October 12, 2013

Horse 1553 - It Was All Your Fault (the real reason Holger Osieck had to go)

Yes, it was your fault - You. The Australian Public.

Australians do not handle losing well. Although Australians pride their idea of "a fair go" and "having a go", they truly can not hack losing. They just lose it completely.
From the 2003 World Cup Rugby loss against England - oh look, they only reason England won was because of Jonny Wilkinson, to the sacking of Mickey Arthur after being 2-0 in an Ashes cricket series, to the sacking of Robbie Deans after a demolition at the hands of the Lions rugby side, to the way Ricky Stuart was shown the door following the 2008 Rugby League World Cup Final loss to New Zealand, the truth remains that is Australia isn't magically world champions in everything, the media and administrators all collectively have a hissy fit and chuck their toys out of the pram.

The first point of notice is that the current chief executive officer of Football Federation Australia is David Gallop, the former head of the National Rugby League. This should have been taken as a point in the media but wasn't.
Scores like 1-0 and 0-0 probably confuse Gallop. For instance, how is it possible to have played out a grindingly tough game if no-one scored? How does that make sense? He might understand with real certainly, the mechanics of running a successful business but does he actually understand the nature and culture of the product that he's trying to sell? Somehow, I'm not entirely sure about this.
Holger Osieck comes from a very stoic line of German football coaches, having served as the assistant to Franz Beckenbauer in West Germany's 1990 World Cup triumph. He was in charge of Canada and took them to the title of 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup and later as coach of the Urawa Red Diamonds
 he won the 2007 AFC Champions League. Clearly he must have some ability.

Secondly; yes it was bad that Australia should lose 6-0 against Brazil and then 6-0 against France but is that necessarily the coach's fault? There are eleven men on the pitch who are out there kicking a football and Holger Osieck was not one of them.
A coach and manager can yell until they are blue in the face and it aint going to make a lick of difference if the eleven players on the pitch are playing a game full of stodge.

Thirdly and most importantly, have we forgotten exactly who Australia was playing? France currently sit 28 places above Australia in the FIFA Rankings and I think could jump up another 5 by the end of the month. Brazil on the other hand is Brazil.
The 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil and if Brazil do not win it at home, then quite frankly the Brazilian national coach had better be wearing full anti-tank armor because I can almost guarantee that he will be either stabbed to death or shot if he doesn't win it. For Brazil not to be world champions next year, will be a national disgrace.
In a match which effectively was the 1950 World Cup Final, Uruguay beat Brazil 2-0 at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio and the match has forever since been called "Maracanazo" or "The Maracanã Blow". Brazil changed its home strip from white to yellow because it was then deemed to be unlucky and as far as I can make out, none of the players in that squad ever played for the national squad ever again.
Is it really too difficult to accept that both France and especially Brazil might be better than Australia? Forbid such a thought.

Of course the real reason why Australia lost against France and Brazil 6-0 is because of you. Yes, you Australia.
Buddy Franklin has moved from Hawthorn to Sydney in a move worth $10 million and if Israel Folau can move from Rugby League to Australian Rules football to Rugby Union, depending on who is throwing money at him, it says that you Australia haven't invested the sort of money in football that either Brazil or France has. If Franck Ribéry who opened the account for France, joined German club Bayern Munich for a then club-record fee of €25 million from Marseille, then that says that there was a lot more money invested in French football than there ever was in Australia. I suspect that he alone would be worth more than the entire Australian squad he faced.
If you want to see Australia do well in future world cups etc. the support the A-League and do not support the other football codes. In economics we call such things an opportunity cost when money in invested in one thing instead of another. Just don't be surprised if there happen to be better national sides in the world than Australia.

Yes, it was your fault Australia. Yours. Holger is a convenient scapegoat; that's why he had to go. Don't be surprised if he shows up to coach another nation, who is also better than Australia.

No comments: