Tommy living a dream

* By David Pemberthy
* From: The Sunday Telegraph
* May 22, 2010 11:51PM

IT is one of the oldest stories in sport, the rookie kid who comes from nowhere to shine at the highest level. In Australia today that kid is Tommy Oar, who just four years ago had turned his bedroom wall into a shrine to Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill. He is now standing next to them as the youngest member of the 31-man Socceroos squad for the World Cup in South Africa.

Oar only celebrated his 18th birthday last December, making him the second-youngest member of the Socceroos squad since his hero Kewell debuted at the age of 17 against Chile in 1996, when Oar was just five years old.

Now, the young striker may be one match away from taking his place alongside Kewell in the final 23 for South Africa, with tomorrow night's friendly against New Zealand at the MCG a golden opportunity for Oar to write his own chapter in Australian football history.

"I still have to pinch myself every day to realise what's happening," Oar said last Thursday, his first day in camp with the squad.

"Things have obviously happened very quickly for me. It's a great opportunity for me to be involved in this squad. I never thought this would happen in my wildest dreams, so I'm just living it up while I can and making the most of it."

Even though he's now old enough to vote, Oar still has a touch of the schoolboy about him - a permanent infectious grin, eyes wide open, a mix of joy and disbelief at the position he has found himself in. Yet he is also mature enough to realise that his chance of making the cut for South Africa is an outside one, and will come down to how well he impresses coach Pim Verbeek while training, and whether he can have an impact if subbed on against the All Whites tomorrow.

"It's obviously a very important game," Oar said. "The Australia-New Zealand rivalry is one of the greatest ones in sport.

"But for me, yeah, it will definitely be in the back of the coach's mind when he chooses the final 23, so it's obviously a very important game for me and also for everybody else."

On the day we met Tommy Oar, he still hadn't caught up with his idol, fellow left-foot striker Kewell, who had only returned from his home in Turkey 24 hours prior. If Oar is excited about meeting Kewell, the feeling is mutual.

"I've heard good things about him, really good things," Kewell said. "I haven't even trained with him yet, but I hear he's a good player, he's trained exceptionally well."

Oar's attacking style has invited comparisons with Kewell.

But unlike Kewell, he is not a natural-born left-footer. He used to kick with his right but, according to his father Michael, Tommy "just swapped to his left foot when he was six or seven".

He is short but not slight. He's been pushing himself in the gym over the past year so he can muscle up against older and bigger defenders. His selection in the Socceroos squad caps a stellar rise through the ranks of Australian football. He first came to notice in the suburban competition on the Gold Coast with local club Palm Beach, and won a scholarship to the Queensland Academy of Sport under the tutelage of coach Mike Mulvey. From there he was snapped up by the Brisbane Roar in what has become something of a nursery for Australian football.

His Brisbane team-mates, Michael Zullo and Adam Surota, have now joined him playing in Holland at FC Utrecht. In addition, fellow Queenslander Dario Vidosic is also a member of the Socceroos squad and hopes to sneak a spot in the final 23.

One of Oar's mentors is Brisbane Roar assistant coach Rado Vidosic, who for the past five years was youth coach for the A-League team. He's also the father of Dario.

"Tommy is a fantastic talent, his game understanding is excellent and his ability to use his skills in a fast game is very, very good," Rado Vidosic says.

"That is something that separates him from the others, to use his skill in the fastest possible way. That's why he is hard to deal with."

But obviously enough, no one is prouder of Tommy Oar than his parents Michael and Delia, and his three elder siblings, David, Andrew and Natasha.

His brothers and sister all played soccer through school and were instrumental in his choice of sport and development as a young player.

"He was a bit of a whiz kid," Michael said.

"When he first started he was only five. He didn't really have a clue in his first year, but it was only because he was so young. But then the next year was amazing, he just went for it.

"He was playing a year higher than his age. He was always small for his age and I think that's why he learnt his skills because he had to be able to hold his own against the bigger players. It's amazing really, if you think back a couple of years ago he was only a little kid. It really is like some kind of dream."

Michael Oar said the family are trying not to get ahead of themselves as they watch Tommy's progress while in camp.

They are also trying not to get too excited about the prospect of a miracle substitution on Monday which seals his spot in the final 23.

"While the expectation is probably not there, I am just ecstatic that at the very least he has been given the chance to train with these guys," Michael said.

"But, sure, Monday's game could still change things.

"I don't even know if Tom is going to get on. It will be great if he does, but if he doesn't go any further he will still be able to look at this and say that he was part of the squad and go forward from there."

National coach Pim Verbeek has reportedly told Tommy not to count on a spot in the final 23, to head off any disappointment should he not make the cut.

But Verbeek told The Sunday Telegraph that, either way, there is a bright future for the rising star.

"Tommy's special, he's just 18 years old, he's a left-footed player, he's the best left-footed player we have in the A-League at the moment, he's fit, he's ready, he has a lot of potential [and] he played a great game against Indonesia [Asian Cup qualifier in Brisbane in March, his Socceroos debut]," Verbeek said. "The so-called problem players are all our strikers because we didn't know how it was with Bresh [Mark Bresciano], with [Richard] Garcia and with Harry [Kewell], so why shouldn't I have taken Tommy in the final 30?

"Maybe in five days, if the other players are not a problem anymore or have never been a problem at all, maybe you have to disappoint [Tommy], but then again he would have had 10 days in heaven.

"He was with the group, he made a good impression and maybe that helps him in the future.

"You never know what happens in football."

It's the same attitude which Tommy Oar is taking into training and tomorrow night's game. He knows his chance is an outside one. But it is still a chance. And he's honest enough to admit that the scenario of a late substitution in the second half, where he scores a winning goal against the Kiwis, has crossed his mind more than once.

"Obviously everyone dreams about that sort of stuff," Oar says.

"But I am just trying to prove myself every day at training and working really hard in camp. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself."

He is already further ahead than most of his peers.

And as Verbeek says, from here on, you never know what will happen.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tommy-living-a-dream/story-fn4ke077-1225869998685