Many were surprised, albeit it very proud, that Australia made it to the final 16 of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany. In fact, it was a unifying experience. People were walking around wearing the Socceroos shirt and colors, Australian flags and Socceroos flags were attached proudly to…well, just about everything. Even now some still feel the Italians have a lot to answer for. Fabio Grosso in particular.

When David Beckham visited Australia with LA Galaxy to play a friendly match against Sydney FC, many were surprised at how many others were interested in what was happening on the field as much as off.

Agreed, we may not always play soccer as well as ‘the Brazil team’, or ‘the Italy team’ or ‘the England team’ but then again it’s important to realise that soccer hasn’t been as large a feature of our sporting landscape as it has been in these other countries.

Australia really does have a reputation for being a sporting nation. We build good runners, good athletes, good cricketers, good shooters, good swimmers. But soccer eludes us. Australia is caught in an awkward situation in this way: on one hand, we’re used to having sporting teams feature in our news broadcasts, our school days and our weekend hobbies but, on the other hand, we’re not used to having significant managerial and performance problems in any of the sports in which we compete.

For Australia, fielding a consistent Australian soccer team appears to be much harder than fielding a consistent Australian rugby team. Especially in the lead-up to what many might simply know as ‘that soccer cup’. In many ways I think you could probably forgive the International Rugby Federation for being unsure about holding a World Cup devoted to Rugby (since 1987, imaginatively called ‘The Rugby World cup’. They even hold it every four years, just like the other world cup. And they sometimes even swap shirts after the match, bless ‘em. But that’s a story for another post).

Looking at the player tally, we seem to have a good set of players - they must be good, because they play in other leagues. Middlesbrough F.C., West Ham United F.C., Liverpool F.C., Celtic F.C. and FC Nürnberg all feature in our lineup. But we just can’t hold onto the players. One reason for this is that it has become harder and harder to compete financially against the large European leagues. Our good soccer player talent leaves very quickly for FIFA and UEFA teams, where big salaries and vast fame lie. Our best players are purchased by other teams.

Coaching. This has been just as problematic. The position of head coach for the Australian soccer team has been a difficult issue. We have trouble finding good soccer coaches, and we have trouble holding onto good soccer coaches. We then look at them very sternly indeed when things go wrong. Have a look at the list of Australian soccer coaches since 1965:

Tiko Jelisavcic 1965
Joe Vlatsis 1967 - 1969
Ralé Rasic 1970 - 1974
Brian Green 1976
Jim Shoulder 1976 - 1978
Rudi Gutendorf 1979 - 1981
Les Scheinflug 1981 - 1983
Frank Arok 1983 - 1989
Les Scheinflug (caretaker during Frank Arok’s absence) 1983, 1990
Eddie Thomson 1990 - 1996
Les Scheinflug (caretaker during Eddie Thomson’s absence) 1992, 1994
Vic Fernandez (caretaker during Eddie Thomson’s absence) 1992
Raul Blanco (caretaker) 1996
Terry Venables 1997 - 1998
Raul Blanco (caretaker) 1998 - 1999
Frank Farina 1999 - 2005
Guus Hiddink 2005 - 2006
Graham Arnold 2006 - 2007
Rob Baan (caretaker)

Notice how many times it says, “caretaker”. Now that’s a funny word: it seems to imply that the person is actually taking care. That’s what a caretaker does. But if they’re really and truly taking care, shouldn’t they actually have the job full time? The reasons for soccer coaches leaving are many and varied, and I’ll go into them another time. For now, the point is that our national soccer team lacks any kind of effective harmony. In many ways, we don’t have a national soccer team. Australia has the Socceroos, and we hear of them (and cheer them) when they come close to winning (especially in foreign competitions, because they’re the ones that seem to matter more than home games and local competitions).

But we do have our own australian soccer league! Or, rather, we did: the National Soccer League comprised some of the more well known Australian soccer teams such as Sydney Olympic, Brisbane City, West Adelaide and others. But it was disbanded by Football Federation Australia (a confusing name, because most everyone in Australia would know football to mean rugby, not soccer). So now we have “A-League”, a name that doesn’t give anyone a single indication that it involves soccer.

Yes, you can buy a soccer jersey at just about any sports store or market stall (certainly in Sydney) but they’re all for the big foreign teams and leagues - such as Manchester United, Westham, Chelsea and, awkwardly, L.A. Galaxy. You won’t be able to find australian soccer jerseys anywhere. So consequently people wear what they can easily find (Juventus or Real Madrid are common) but not the ones that explicitly support the local soccer scene. Buying a rugby jersey, however, is far easier.

Maybe Soccer is something that just won’t happen in Australia until we win something big. Here’s to 2010. I will be staying up late to watch.