So long Holger, no hard feelings

Osieck sacked (right)

After two 6 - 0 drubbings, I agree with this decision to sack Holger Osieck as Australia national coach, as it's time for a change.  But I don't blame Holger for the recent poor form of the Australian side. Australia is in a transition phase now and every generation can't be golden, at least not yet.

Osieck did well as coach of Australia.  He got us to the World Cup.  But it's good that he goes because Australia needs to rebuild and we need fresh ideas.

The players are more of a problem than Holger, especially the older ones.  Lucas Neill should retire. Holman has been disappointing. Marc Bresciano is playing well but at 33 he's the type of player we should be looking to wean the national team off.

Another problem was described by TV commentator Mark Bosnich who said that Holger has lost the players (respect) in the dressing room.  In a recent Foxsports interview (link) Bresciano denied this. He made it seem uncontroversial.

Yet there seemed to be a lack of will power in the two recent games against France and Brazil.  If so, such team discord is probably lead by senior players like Neill, and possibly the likes of Tim Cahill. Yet all deny it. Is the denial believable or is it just good politics on their part -- a sort of code of silence?

Cahill is still a key man for Australia and is still doing well at club level.  Lucas Neill by contrast has been on a steady decline club-wise drifting on and out of Middle Eastern leagues and languishing.

Matt McKay was only ever a stop-gap measure who played a good role in Asian games but isn't really up to top class football, not that many else in the team are up to it.  But I never want to see McKay in an Australian jumper again.

Wilkshire is also languishing and is past his prime too.  Carney I still have hopes for, but his club record is so inconsistent -- a bit of an odd one.  I would like to see younger guys coming in like Lowry.

Schwarzer's move to become the second keeper at Chelsea was weird. I can understand why he did it for his own reasons: looking for his future after retirement, perhaps he can become a goal keeping coach at Chelsea. 

Chelsea's close to his London home. His family is comfortable in England and will want to stay, so Schwarzer must too. But I think it rightly damages his claim to be the national keeper and we have an able replacement right now in Langerak. He's been a legend for Australia, but I think we should dump Schwarzer now.

Foxtel TV commentators were lamenting that the current poor form of the national team will tarnish the good deeds of the "golden generation" -- the class of 2006 that did so well. I disagree.  The current humiliation is disappointing, but it does not throw water on the fire of 2006.

Hopefully a new generation of Australian footballers is still being built and we will improve in the future.  Although the current youth teams don't inspire much hope, getting pummelled in international competitions.

Some say there's enough room for all codes in Australia.  Maybe so, but there is a lot of bias toward AFL and NRL.  The media is familiar with these sports and there's a lot of money in them.  I get frustrated with the extreme lack of footballing news in this country. I hate wading through 50 minutes of AFL and NRL to get to 2 paltry minutes of football coverage in a one hour sports show.

This year I got excited when the AFL and NRL grand finals were over because I thought it meant we would get more football news.  I was mistaken. A week or two later since those finals and the sports headlines are still dominated by AFL and NRL.  It's like Australian sports reporters don't know how to report on sports other than AFL, NRL and rugby; maybe that's true. Or maybe they just think that soccer isn't worth reporting on?

Although having said that, the last week since Holger has been fired there's been quite a lot of football news, which is good to see.

There is cultural and media bias against football in Australia.  If we all watched football like we do AFL/NRL we would be a major footballing power. Every year would be a golden generation like for countries in Europe.  But you know what, just forget about that Australia: let's play sports that only we are good at, that way we will be the best in the world every time!

Aussie rules is a sport that only played in Australia that has no prospect for expansion anywhere in the world except Nauru.  Rugby league is played in England and New Zealand as well as Australia, but the best domestic comp and players are in Australia.  And guess what?  We have the world's best teams in both those codes, always have and probably always will.

So who cares if we get defeated 6 - 0 in Paris in soccer?  If we make up our own sports, we can have the best teams in the world! Mainly because we have the only teams in the world.  Well done Australia, you're best at something only you do.

Anyhow the theory is that if you're going to be smashed at a tournament, such as the upcoming World Cup in Brazil 2014, you may as well do it with young guys and an eye to the future (a future that doesn't look that good).

Who should definitely leave:

Brett Holman

Lucas Neill

Luke Wilkshire

Harry Kewell

Sasa Ognenovski

Who should probably leave:

Matt McKay 

Marc Bresciano

Mark Schwarzer

Types of player we should focus on:

Tommy Oar
Mitch Langarak
Robbie Kruse
Mathew Leckie
Rhys Williams
Tom Rogic
Ryan McGowan

Nothing to see here folks, move on!