WITH the Aussies now in South Africa for the World Cup it is time to look at our national team’s chances of creating history in 2010.
It pains me to write this, and as I do, my wife is shaking her head at me calling me unpatriotic.
Australian will not win the World Cup, and will not pass the group stage.
Why? Well very simply, the group is very tough, and Australia is just not good enough.
We (back to being patriotic now) are in a very hard group with Germany, Serbia and Ghana.
About the only good news for the Socceroos is the fact that Germany’s captain, Michael Ballack, has been ruled out of the World Cup with the ankle injury he sustained in Chelsea’s FA Cup win last month, and Ghana’s star midfielder Michael Essien is also out with injury.
All three teams are very good attacking teams, and Australia is not strong defensively.
Last week Australia played New Zealand and won 2-1 after being down 1-0 in the first half.
The Australians’ tempo was slow and the back defenders let many chances through.
Lucas Neil is Australia’s key back. Although not world class, he is a strong leader and needs to be playing at his best and rallying the other defenders to ensure the team does not leak goals.
In the first game, Germany will come at the Australians hard and will look to score twice in the first 20 minutes.
If they get the early goals, Germany will then play defenders higher up the pitch and only one striker to kill the game and limit Australia’s scoring opportunities.
Socceroos manager Pim Verbeek needs to ensure his defenders are ready to go from the first kick off.
The midfielders are the going to have to play well if Australia is to qualify for the knockout stage.
Mark Bresciano, Vince Grella and Brett Emerton all play at the highest level and are effective for their clubs, but need to step up and play well, ensuring they provide support to the defenders, and plenty of quality opportunities for the strikers.
Speaking of Australia’s strikers, Tim Cahill is world class. Primarily a midfielder for Everton, the last two seasons have seen him thrown up front.
With his exceptional ability in the air and tenacity on the ground he has been influential in Everton playing European football.
He has just signed with Everton for another four years, which speaks volumes of the club’s value on the Aussie star. Cahill saved Australia’s Cup campaign in Germany in 2006 when he destroyed Japan with a late brace.