Its the little things that count

Who remembers who won the Women’s 100m at the Sydney Olympics? Many of you may know that it was Marion Jones, but can any of you tell me who came second in that race? Didn’t think so. The person that came second was just as good as her, but for only a few hundredths of a second. Why does Marion Jones get remembered? Why does she get all the accolades? Its because the little things in life are what counts, and I think the Socceroos have displayed that in this Asian Cup. Their overall tournament was below their best, but it was the little, fundamental things they did wrong that cost them ultimately. A new coach is definitely needed.

Against Iraq the first goal was an embarrassing, fundamental, miscommunication between keeper and defender. I still blame Kisnorbo though. It can be argued that the last two goals in that game were directly as a result of sloppy defending, losing the ball in our own half. The same can be said for the Oman goal.

Against Thailand, we weren’t our best, but we didn’t make any silly errors. The way the Thais were playing, even the slightest mistake could have meant the game would end 1-1. Eventually we ran away with the game, and scrapped into the Quarters.

Against Japan, again, we were below our best. In a real dogfight, Aloisi finally broke the deadlock in the 70th minute. This late-ish goal should have given us the momentum to win the match. Instead, Milligan, after having such a great tournament, kicked thin air in the box, and Takahara helped himself. Yet another little mistake. Although Grella’s red card was the wrong decision, he may not have had to make such a challenge if the score was 1-0. Besides the game would have been won in the 90 minutes anyway. And so it went into penalties. Kewell with all his experience, (mis)kicked a soft penalty, and Kawaguchi had no troubles saving it. Neill’s penalty was a bit soft too, kicking it in the same direction as he always does, and at a height that was perfect for the keeper to save easily. At 2-0 down, not even Schwarzer or a Takahara howler could save us.

Little mistakes everywhere. With all due respect, we were the best team at the tournament on paper, and should be in the semi finals, despite not being in the best form. This isn’t Oceania anymore, and we were severely punished for our mistakes by Asia.

Fune tuning is required, and there is no-one better to do this than Guus Hiddink. I just hope the FFA waits until the end of EURO 2008, after his contract finished rather than hire the ‘poor man’s Hiddink’ Dick Advocaat. With no major qualifiers, or international tournaments until June, Guus is definitely worth the wait.