Congratulations to the mighty Socceroos, Pim Verbeek, FFA and all backroom staff and all supporters of the mighty Socceroos for their back to back qualification for the world's biggest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup.
Thank God! Gone are the days when the Socceroos and their ever loyal supporters had to wait for the nail biting matches to determine the last qualification place! The Socceroos were the second nation to qualify for next year's World Cup on Saturday(in reality Japan and Australia qualified around the same time as the first two qualifying nations).
Since taking over as the Socceroos Coach, Pim Verbeek time and time again reminded everyone in Australia, in his slightly arrogant but endearing media interviews, that he was not recruited to deliver a team capable of playing beautiful attractive football! He was there to make sure Australia qualified for the World Cup! And now he has delivered, albeit by producing a regimented, disciplined and not so pretty to watch team which has shown itself capable of defending well and at times snatching crucial last gasp victories. A trait that all successful teams must possess.
Australia have qualified from the admittedly easier of the two Asian Group comfortably and in a dominant fashion. So far, with two matches left to play, Australia are also the only team in the world not having conceded a single goal in their qualifying campaign. However, their performances have been inconsistent, at times painfully hard to watch, and on occasions breath taking. Pim Verbeek will hopefully use the remaining time between now and the WC to fine tune the team into a more consistent unit.
The next immediate task however is to make sure the fans in Australia are not taken for granted between now and WC 2010. The Australian fans deserve to see all the available stars in their long awaited celebration game in Sydney against Bahrain in June. By fielding a very strong squad and providing an attractive attacking game next Wednesday, Ben Buckley and the FFA can avoid repeating the absolute PR disaster of last year's second class Socceroos 0-1 loss to China and risk alienating adoring fans and their hard earned cash during the current financial crisis. On top of this, the team can take valuable points out of its encounter with Bahrain and Japan, without the pressure of qualifying points at stake.
Having said all that, like many other Socceroos fans, I have been following their qualifying campaigns since 1973 and have travelled the emotional roller coaster with them over the years. It therefore fills me with great joy and pride to see them qualify as one of the very first nations for the next WC. Congratulations to the players, Pim Verbeek, Graham Arnold, all backroom staff, the FFA, and last but not least all the fans in the Green and Gold army.
With a little bit more luck than we got against Italy in 2006, we might even go all the way to the final in 2010!
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