Hopes for Ange Postecoglou

New Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou said he was surprised to hear from Mark Schwarzer by phone recently that he had retired. There was speculation from a Fox Sports commentator that Ange had a word to Schwarzer and Lucas Neill and said: you may not be at the World Cup 2014. But Ange dispelled these rumours, saying that he had had no such discussion with Schwarzer. He said it was a surprise, and that Schwarzer must have been thinking about it for some time.

It's good to hear such a straight talking style from a head coach. I'm optimistic about Ange's start as Australia national team coach.

I was slightly disappointed that Neill was included in the squad as I believe it's time for him to retire too. But Neill seems determined to play on. And I suppose Australia will have to make do with him as there's not a lot else to chose from at the moment. But overall I think this squad from Ange is a good start.

Wilkshire gone, Neill still here

Socceroos Squad for Costa Rica International Friendly – 19 November 2013:

Player, Club, Caps (goals)

Oliver BOZANIC	FC Luzern, SWITZERLAND	1 (0)
Mark BRESCIANO	Al Gharafa, QATAR	72 (13)
Tim CAHILL	New York Red Bulls, USA	65 (28)
Jason DAVIDSON	SC Heracles Almelo,  NETHERLANDS	3 (0)
Ivan FRANJIC	Brisbane Roar, AUSTRALIA	5 (0)
James HOLLAND	FK Austria Vienna, AUSTRIA	12 (0)
Mile JEDINAK	Crystal Palace FC, ENGLAND	41 (3)
Josh KENNEDY	Nagoya Grampus, JAPAN	34 (17)
Robbie KRUSE	TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, GERMANY	28 (3)
Mitchell LANGERAK (gk)	B.V. Borussia 09 Dortmund, GERMANY	2 (0)
Matthew LECKIE	FSV Frankfurt 1899, GERMANY	4 (1)
Ryan McGOWAN	Shandong Luneng Taishan FC, CHINA PR	7 (0)
Matthew McKAY	Brisbane Roar, AUSTRALIA	44 (1)
Mark MILLIGAN	Melbourne Victory, AUSTRALIA	25 (2)
Lucas NEILL	Omiya Ardija, JAPAN	95 (1)
Tommy OAR	FC Utrecht, NETHERLANDS	11 (1)
Tom ROGIC	Celtic FC, SCOTLAND	7 (0)
Mat  RYAN (gk)	Club Brugge KV, BELGIUM	3 (0)
Dario VIDOSIC	FC Sion, SWITZERLAND	18 (1)
Rhys WILLIAMS	Middlesbrough FC, ENGLAND	13 (0)
Alex WILKINSON	Jeonbuk Hyundai FC, KOREA REPUBLIC	-
Michael ZULLO	Adelaide United, AUSTRALIA	10 (0)

Postecoglou is not a top choice coach by any means -- he sure is no Guus Hiddink. But Australia's choices are limited right now, this close to a World Cup, and he is a good fit. 

If there was more time perhaps Football Federation Australia could find a better pedigree coach internationally, and give that coach time to analyse the players and make an informed decision on the squad to pick. But given the circumstances, probably the best the FFA could do, without spending crazy exorbitant money for an overseas coach, was to pick a local.

At least as a fan of the Socceroos, Ange would have been familiar with the team -- he would have a less steep learning curve than a foreign coach brought in cold. And Ange is much more than a mere Socceroos fan, being an A-league coach and some-time Fox Sports pundit as well. So he probably already had somewhat of a plan in mind even before he was confirmed for the job.

I don't agree with this business of a home grown coach feeling it more -- that you need a home grown coach to feel the passion. These days football is a business, and while the TV frames are filled with coaches punching the air emphatically after their team scores, passion really has little to do with it. Football is a business and the manager is the CEO. If Holger didn't have the "passion" for the Australian team it's not because was foreign.

So I don't really care if Ange is "home grown" or not, but I do think he is the right guy for the job at this time. 

I am a bit dubious on this five year contract though: five years is a long time in football. Certainly Ange should see out at least the World Cup 2014 and the Asian Cup just seven months after that in 2015. But five years? It's a long time.

So long Schwarzer

Australian football keeper Mark Schwarzer has announced his international retirement. And what a glittering career it was. But I was hoping he would retire after he became the second choice keeper at Chelsea.

I was puzzled by Schwarzer's move to Chelsea in light of his ambition to represent Australia at the World Cup in Brazil 2014. You should aim to be first choice keeper if you're going to continue to be a national goal keeper. For example there was an opening for first choice at another close by London club, Crystal Palace, at the time when he chose to go to Chelsea.

Not that Australia's new first choice keeper Mitch Langerak is the first choice keeper in his club either. But he is at the opposite end to his career to Schwarzer and will surely be a first keeper at some team in the near future.

The other keeper selected in new coach Ange Postecoglou's recent squad, Mat Ryan, is the first keeper right now for Belgian club Brugge, so maybe he should be Australia's new first choice keeper. Although of the two, I think Langerak probably edges out Ryan.

While Schwarzer's decision to join Chelsea was not good from the point of view of his involvement in the national team, it was a brilliant for him personally. 

Chelsea is only a short drive down the road from his residence and previous club Fulham. Schwarzer's family is English-raised and wants to stay. So it's great for him to be involved in a club like Chelsea at the latter stage of his career because it could lead to him becoming a goal keeping coach there. In any case it's good to be involved with a top club.

Schwarzer still saving goals in a recent game against Japan.

But for someone who want to be his nation's first choice keeper the Chelsea move was wrong. That's why I think it was the right decision for him to retire now. And what a record he leaves! A top and consistent performer for club and country over 20 years. He holds the record for most EPL games of any foreign born (non-British Isles) player. And he will be remembered as a legend.

Schwarzer's famous heroics that took Australia to the 2006 World Cup.

Schwarzer was also a hero off the field with his charity work, including authoring children's books such as the Vootball Kids.

So long Schwarzy, and may the Schwarz be with you!

Joe Hart please come back soon

Boy, that sure was quick.  It took me fully six days to do a complete reversal on Joe Hart. Actually it was one game in particular that did it, the recent 7 - 0 whitewash against Norwich in the English Premier League. More specifically it was seeing Pantilimon, City's second choice keeper, that did it.

City's second choice keeper Costel Pantilimon (age 26).

Not that Pantilimon is a bad keeper, but he is a second choice keeper for a reason. He did well in that game and kept a clean sheet, but he wasn't perfect and he wasn't that well assured in my opinion. Although with time he may gain the much-touted "match fitness" and that allure of confidence.

For example, there was one corner where he should have come out and punched it away. Negredo tried to head it, but made a mess of it, and it went out for another corner against City.

Pantilimon is a good keeper...but maybe not great. Which is why Joe Hart must get back into form quickly. He is still one of the best keepers in the world when he is in good form, and he is still a valuable member of the City squad.

Actually Hart is probably not that far off the pace -- now that really is a complete reversal of my view on Hart from a few days ago.

Yes, I'm over my hissy fit now, where I said Joe Hart should never play for Man City again because of his recent poor form and mistakes. I admit it: I overreacted.

Joe Hart benched for the Premier League game against Norwich, 2 Nov 2013.

And yet lingering doubts over Hart still remain. Everyone makes mistakes, it's true. But goalkeepers must be judged over time and Hart has made mistakes consistently over the past couple of years or so. 

Some say Hart is too big for his boots. Maybe he is, and maybe he needs time to find his form by getting back to basics. And maybe that should involve him going to a lower league for a time.

Or, on the other hand, maybe Pellegrini will select him as keeper in a matter of weeks. Surely, though, it wouldn't be a matter of days. Pantilimon deserves at least another couple of EPL games before a change back to Hart is considered.

And then again, perhaps my initial instinct was right: Hart stinks and should never come back for City unless Pantilimon is injured. That can't be right though, as Hart was excellent for at least some of his career; he was chosen as England keeper after all -- not everyone can do that.

So, while I do want Joe Hart to regain form soon, as Manchester City need him, it also occurs to me that Manchester City should be looking for a new keeper at the end of the season, if not earlier, at this coming summer transfer window.

Manchester City is a big club these days and deserves the best players in every position. A manager shouldn't have to be in doubt about whether to field someone for a given position, particularly not in a team like Manchester City.

Hitler fleeing to Argentina

There have been a couple of media items lately regarding the possibility that Hitler fled to Argentina after the Second World War. It's the revival of a long-standing conspiracy theory.

For example, a five month old radio podcast from the Jeff Rense radio show claiming that Martin Bormann forced Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler at gunpoint and under the influence of drugs to board a plane and flee to Argentina.

Another example is a two year old article in Britain's Daily Mail, which shows their (Hitler and Eva Braun's) possible escape route:

From: here 

A third example is this more recent October 31 2013 Herald Sun article: 

Did Hitler escape to Argentina? The bizarre new theory that has historians at war:

This weekend, it emerged that the story of Hitler's supposed escape to Argentina has become the subject of a bitter plagiarism row. In their book, Grey Wolf: The Escape Of Adolf Hitler, British authors Gerrard Williams and Simon Dunstan argued that the Führer escaped exactly in the manner described above, and did indeed see out his days in South America.

The article author, Guy Waters, ends up concluding that there weren't any credible eyewitness accounts of Hitler leaving -- there would have been too much of a cover up had he left Berlin -- and that Hitler did not flee to Argentina.

There were claims that Hitler's skull was in Moscow, but it turned out to be the skull of a 40 year old woman. I suppose not finding clear evidence of Hitler's remains has in part fuelled the conspiracy theories all these years.

In any case, the main reason I believe Hitler died in Berlin as popular history has it, is not because of any of the above factors, but because of Hitler's character.

==============

Hitler would be remembered by history as the bumbling oaf who started the greatest human made tragedy of all time. The invasion of the Soviet Union was a mistake, and came at a time when Hitler most overestimated his own leadership prowess after the conquest of France.  Some say Hitler's already huge ego was even further pumped up by injections of the drug pervitin from his personal doctor Morell.

Hitler had an unshakable, if misguided belief, that the German and Aryan people were superior. And Hitler genuinely believed in himself as their messiah. Hitler was many things, but being a hypocrite was not one of them. Hitler may have been a murderous thug, but he was absolutely genuine in my opinion.

If Hitler's German people were not up to the racial struggle against the Bolsheviks he had chosen for them, then they were inferior and deserved to lose the war. And if Adolf Hitler was the leader of a failed people then he too deserved death.

If he expected the German soldier to die at his post then he would die likewise.  That was the thing about Hitler.  Life wasn't a game to him, he played for keeps.

He viewed life as a Darwinian struggle for survival. It was a primitive view that was not unusual for the time. 

His policy in the East was one of racist annihilation. When he invaded Poland, he implemented all his wild racist fantasies. So, for example, Jews in Warsaw were rounded up and shot for the mere crime of being Jewish.

He starved the Ukrainians so that the Germans could occupy the Ukraine, which was to become the bread basket of Greater Germania.  This made the Ukrainians rebel and fight the Nazis when they could have been allies. Hitler was also determined to kill or starve most Slavs in the region of Greater Germania, with a few kept as slaves for the master race.

So when the Russians came to Germany Hitler was only reaping the whirlwind he had created by his brutal policies in the East. The Russians advanced on a crumbling Berlin in April 1945.  

Hitler's thousand year Reich was coming to an end after only 12 years. Yet he was determined to stand fast and see it out to the end.  His vision for the German people would die with him.

Many of his staff urged him to flee, but true to his wish he would stay in Berlin and commit suicide in his capital. He couldn't stand to see a Germany in ruin, especially when it was all of his making.

He knew what happened to Mussolini -- being strung up in the street on meat hooks -- and was determined to meet the same fate. At 2:30pm 30 April 1945 Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun retired to an office in the Fuhrer bunker.

There would have been little time for Hitler to reflect on what might have been. All he had done and how close he had come to a glory that would truly befit the title of thousand year Reich. And he would have been the patron saint of that Reich. Instead it ended in the ultimate failure of suicide.

Eva Braun took cyanide and died almost instantly. Hitler took cyanide and shot himself simultaneously  There was then an at least partial burning of the bodies as per Hitler's instructions, with the remains probably being disposed of somewhere in the grounds of the Reich Chancellery.

Hitler gambled with the fate of a nation and failed. Who wouldn't want to be dead if they were responsible for such a calamity? There's no way he fled to Argentina only to spend years contemplating his massive failure.

What Greater Germania may have looked like if Hitler had have won WW2.  (From here.)