Australia must start as they finish - with a roar

GREG BAUM
June 25, 2010

AUSTRALIA'S World Cup mission began with a flurry of conceded goals and finished with a rush of the Socceroos' own. But the damage done by the 4-0 defeat to Germany was too great, and the Socceroos' own onslaught against Serbia was too late. It meant Australia in their final game were victors without spoils, and as they and their crowd saluted one another at match's end, all hearts were at once heavy and proud. ''Proud'' was the word that recurred in every player's reflection, and justly so. But it is a long way home from South Africa's backwoods.

Goals count more in soccer than in any other sport, made precious by their rarity. Each one is liable to turn a game on its head. It is what makes the game such sweet agony. Frequently, there is no goal, only the possibility of one. It means soccer is like watching lions in repose in Kruger National Park in daylight hours. It is its own sight, and yet the frisson is as much about what might happen as what does.

This makes for a peculiarly watchful mindset. Captain Lucas Neill said after Wednesday night's win that when the Socceroos fell two goals behind to Germany in Durban they should have cut their losses against a team they had not truthfully expected to beat anyway. Instead, they had tried to counter-attack, which he said was the Australian way, but also ''naive''. It cost them two more goals that left them with a mountain to climb.

But as well as conceding too many goals, Australia scored too few. By half-time against Serbia, both teams had scored only one goal each for the tournament, Serbia against a 10-man Germany, Australia from the Ghanaian goalkeeper's mistake. It is a damning registry, mitigated for Australia only by the long stretches they had to play with fewer men than their opponent. Nonetheless, only at this last pass did it appear to dawn on both these sides that a 0-0 draw suited neither.

Australia had rearranged themselves to cover for the absence of Harry Kewell and Craig Moore, but in orthodox manner, to play with measured tread. The circumstances demanded more adventure, accepting that all-out attack would have been reckless and played into Serbia's capable hands. As it happened, Serbia dominated the first half. The time had come to dare to win.

The second half was played at the sort of frenetic and frenzied pace that suits Australia, especially when playing teams that pride themselves on technical mastery rather than vigour, and look down a little sniffily on Australia. Serbia did, though superstar centre back Nemanja Vidic denied it, instead praising Australia for their ''courage to attack'' in the second half. Tim Cahill scored, of course, with a header, of course. Substitute Brett Holman added another with a prayer of a shot from fully 30 metres, transforming him instantly from anonymous to household name.

At that moment, another goal for Australia and one more for Germany in a simultaneous match in Johannesburg would have squeezed the Socceroos into the second round. The jungle drums were beating. Australia's army of supporters, outnumbering the Serbs by two to one, was stirred to full voice, tuneless but hearty.

But a team hell-bent on attack always is vulnerable. Serbia's late goal did for Australia and gave themselves a fleeting chance; one more and they would have advanced. The Serbs might have had a late penalty for Cahill's inadvertent handball, inevitably prompting recriminations against the referee that were uglily reprised after the whistle. But in terms of the tournament, justice was done.

Again, the Socceroos played their most free-flowing football when their urgency was greatest, after Kewell's sending-off against Ghana and in the second half against Serbia. In Germany in 2006, they were the same, scoring almost posthumously late goals to beat Japan from behind, then another 11th-hour goal to advance ahead of Croatia. Against Italy in the round of 16, they found their masters in terms of reaching out from the grave.

Neill talked of this backs-to-the-wall defiance as an Australian virtue, but it is, first of all, a vice to fall behind repeatedly. Australia, with their robust style and their many loud fans, have made themselves a palpable identity at the World Cup. Now they must make themselves a force. By next World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro, they will have a new team, a new coach and perhaps a new strategy. Neill hinted that he would welcome it.

If the Socceroos are to establish themselves as the big team they believe they are, they will have to learn to stamp their mark at the beginning, not in desperate and dangerous but thrilling rearguard actions that sooner or later end up in epic failure. They are for storybooks, not history books.

Source: The Age
http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/australia-must-start-as-they-finish--with-a-roar-20100624-z3ky.html