June 19, 2010

Fans of the green and gold are clinging to hope, writes John Huxley in Johannesburg.

SOMEONE still loves, supports and believes in the Socceroos. Yesterday more than 900 members of the Fanatics support group were to board 22 buses in Durban to make the 10-hour overnight trip to Rustenburg, scene of Australia's must-win match against Ghana tonight.

After the match is played - and, they trust, won - they will stretch their legs, have a feed and jump back on their convoy of buses for the 10-hour return to their Tent City home for the duration of the World Cup. Greater faith hath no fans.

In all, several thousand Australians, many of them members of the Johannesburg-based Green and Gold Army and Fanatics travelling independently, are expected to converge on Rustenburg.
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''Look, the mood was a bit flat after the loss to Germany,'' said a Fanatics organiser, Warren Livingstone.

''But people have moved on. The Socceroos are going to get phenomenal support.''

As away trips and awkward World Cup assignations go, the road to Rustenburg can be a shocker. For most of the 180-kilometre drive from the Socceroos luxury lodge north of Johannesburg, the landscape is scarred by mines, the single-lane highway jammed with triple-banger trucks carrying away the platinum they produce.

The Royal Bafokeng Stadium, about 20 minutes' drive out of town, seems to have been dropped in the middle of nowhere, halfway between the shanties of Rustenburg and the the Sun City resort complex.

It is flat, exposed and whipped by winds off the surrounding Magaliesberg mountains that are forecast to drive the match-time temperature down to two degrees.

A guide said after Tuesday's match between New Zealand and Slovakia, in mid-winter: ''This is no country for old men.'' Or, presumably, old footballers.

This week there have been plenty of suggestions that too many Socceroos are past their prime; that the 23-man squad are pampered and overpaid; that the Dutch coach, Pim Verbeek, who leaves Australia after the World Cup to take up a post in Morocco, has lost the plot.

There has been talk of team rifts and media vendettas, as players, officials and fans struggled to come to terms with the 0-4 defeat by Germany.

Such distractions will be set aside tonight as the Socceroos seek to make amends for last Sunday's humiliation.

They will be without the leading goalscorer Tim Cahill, who is suspended, but will almost certainly start with the elusive Harry Kewell, who has played little football since Christmas.

Despite what the captain, Lucas Neill, pointedly described as ''chopping and changing'', Verbeek will be forced to experiment, especially as Australia must win to keep alive its hopes of emulating the 2006 Socceroos and qualify for the round of 16.

Failure at this stage would be a big disappointment, but it is unlikely to damage the game at home or overseas, where Australia's richest man, Frank Lowy, is leading a $50 million government-backed campaign to have the 2022 World Cup staged in Australia.

During a visit to Durban Mr Lowy said: ''It's very nice for Australia to do well - we all want that - but it's not the most important thing'' in terms of staging the World Cup.

Paradoxically, a disappointing performance here may provide a boost for the national A-League, which never impressed Verbeek, whose squad consisted mainly of players from European leagues.

Of course, it all depends how fast the new Socceroos coach, whose identity remains unknown, replaces the ageing heroes, how successful he is in keeping Australia, now ranked 20th, among the football elite.

Meanwhile, Mr Livingstone says a few Fanatics may choose to return home early if the Socceroos fail to win tonight.

''I doubt there will be many, though. Most have come for a holiday as well as the football.''

They include David McGill and Stephanie Leung, of St Peters, two Tent City dwellers. They married and spent their honeymoon following the Socceroos through their 2006 campaign in Germany. ''We promised then we'd follow them to all the World Cups.''

They are unlikely to quit their team because of one bad result.

http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/socceroos-true-believers-make-the-great-trek-for-a-decisive-battle-20100618-ympz.html