What’s Doing Down Under: Verbeek, Cahill and Viduka

By: Martha | December 10th, 2007

Viduks As Daryl told us last week, after being rejected by Dutch Choice #1 (AKA Dick Advocaat), and Football Federation Australia settled for Dutch Choice #2, former Korean Republic coach Pim Verbeek. When he accepted the job, Verbeek was criticized for not being a big enough name (hardly his fault), but he’s now being embraced by his players, first among them Everton’s Tim Cahill.

Cahill, who is arguably in the form of his life right now, would like Verbeek to stay around for a while, particularly since the last two Socceroos coaches have been relative short-timers, something that’s made it hard for the team to settle in and become a fixture on the international scene. Plus, as the midfielder rightly points out, the man actually wanted the job, which sets him apart from a whole lot of others. There’s been talk in Australia of replacing Verbeek — a man hired in large part because of his familiarity with the teams Australian will face in qualifying — for the World Cup (with a bigger name, of course), should he get there, but Cahill’s stepped forward as a voice of reason, saying “we need a bit of continuity and consistency where, as players, we can have a relationship with one person and we can just move forward.” Now if only the FFA will listen to him, they might be able to get something done.

Verbeek, meanwhile, is already talking about his team selection, and he wants big Mark Viduka to be there for qualifying. The Newcastle striker is now 32, and is carrying around a hell of a lot of weight. He’s still lethal on occasion, but has been considering international retirement since the end of the World Cup. He relented and took part in the Asian Cup this year, but the question marks are back, and he’s not made a decision about his international future yet. Verbeek, surely, will be calling him soon and commencing ~~begging~~ persuading.

[Thanks to lem for the Cahill link.]