The big news this morning is how dismally Australia lost to Germany in its first match in the World Cup. 4-0 sure is a whuppin', and nobody has anything nice to say about Australia's sons of the moment, the Socceroos.
Australia for all its posturing this time is mostly an older team of the same old guys from 2006. They couldn't have expected to do better than last time.
That delusion lasted as long as it took for decoy forward Richard Garcia to snatch a shot on the turn, only to have it blocked. The rest of the match was benign tyranny, football royalty lording it over commoners. Or, eschewing empirical metaphors, the Germans' movements were intricate, precise and oily, like a German- engineered car. Australia bumped along in a paddock basher.
The goals hurt; of course, they did. But they were only to be expected, and deceptive in their simplicity; it was the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity. The multitude of bookings hurt, because they had implications not only on the night, but for whatever Australia can hope to salvage from this tournament now. They also implied that Australia was a team of second resort.
But the red card for the talismanic Tim Cahill hurt most, because it was the massacre of hope.
Beneath the croaking of the vuvuzelas, there was now a hush. Even the German fans appeared shocked. The sentiment trapped inside the stadium now was more like a fart. Coach Pim Verbeek did not bother with Harry Kewell, or Josh Kennedy or Marco Bresciano; it would have been a waste of their time. A crowd of more than 60,000 thinned by half. Miserably, many of the Australians were going home to tents.
Australia thought it was better than this. Australia WAS better than this, four years ago. Hell, Australia was better than this in the 1974 World Cup when a team of amateurs played a stronger West German team than this German team, and lost by merely 3-0. It took more than 30 years to return to the World Cup as peers. This setback will have repercussions for a long time, on the field and off.
Which is a bit mean. I just want to write this post because I want us to get some perspective on what it is that the Socceroos were up against.
Firstly, without a shred of a doubt this tournament means more to Germans than any Australian. Germany is a three time winner of the World Cup and it's almost the only World Cup they contest. They don't contest the Cricket, Rugby World Cups, and they sure as hell don't send squads to the World Baseball Classic. I can't quite recall if they've ever threatened to win Olympic Gold in Ice Hockey. I don't think they even field a credible Basketball team, while Australia does. I don't even know if they have ever sent a team to the Netball World Cup. Soccer/Football is the it sport in Germany.
Australia on the other hand contest just about all of these World Comps except maybe Ice Hockey, but I'm sure there will eventually be a marsupially named squad in the future trying to get there. The point is, it's a bit rich for Australia to come at Football with the hopes of rolling with the top-5 nation of the sport. Or even Top-8. And if they don't, it's no slur on Australia's sporting prowess for not being within shouting distance of drawing with Germany. Being there, competing on the World Cup Stage is already an immense, towering accomplishment for the sport in Australia.
Some people are saying it's an embarrassing loss. I just can't go with that, even though a) I hate soccer and b) am no fan of soccer fandom, I have an appreciation of how deep the world's love for that sport is and where that depth is spread. There are nations out there that have no shot of being there, but it's still their no.1 sport. Think about that for a moment. It's like the no.5-6 sport in Australia in terms of exposure and we've got a team competing against the best of the best.
Talking about this match without that perspective is really disrespectful for an opponent that's steeped in the sport. It is inherently insane for Australia to think that it can equally be competitive at the ultimate level at Football. So much would have to change for Australia to be that good.
A World Cup Of What? - Part 1
This all got me to thinking about this notion of World Cups. Cricket's World Cup and the Baseball World Baseball Classic field 16 teams in the group stage. In either competition, the tail end of the 16 look a little ragged. It's really the top-8 in each competition that has a shot at the last 4 with few surprises. The gap between the top 8 and next 8 nations is in fact huge.
The same applies to the Rugby World Cup. Japan has been turning up to the Rugby World Cup each time but it's never gotten out of the group stage. Japan has the distinction of copping the worst hiding in Test matches, but it has also handed out the next worst hiding to minnows Taiwan. Should they be there or not? If they weren't there, would it still be a 'World Cup'? You could argue Rugby isn't too deep, but then there are such results as the horrible thrashing Australia handed out to Canada in cricket at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
In each case, there's the Top 8 and the rest.
While it is true that the World Cup of Football fields 32 teams in the group stage from 200 odd nations, it is arguable that it is only the top-8 that have a serious shot at the finals. Yes, Football is deep and wide across the planet, but at its core it's still only about 8 nations. The rest of them are like window dressing to make the word 'World' stand up. We should revel in the fact that we make such good window-dressing.
A World Cup of What? - Part 2
Here are some rhetorical questions to go with the above:
Is it any surprise that Australia has won 2 Rugby World Cups?
Is it any surprise that Australia has won 4 Cricket World Cups?
Is it any surprise that Japan is a 2-time champion at the World Baseball Classic?
Is it any surprise that Brazil has won the FIFA World Cup 5 times?
Is it any surprise that Germany hasn't won a World Cup in Cricket or Rugby, or that it hasn't even fielded a team in the WBC?
Dare we even mention the Rugby League World Cup?
Is it reasonable/rational to expect Australia to get out of the Group Stage at the FIFA World Cup?
The Wrong Code
Australia will never relinquish League and AFL and Rugby in order to concentrate on one code of football. Therefore should we even hope to win the FIFA World Cup one day? We're the equivalent of the Kenyans at the Cricket World Cup.
In other news, the Yankees are on top of the AL East having swept the Astros. I'm pleased with that.
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