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And this is why the Asian Cup win could change
everything for football in Australia. In the almost
ten years since that penalty, the sporting culture
of Australia has subtly changed. Young people in
increasing numbers are favouring football to cricket
and the local football codes. The country is less
homogenous. Generally, people have a more open
mind about football than in the past.
Success in an international tournament has long-term
ef fects in numbers involved. Football Federation of
Australia chief David Gallop says that the FFA “are
forecasting that all this interest will produce a spike
in football participation, with a jump up to 8 per cent.
“Every World Cup sees a spike, but having the Asian
Cup in our own backyard has been a huge boost to
the game”.
The impact of hosting a major tournament on player
registration was seen after the World Cup in the USA
in 1994. A report in the Guardian states that the US
did not even have a professional football league at
the time: now 30 per cent of households contain at
least one football player.
So the mere fact of hosting the competition should
improve the status of the game. Winning should give
it a further boost. But winning in style: that should
turbo charge the sport ’s ascent.
Much of what happened on the f ield was down to
coach Ange Postecoglou. He chopped away some
of the veterans from the 2014 World Cup campaign
–an event where Australia were once again battling
losers- and invested in young, technical players. This
was a team comfortable with the ball at their feet.
This team and their manager represent a much more
mature and conf ident approach to football. Merely
entrusting the national team to an Australian shows
that the country has overcome much of its inferiority
complex.
But one virtue that the modern Socceroos share with
their predecessors is spirit. Postecoglou claims that
he “knew this group of players and staf f were ready
for this moment. We spoke at the start of the camp
about the need for personal ambition to be set aside
for the good of the team objective.
“I watched players accept roles that were unfamiliar
and also accept that their playing time might be
limited but nonetheless vital.”
What the world saw over the course of the Socceroos’
cup run was technical football combined with
Australian spirit. Australian football has never looked
so healthy or grown up.
Involvement in the Asian Confederation has been
good for the country. Previously, Australia was placed
in the Oceania group, playing against various island
countries for the right to eventually play the fourth
or f ifth best South American team. All too often,
Australia’s path was blocked by a football behemoth.
Over two legs, Australia was often found out.
Now, playing Asian countries means that the quality
is consistently higher, but doesn’ t have the South
American sting in the tail. Postecoglou and the FFA no
longer view World Cup qualif ication as the goal: they
are targeting the knockout stages.
What happened on the f ield fed directly into what
happened in the stadia, in living rooms and in pubs
around the country. The FFA was shakily predicting
half a million people would show up for the matches:
they ended up with 649,705 for the tournament.
That ’s 20,303 per game. Arguably, had the semi-f inal
not been held in Newcastle but in a larger venue, that
f igure would be higher. The crowds showed Australia
at its best and most eclectic.
The Asian Cup might not be the most glamorous
competition in world football, but the way the event
was organised, and the way the team played and won,
were a fascinating litmus test for the progress of the
world game in what was once a football outpost.
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TOUCHLINE
ISSUE 20 | MARCH 2015