The great wall of Australia
* David Lewis
* From: Herald Sun
* June 11, 2010
WHEN the Socceroos step into the cauldron of Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium for their World Cup opener on Monday morning, Aussie fans will look to Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell to provide the sorcery.
But midfield warrior Vince Grella believes the real bedrock of the team is veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
The 194cm giant will be Australia's key against its Group D opponents - Germany, Ghana and Serbia.
Grella says Schwarzer is unopposed as Australia's greatest shot-stopper, well ahead of Mark Bosnich and Zeljko Kalac.
And the Sydney-raised Fulham star, with 75 caps, is fast closing in on the 87-match record held by former Socceroos skipper and defender Alex Tobin.
Grella sees no sign of Schwarzer slowing down, even at 37.
He is already our most capped keeper and he will need to at his agile best against Joachim Loew's men if the Socceroos are to pilfer a point, or more, from the three-time world champions.
Luck and dedication have played their roles in Schwarzer's rise after he became the main beneficiary of the self-destructive streak of Bosnich, whose career was undermined by drug-induced demons at age 31.
"Schwarzy is the best keeper we have ever seen for Australia, no real doubt about that as far as I am concerned," Grella said.
"He is the key for us. He knows where we need to be at every stage in a match.
"He has the total respect of the players and he's one of those people that when he makes a rare mistake he always takes responsibility.
"He's living proof that if you look after yourself and respect your talent you can keep playing at the top level for many years after your supposed use-by date.
"I see no reason why he can't just keep on keeping on after the World Cup. It's really up to him because the way he's played for us and his club Fulham over the last couple of years has been miraculous."
Schwarzer's milestones include more than 400 English Premier League appearances and nearly 700 career matches since making his debut for Middlesbrough in 1997.
Kalac, his one-time bitter rival for the Socceroos spot who was driven into international retirement after the 2006 World Cup, has a relationship with Schwarzer that is testy at best.
But Kalac acknowledges that Schwarzer, even now, is still without peer as a shot-stopper and should be in no hurry to curtail his career, especially with Arsenal close to stealing him away from Fulham - where he still has a year to run on his current deal.
"Why would Mark want to quit the national team or football in general?" Kalac asked.
"He's just come off a great season with Fulham where he played in the Europa League final, and he is playing as effectively as ever.
"His career pretty much started in earnest 12 years ago when he moved from Bradford to Middlesbrough (after beginning his overseas odyssey with German clubs Dynamo Dresden and then Kaiserslautern).
"He really didn't do much before that, but he's made up for lost time, that's for sure.
"In that sense he is still quite fresh. The really scary thing for Australian football is that there is nobody in the national set-up really challenging him.
"He looks like he can have the job as long as he wants.
"Maybe I will have to come out of retirement and give him some competition again because he's not getting it from anywhere else."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/the-great-wall-of-australia/story-e6frf9if-1225878126034