The Nations Pride

The Socceroos dream is over and along with it, millions of Aussies who stayed up late in their cold winter loungerooms and cheered loudly at the TV. No more will I be yelling at the box “VAR is crap bring on Timmy and why isn’t Daniel Arzani starting,” maybe that is a good thing…

It was of course pleasing to see on those late nights that I wasn’t the only one watching or screaming at the telly, some three million other Australians were in my loungeroom with me as the SBS ratings made the Socceroos for three games at least domestic champions of the Aussie households.

So, was it a success or was it a failure? Well I’m glad you asked. In terms of the uneducated view it would be deemed a failure, I mean we lost two games and drew only one, getting just one point and knocked out of the group stage…however let’s get some perspective.  We firstly qualified and played at the biggest sporting tournament on the planet just one of 32 nations of which 209 other countries recognised by FIFA tried to qualify for. That means 177 countries sat home in their loungerooms and watched in envy as the Socceroos strutted their stuff.  So is that a failure? Remember guys this isn’t a sport that hosts world cups and allows everyone to attend just because you signed the participation slip or play the game, you actually have to qualify to get there.

Now let’s look at the Results again we played France ranked 7th in the World, Denmark ranked 12th and Peru ranked 11th….The Socceroos are ranked 36th so maybe a draw against the 12th ranked side and a narrow loss to the 7th ranked team and World Champions in 1998 France was not too shabby.

Australians armchair every four-year supporter has maybe become a little too judgmental on their nations achievements, let’s not forget up until 2006 we had only ever qualified for on world cup in 1974. The fact we have made now four on the bounce should be celebrated and praised or heavens forbid proud of rather than mocked and thrown away with a carefree we are no good at football attitude… Trust me there are far bigger footballing nations who hold the sport higher than religion that have not played in the show piece tournament watched by three billion people since 2006. Who would you rather be?

So hats of Australia and well played you mighty Socceroos you stood tall on the world stage and danced with the best of the best.  Our next late-night adventure will be the Asian Cup in 2019 as we defend the tournament we won in 2015, so not only are the Socceroos the current Asian champions they are the champions of showing the world just who we are as a people and a nation and that is something we should all be proud of and fully supportive of late night after freezing cold late night.