Am questioning (have been for a while) how good moving to Asia has actually been for the socceroos though. But guess that is a discussion for another thread.
I think it'll be a long term thing. They had immediate success, which made folks believe they'd made it already, but they've struggled to maintain consistency. They've perhaps been weighed down by the expectations post-2006, which led Verbeek to persist with some of that WC squad longer than he should have. (The Aussie squad is older than the Italians, maybe the oldest at the Cup?) There hasn't been a massive influx of younger talent to replace them though, but again, some patience is needed. Pim's attitude to the A-League probably hasn't helped, but then again his A-League only squads haven't always performed well either.
I'm hoping the same thing doesn't happen in New Zealand, where people suddenly think we should be at the World Cup by right, and that we should get results every time. Again, patience is needed, and it's quite possible that we'll do worse in the next couple of Cups, assuming we qualify (see, even I'm doing it). What we don't need, if this happens, is the sort of angst we get when the All Blacks lose at the Rugby World Cup. Nor will we need the attitude that 2010 was a 'one-off'.
What we do need, (and Australia too) is a long-term plan and and competent implementation of this plan. There should be a realisation that setbacks happen and, as long as lessons are learned from them, progress can continue to be made despite this.
had an australian mate texting me too.