Australia’s 2014 World Cup nightmare?

Can you imagine what Australia’s dream first-choice eleven will be at the World Cup in 2014 (if we get there)?

Holger Osieck, overseeing the re-generation of the team, has been sleeping on the job! Before the Thailand game he remarked, ‘we need to be strong...I think it’s already a pretty difficult start.’  Hang on...if we don’t try a few of the younger boys against teams like this at home, in which World Cup Qualifier will it ever happen?!

Pim Verbeek’s last starting line-up against Serbia had an average age of 29.5. More than a year later, Australia’s 11 v. Saudi Arabia had an average of...uncanny really...29.5!! Have Verbeek's conservative tactics been replaced by Osieck's conservative selections? 

He may quip that we got a wake-up call from the Thais but he has allowed such a culture of entitlement with some of our veterans that we may need a louder alarm!

Spiranovic and Kilkenny was the best he could come up with in that first Qualifier. And then dropped them both for the Saudi game, putting them in their place and stalling the transition even further! Can he really argue that an ageing line-up is the only answer?

When will he start breaking the bad news to the stalwarts...or is he hoping for the easy outs of long-term injury and retirement? For starters, how will players like Neill, Ognenovski and Kewell, playing another 3 years in the sort of leagues they’re now involved in, be in better shape than a Williams, Rukavytsya or an Oar? They won’t be, and the time to address this pending nightmare is overdue.

Instead of making public statements about Bresciano’s and Harry’s return, Osieck should be talking Leckie’s World Cup prospects or dealing with the Scottish attempts on Herd.

I’m not denying the value of experience, exactly the opposite – those younger players, of at least equal ability, now need to be getting serious game-time, so that come Brazil they have a few caps behind them.

The Thailand performance may well have indicated that, both physically and psychologically, too many old legs don't work. 

Osieck has probably had the longest media honeymoon of an Australian Coach in living memory. Many Journalists are more than willing to excuse him and laud him at every opportunity (or is that some sort of Editorial Policy at work?!).

We gave him leeway to go for the Asian Cup with an experienced squad...but he's not been much different since. A token effort to blood a few players, then revert to the old guard – not good enough! Not good enough for us to cling to the aura of World Cup 2006...as we saw in 2010, those days are gone.

Let’s hope that Osieck is the one who's woken up and builds that dream eleven... and spares us the nightmare!