Ruminations
It's just over twenty-four hours since Australia crashed out of World Cup 2006 and I have to say that I'm feeling pretty good about it all. The hopeless romantic in me believed that we could have gone all the way. That after all the years of bullshit we've been put through we could have given the establishment the finger. The reality is that without a quality striker at least as good as Kewell, without gout and with the ability to use his primary leg, we were always heading home sooner or later. To win you have to score goals and we've always had serious trouble doing that against quality sides.
But lets be honest here, for an Aussie this is about as good as it gets. Our entire psyche is swept up in being screwed by officialdom. Everything from our convict origins, to Eureka, to Ned Kelly, Gallipoli and even Vietnam. This just adds to the dramas Australia and Australian football has been through. Our nation was built on defeat and setback. It's what makes us so great. Time and time again we've bounced back wiser, stronger and better. This time will be no different. In fact it will be the foundation from which we launch our first successful bid for the cup. And we can always say that if we hadn't been screwed by the ref we would have gone all the way.
I do feel for the current crop of players. Especially the likes of Viduka and Kewell. They're unlikely to grace the World Cup finals again. They've been the backbone of a potentially great, but under-achieving side. I firmly believe that had Lowy's grassroots revolution occurred in 1993 rather than in 2003 they could have gone all the way. In fact in 2006 they might have been defending champions. Unfortunately, they have been repeatedly screwed and under-resourced. We've never seen the best of them and now we never will. What we did see was pretty damn impressive.
Go you Socceroos!
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