The Maybes
The following players should earn caps during the course of the career. The question is more how many and how significant their contribution to the Socceroos will be.
Mark Milligan – Did Mark Milligan’s Socceroo career reach its peak with his selection for the 2006 World Cup and his involvement in the 2007 Asian Cup? Once the hottest prospect in Australian football, his career has really been on a downward trend ever since those peaks with his last senior cap coming against Japan in the Asian Cup. With the rise of North and Spiranovic as well as Australia’s plethora of talent in defensive midfield, he will find it very hard to break into the team in his preferred positions. He may find that right-back maybe the easiest, if not only, position for him to establish himself although he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to play here (which is odd because he is a bit short for a centre-back while his technical ability, although deficient for a midfielder, is fine for a full-back). Add in the fact that he still doesn’t have a club, which is worrying given that most European clubs are well into their pre-season, if not season prior, and you have a lot of question marks hanging over the career of Milligan. I guess he epitomises the ‘maybe’ category.
Nikita Rukavytsya – For many, he was the bolter in the squad, the guy that kept out Burns and Djite. When he was given a few yards, he did show that he does have blinding acceleration. I noted in my match reports that the Olyroos were very culpable of poor decision making in the final third and Rukavytsya probably committed more of these mistakes than any other player. Whether he can improve this aspect of his game, as well as iron out some technical faults, will determine whether he becomes a Socceroo regular. The current Socceroo strikers haven’t really established themselves his position is one that presents up and comers with opportunities.
James Troisi – The Olyroos’ other club-less player. He is one of the more technically gifted players in the Olympic squad but my usual complaint about Troisi is his decision-making in the final third as well as ability to exert a constant influence for the entire 90 minutes. The fact that the national coaches do like him as a player as well as his good technical foundation does hold him in good stead. What will be determinative is his choice of club. The Dutch league would be excellent for his development and I think the A-League is a viable option for Troisi given that many of Australia’s other hot prospects are still playing at home.
1 Comment
August 21, 2008 at 1:54 pm
simple fact is that talent rises to the top. and aussie talent is not currently at the top clubs.
out of the current socceroos, kewell is the only true standout talent. there is a reason why kewell had a chance at a liverpool while others are plying their trades at westhams, torinos, blackburns, basels etc. good players, but supporting players.
if we had a true standout young talent, they`d be doing like kewell, playing first team footy in a big comp, and making a splash.
our players are all at places that suit their talent levels. whatever you think of nick carle, love him or hate him, the market has said, “mr carle, you are a championship player”. we have a bunch of good players, but no “wow” players. we are gonna have to rely on the collective, rather than individual ability.
i am now seeing an intermediate future where we have to make do with what we have. moving forward from what the 2006 WC socceroos did is gonna be nigh on impossible.
i would say that the 2006 WC socceroos were part of a block of countries that could have made the second round, but weren`t really capable of bigger things. making up the numbers.there is a higher tier just below the heavyweights, teams like portugal, holland, turkey, germany … that we should aspire to one day joining.
keeping at that level and developing for a real push in 2018 is the challenge for the 2010 and 2014 WC socceroos. doing this would be fantastic.