A- League standard

A- League standard

"New Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has lashed the standard of Australia's A-League competition saying it is less than a training run for a struggling German club."

Not a good idea to have the national team sl*g the national competition - it's in his best interests to foster support for the game in Australia, even if the A-League is as bad as he says it is. More people watching the A-League = more people at international home matches cheering for the Socceroos.

What an idiotic comment for the national coach to make publicly. A bit of a slap in the face for his employers who hold up the A-League as the future of football in Australia. I bet he'll have a media minder in future vetting his statements and berrating him for not thinking before opening his yap. 

This quote in particular is just silly: "If you train for three weeks with Nuremberg or with Karlsruhe, I have to be very honest, I still think that's better than playing A-League games," Verbeek said today.

It may be a motivational tactic on his part, trying to spur the Aussie players on. I'm surprised he made no mention of ball players getting smashed week in - week out.

danielsleftball2008-01-24 09:26:48

it's certainly an attention grabbing statement - it's got us interested

agree DLb that he's probably just trying to dampen down the calls for more A-league players in the aussie team, but he's chosen an interesting way to do it - certainly a change from the pre-managed noises that come out of most managers' mouths

be interesting to see how the 'Aussies' respond to him and whether he tones down or not

What a stupid thing to say when 20/39 of his squad are in the a-league.

And of those 20, none are likely to make the team...

i remember reading somewhere that he wants to make most of his starting 11 a-league players and thats when we all got excited and saying how good our league is etc.

to which i think we have a fantastic league, its really exciting

Pim who? Never heard of him in european circles. Probably thinks England won the last world cup.

danielsleftball2008-01-24 14:39:17

Meh people are over reacting. He's right. The A-League will get better though and I think everyone realises that.

I think it's going to fire up the A-League players in the squad in a "I want to prove that we don't suck" way.
valeo2008-01-24 16:52:49

it might be an indication of the style of game he's going to play. The more technical european type compared with the hard and fast style of the a-league, hence more benefit from training in europe

His concern is getting the Socceroos to win, not to increase the profile of the game or get bums on seats or make us feel better about the A-League.

I think Craig Foster made some good comments on the selection. That a lot of the european based players are used to the style of football, playing under Guus Hiddink, and suggesting Pim would be similar. They are in camp after the weekend leading up to the Qatar game and have a closed door game against the tards on sat with probably only a-league players. So after the mini camps and the camp next week more of the a-league contingent will be up to speed on what Pim wants and could possibly be used more in the future.

link to the world game: http://www.theworldgame.com.au/wgtv/

I do agree that generally speaking, if you are in europe playing in a top league even on the bench would suggest you are getting better training and exposure to more technical players than in the a-league. i say generally, if elrich was on the bench at fulham still do you think he would have been picked?

the a-league will get better, IMHO  this sends a message to a lot of players if you want to play internationally go overseas and no matter how good you are your chances of a call are greatly enhanced.

So obviously he has come up in the world

It'll be a typical dutch 4-3-3 style I think.

DarthRich2008-01-24 21:17:25

Looking at his comments closely, I think what he said was actually misinterpreted. I think he meant players hoping to make the Oz national side would do themselves more benefit by a week of intense training at a good European club than an A-league game a week. Think he meant the overall standard in Europe is better than the A-league. That's a true enough comment. The A-league is a league on the way up, with a distance to go yet. And it is true that Australia's best players (their national team A-list) have always played in Europe because of the better standard.

I just hope the comment doesn't effect crowd numbers or discourage those who haven't been to an A-League game and were considering turning up in the future.

How do you think the A league players in the squad will feel after reading that.Maybe he is already laying the foundation for some excuses down the track when NZ knock them out in the playoff to get to the cup. Know  that would be a dream Phoenix win the A league and NZ knock the west island out of the cup.

Agreed but excitement doesn't necessarily equal quality. As someone else has posted, I think the quality will improve year by year.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a reality check. Fact is that anybody, whether A League player or fan, who watches any kind of European football knows that the standard here is not especially high. So I don't think we're going to find the players bursting into tears and storming off home in a huff.

Wankers Club?

Joel Griffiths is not just the president, he's also a member!

yes the A-league would benefit from an Aus presence in South Africa, and the Phoenix would benefit through that

but if NZ do make it that would be better for the Phoenix and football in Nz and would not necessarily benefit the Aus sides therefore increasing our relative strength (not the bookies favourites obviously but we are still in it)

but to take your point if it's a choice between Aus and another asian team then yeah Aus would benefit the Nix more

I think the A-League Clubs should all buy more Greek Players.

FFS. The A-League is three years old. Of course it's not going to be a world beating league YET.

Good thing we have computers at school chocnut2008-01-25 15:18:32