Pim's right to omit Fred Nurk

Kicking the national coach every time he selects a squad is a popular blood sport, but I think I’ll pass this time. I’ve played it many times in the past and I’m kind of over it.

The problem with this stuff is that the national coach always has a reason for selecting the players he does and for omitting others. It’s just that he doesn’t tell us what they are, usually affording us only the line: ‘I am not obligated to explain my selections to anyone.’

And he has a point, especially when it comes to the omissions. The press, let us say hypothetically, is clamouring for the inclusion of Fred Nurk, who’s been banging in the goals by the truckload for Excelsior Veldwezelt in the Belgian third division (which, as it happens, is of a higher standard than the A-League, according to the coach).

Is then the coach required to explain why Nurk wasn’t selected? On what basis? And to whom? Certainly not to Nurk.

In actual fact the coach has no requirement to explain his selections to anyone except his wife and, maybe, his boss (which can be the same person).

We in the media can get lucky occasionally and find a close up and personal moment with the coach and ask him. And the coach is usually accommodating.

In the 1980s such an issue arose with Tony Franken (now the Socceroos’ goalkeeping coach) who was a spectacularly brilliant keeper for his club, making Lev Yashin look like a plodding novice.

We in the media were outraged that Franken was continually overlooked for the national team and, at best, was picked as a deputy to the safe but boringly unspectacular Terry Greedy.

At one Socceroos training session the coach, Frank Arok, pulled me aside during the goalkeeper drill and asked me to watch as the practice shots rained in on Franken.

He pointed out that Franken almost never grasped the ball when making a save. He tended to just parry it, turning it around the post or fisting it to the ground and then grasping it on the bounce, unlike Greedy who had a good gift for taking possession of the ball with each save and then using it to quickly launch an attack.

The coach was right and in an instant I was convinced and never whinged about the non-selection of Franken again.

After that I made an effort to find an opportunity to quiz the national coach about his selections, privately, and usually got a satisfactory reply, even if I didn’t agree with him.

In the case of Pim Verbeek’s latest selections, I would love the opportunity to ask him the burning questions, such as why the idle and unconvincing Michael Beauchamp was selected instead of Eddy Bosnar or Sasa Ognenovski. Or what exactly is the key to the mystery of Brett Holman being deemed an international player.

I have no idea as to the answers but I’m sure Pim would happily give them to me in a private moment over a glass of mineral water, the beverage he favours in moments of loose decadence.

My point: selections are good fodder for coffee house banter and media debate, but ultimately they’re the coach’s job and his right. He will be judged in good time on the outcomes so let him do his business.

I mean let’s be grateful for small mercies. He picked Nicky Carle didn’t he? For now.

Coaches live and die by the sword

The national coaches of the 32 teams that will compete in the World Cup are already being shouted at for their squad selections.

Among the omissions are seriously recognised stars like Ronaldinho and Pato for Brazil, Francesco Totti for Italy, Kevin Kuranyi for Germany and Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema for France. The sweetly inventive Juan Riquelme will not front for Argentina but the bumbling big man, Martin Palermo, who once missed three penalties in one game, will.

This shapes up as a World Cup for coaches at the expense of players and the coaches, rightly, will be judged at the end of it.

Imagine, for instance, if Brazil fails in the World Cup and then Pato, a glorious talent, rocks up to dominate the Serie A for Milan the following season, just to prove a point, scoring a bag of goals. Dunga, Brazil’s coach who failed to pick him, will become that country’s anti-Christ, forced into a life of oblivion.

World Cup squad selection is not an exact science. The only certainty is that the selector is the one taking the risks and he will be sacked if he is found to have made the wrong selections.

Still, we in the audience will miss some of the above omitted stars who are among the most exciting and entertaining players in the world.

The biggest tragedy is Ronaldinho who, despite his pathological bent for nightclubbing and a marked loss of speed, has more skill and inventive guile than any of the 960 players so far picked in the preliminary squads.

Now only 30, less than a couple of years ago the prospect of a World Cup without him seemed unthinkable. Here too, the Brazilian public will have hell to play with Dunga if his omission is not vindicated.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/les-murray/blog/999862/Pim%27s-right-to-omit-Fred-Nurk