. It's funny that I have spoken many times on the good things about the A-League but I'm always picked up on the things I have said that are critical about it. And when I say critical, I mean ‘realistic' critical. That was an interesting situation for me. I believe in being honest and I just say what I think. I'm not hiding.

What do you think your legacy will be for the Socceroos?
My legacy will be written in the World Cup. For Hiddink it was simple because he qualified the team for its first World Cup in 32 years. So me qualifying for the World Cup was good, I did my job, but it's not special anymore. Now I have to do something special at the World Cup, that's my plan. In the end, people don't look at the players that you bring into the team or the changes you make for the future. It's about results and that's why the World Cup is so important.

This article appeared in the World Cup 2010 issue of FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.