Most of this are still trying to figure this one out. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't really happy in the job for some time. before he quit. He was getting a bit of criticism for the teams lacklustre performances in a few of the qualifiers, but that's normal for any coach and if that was the reason he wouldn't have lasted as a coach as long as he has. Could be some personal reasons behind it but I'm just speculating.
to be fair, as a neutral fan (and since Romania is not at the WC) I will root for the Socceroos cause I like your team. Well, I always liked your fighting spirit ever since your Viduka / Kewell times I've remained a fan of the Australian national team ... anyway, what I wanted to say is that although I've been following your progress over the years I will honestly admit that Ange didn't brink something extraordinary to the team, but even so, someone who constantly gets you to the WC deserved to keep coaching you, especially since you made the move Oceania to a tougher confederation (Asia). But... if the reasons were personal, there is not much to be done about it Thanks for the info and good luck at the WC. I will honestly root for you, especially since you guys have always been drawn into the toughest groups
Bert Van Marwijk has been announced as the new Australian Coach for the World Cup finals. The contract is from now until the end of Australia's participation in Russia.
No surprise, really, as his is the name that's been gaining a lot of traction in local media reports these past two weeks. I think he'll do a decent job - he'll certainly have us well prepared for each of our opponents. I'm not expecting a particularly expansive style of football, though.
He deserves a lot of credit for having led Saudi Arabia back to the World Cup for the first time in 16 years...less so for during the 2010 World Cup Final into a thug-fest You'll be fine with him. Even if Australia's a long shot to advance (not as much as last time, to be fair), they won't get embarrassed, either - and I sure as hell would not look past them in that last game.
We have a coach and now Tim Cahill has a club to play for. He has just signed with Millwall in the English Championship for the remainder of the season. Millwall was his first professional club all those years ago.
https://asia.eurosport.com/football...-in-russia-van-marwijk_sto6507939/story.shtml Second round minimum for Socceroos in Russia - Van Marwijk Van Marwijk is almost certainly going to change the style of football for Australia, emphasizing more than physical prowess and basically following the script he followed with Holland in 2010, except in an even more defensive formation and set up. While what he did with Holland made me no longer like Holland much despite its success in terms of results in World Cup 2010, he probably has the right idea for Australia. Especially since unlike Holland, Australia isn't a "brand" that will be tarnished by such a style anyway and instead having good results will be even more important -- for Australia and the AFC as well.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...appointment-shows-lack-of-long-term-direction No Idea who Johnathon Howcroft is, but I really don't agree with him at all. The only reason we have a Dutchman at the helm now is because the previous coach, who was Australian, decided to quit after the qualifying process ended. There isn't a prominent Australian Coach available at the moment to take over as we are in the second half of the A league season and the obvious candidate to take over has a binding contract with his club and leaving them when they are in the final 3rd of the season and just about to start an ACL campaign isn't a goer. We all know that Bert Van Marwijk was probably the best short term coach available, and that Graham Arnold will take over for the Asian Cup and the following qualification campaign for Asian Cup and World Cup.
He's a journalist based in Melbourne, who writes quite a bit of freelance stuff for the Guardian Australia website. I agree 100 per cent with what you've said, as the federation was essentially left with two choices: a) appoint a manager who gives Aus the best chance of succeeding in Russia, given the short preparation time, or b) appoint a manager with a long-term vision, with World Cup 2018 a stepping stone towards the Asian Cup next year and, most importantly, the next World Cup in 2022. Effectively the federation is trying to accomplish both - by appointing Van Marwijk for six months, they are bringing in an experienced, pragmatic manager, who will do everything in his power to take us beyond the group stage. Then Arnold (most likely) will take over with a view towards building a squad that can qualify for Qatar, and hopefully do a bit of damage once it gets there. The way I see it, the long-term footballing vision that Howcroft and some others are talking about isn't being abandoned. It's just being postponed for six months, while we address the pretty important matter of being competitive in Russia. When it's all said and done, failing to pick up a point in consecutive World Cups would not be received well in Australia, irrespective of any grandiose "vision" for developing the game at a grassroots level. The federation recognises this, and has appointed a coach who, it hopes, will ensure it doesn't happen
We wouldn't even have interrupted it for 6 months if Ange hadn't quit. I can't blame the FFA for that.
Initial squad for the upcoming friendlies. No big surprises here except the return into the fold of Brad Jones. Caltex Socceroos 29-player preliminary squad for friendlies against Norway (Oslo) & Colombia (London): Name Club, Country A-International Caps (Goals) Aziz BEHICH Bursaspor, TURKEY 19 (2) Joshua BRILLANTE Sydney FC, AUSTRALIA 5 (0) Tim CAHILL Millwall FC, ENGLAND 104 (50) Milos DEGENEK Yokohama F. Marinos, JAPAN 15 (0) Alex GERSBACH Racing Club de Lens, FRANCE 4 (0) Jackson IRVINE Hull City AFC, ENGLAND 15 (1) Mile JEDINAK Aston Villa FC, ENGLAND 73 (18) Brad JONES (Gk) Feyenoord Rotterdam, NETHERLANDS 4 (0) Tomi JURIC FC Luzern, SWITZERLAND 32 (8) Matthew JURMAN Suwon Samsung Bluewings, KOREA REPUBLIC 4 (0) Robbie KRUSE VfL Bochum, GERMANY 60 (5) Mitchell LANGERAK (Gk) Nagoya Grampus, JAPAN 8 (0) Mathew LECKIE Hertha BSC, GERMANY 49 (6) Massimo LUONGO Queens Park Rangers FC, ENGLAND 32 (5) Jamie MACLAREN Hibernian FC, SCOTLAND 5 (0) James MEREDITH Millwall FC, ENGLAND 2 (0) Mark MILLIGAN Al Ahli SC, SAUDI ARABIA 64 (6) Aaron MOOY Huddersfield Town AFC, ENGLAND 31 (5) Andrew NABBOUT Urawa Red Diamonds, JAPAN 0 (0) Dimitri PETRATOS Newcastle Jets, AUSTRALIA 0 (0) Josh RISDON Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA 5 (0) Tom ROGIC Celtic FC, SCOTLAND 33 (7) Nikita RUKAVYTSYA Maccabi Haifa FC, ISRAEL 16 (1) Mathew RYAN (Gk) Brighton & Hove Albion FC, ENGLAND 41 (0) Trent SAINSBURY Grasshopper Club Zurich, SWITZERLAND 33 (3) Aleksandar SUSNJAR FK Mlada Boleslav, CZECH REPUBLIC 0 (0) James TROISI Melbourne Victory, AUSTRALIA 36 (5) Daniel VUKOVIC (Gk) KRC Genk, BELGIUM 0 (0) Bailey WRIGHT Bristol City FC, ENGLAND 21 (1) Match Details: Norway v Caltex Socceroos Date: Friday, 23 March 2018 (local time) Venue: Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway Kick-off: 6pm (local) / 4am AEDT (Saturday, 24 March 2018) Broadcast: Live in Australia on FOX SPORTS and Network Ten Colombia v Caltex Socceroos Date: Tuesday, 27 March 2018 (local time) Venue: Craven Cottage, London, England Kick-off: 8pm (local) / 6am AEDT (Wednesday, 28 March 2018) Broadcast: Live in Australia on FOX SPORTS and Network Ten
4 uncapped players in the squad. Two 25 year old, one 22 year old and one 32 year old. I wonder if they will end up with any game time. I've a feeling he will want to see as many players as possible in these two games.
Not really world cup news but the FFA today announced that Graham Arnold will take over the national team as coach after the completion of World Cup commitments. He will play no part in the current world cup campaign.
I would have assumed he would have gone along to this WC as an assistant coach just to see how it was going. I guess Van Marwijk doesn't want him there.
It would seem a bit odd to have the next coach there with the old one. It could create some conflict and confusion as to who the boss was. Arnold still has to get Sydney through their season and that doesn't finish until early May. He can watch the games from the grandstand (or on TV) and then worry about how he prepares for the Asian Cup.
It probably suited him to do this. He may even have a job lined up after the World Cup. The FFA wanted Arnold as the long term coach for the next cycle but he was contracted to his current club until May, which made it difficult for him to coach the national team for this world cup. Getting someone with experience and some knowledge of our squad for the interim worked out OK for everyone.
As posted in the predictions thread Australia will have an extended pre world cup training period in Turkey, followed by friendlies against Czech Republic and Hungary.
I saw Leckie mention the other day they have been trialing a 4-2-3-1 formation in training and aiming to play a super fast, counter attacking style. So very different to Ange-ball. Will be interesting to see how they play against Norway and Colombia this week. That probably suggests there still isn't room for both Mooy and Rogic in the same team. Unless Mooy lines up as a DM which is possible, but unlikely.
https://www.socceroos.com.au/news/bert-content-caltex-socceroos-preparation A fluffy piece of good news from the FFA's site.
Pretty poor effort against Norway. The team looked disjointed and without purpose. I know there were a lot of changes in personnel and structure but the performance was way below what is required. Need to improve a lot to even think about getting a single point in the World Cup.
Well that was an ugly mess. Hopefully there’s still enough time for the players to adapt to Van Marwijk’s plan, or even better Van Marwijk to ditch that plan. Far too defensive in formation and tactics. We will never defend our way out of this WC group, we don’t have the cattle for that. Full backs need to get further forward, if Jedinak is to play at all it needs to be at CB. Things looked much better after the first 5 subs came on, probably closer to the real starting line up. Nabbout can’t be that isolated if he is to do anything at international level. Maybe the back 3 was a good idea.