Ange: ‘I’ve great belief in players’

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AS Socceroo Tim Cahill spoke of his pride at becoming Australia's highest-ever goal scorer in Thursday's 4-3 loss to Ecuador, his coach Ange Postecoglou sat beside him staring blankly at his hands.

It wasn't shock brought on by seeing his side squander a 3-0 half-time lead that sent Postecoglou into a trance-like state, and it certainly wasn't the realisation that his plan to take a young, fast and fearless side to Brazil had just come unstuck.

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Far from it. Postecoglou was thinking. Plotting and planning. Already running through what had gone wrong and how to fix it. Fast.

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As he said on the eve of the friendly against the South Americans, the 100 days until the start of the World Cup computes to just 20 days on which he will have access to his players. The clock is ticking, and he doesn't have a moment to waste.

For a while it was all going so well for the Socceroos. Here Jason Davidson, Tom Rogic and Tim Cahill celebrate the third goal. Source: AP

Asked if the stunning riches to rags performance had changed his thoughts on his masterplan, Postecoglou was adamant.

"No, in fact it's reaffirmed it," he said. "I have great belief in the direction we're heading and the players we have. There are going to be some bumps along the way but that's part of the nature of what we're doing."

The second half bumps that the Socceroos encountered at The Den in South London were more than offset by what Postecoglou and the crowd of just over 7000 witnessed in the first half: an almost faultless display of speed, skill and security.

Australian goalkeeper Mitch Langerak lays an appalling tackle and receives a red card, a key moment in the Socceroos defeat. Source: FoxSports

It was the type of football the Brisbane Roar produced for him during their unbeaten 36-match run in 2010-11; the type that Socceroos' fans were crying out for after the stodgy don't-lose-at-all-costs tactics of previous national coaches Holger Osieck and Pim Verbeek.

But the differences between Postecoglou and the international guns-for-hire that preceded him go far deeper than on-field strategies. Unlike them, Postecoglou is an Australian patriot of the football variety.

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He sees his role not as a highly paid consultant whose job it is to get his employers to a World Cup before moving on to the next assignment where the only difference is the colour of the shirt and the size of the cheque. Of course he wants to do well in Brazil, that's what professional coaches do, but he also wants to plant some seeds for the future and leave a legacy.

Thursday morning's ultimate "game of two halves" would have been seen as a debacle under Osieck or Verbeek. For Postecoglou it may prove more valuable in the long term that a 6-0 win.

"We learnt some good lessons about what we can do and what we can't do," he said. "We're exposing 20 and 21 year old kids to seasoned internationals, but that's what we've got to do. If we don't give these guys opportunities we won't develop the footballers we want — and we can't go to a World Cup without them having a taste of that sort of experience.

"When you do throw them into the deep end sometimes, like today in the second half, you pay a price because youngsters can make decisions that are a little naive but I think they'll learn from that.

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"We're still fine tuning the way we want to play. We have games against South Africa and Croatia before the World Cup so we can strengthen the foundation that we've started.

"The disappointment of this loss is countered by the fact that for 45 minutes we played some really good football, with good intent but more importantly with stuff that we've been talking about.

"I was really happy with shape in that first half and the team was able to play the type of football we wanted to. We were really bright and positive. Every time we got the ball we tried to find little angles for ourselves and when we broke through Tommy Oar and Matty Leckie and Tommy Rogic it was really exciting to see.

Tom Rogic pleased Postecoglou. Source: Getty Images

"There's plenty there to say that moving forward there's the core of a team that we can build on and that will be the message to the players: that if they believe in what we're building, and they keep pushing it, we'll be a good side."

It's just a matter of time.

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