World Cup 2010

After watching Australia being taken apart by the Germans this morning where to now? Like a lot of other Socceroos supporters and knowledgeable pundits I actually thought before the game that given the right amount of luck plus the best team we could assemble, we had a chance of giving the Germans a very hard time of it and possibly taking a point or even - given that the Germans are notoriously slow competition starters  -  three points.
I honestly believed this.
It was a shock to see the team selection: what was Pim Verbeek thinking?
The team was unbalanced – I thought only someone mad like Maradona would play a normally attacking midfielder as a defender. Maradona had been somewhat vindicated by his choice of Jonas Gutierrez as a full-back only because Argentina won and won quite well [viva Messi!] but Jonas had an awful match defensively. Jason Culina is not a full-back or even a defender and he was not in the game at any stage. Verbeek did not select a recognised central striker. We only took two and one of those is perennially injured. The whole squad was unbalanced but this fact does not explain why the team was so skewed for this match. Too many of the players did not seem to be trying. We were outclassed by a German team whose confidence grew quickly.
Yet we had had the first good scoring opportunity which we spurned. Again it's not unfair to point accusatory fingers at the coach for selecting players who have not played a lot for their clubs, like Richard Garcia – normally a wide midfielder forced to play upfront with Tim Cahill. Garcia who played for Hull in the English Premier league spent a fair amount of time injured last season playing in only 14 games. He cannot have been match fit. On the other hand, Brett Emerton who had similar injury absences last season turned out to be Australia's best player with an exceptional performance in relation to the team as a whole.
I felt flat after the match.
It will take a monumental effort to get out of the group stage. We need to beat both Ghana and Serbia. Based on the players available the task was difficult before the competition started. Now it's become mountainous.