For so much of the last three weeks, we have heard references to the Golden Generation.
The state of the current squad, on paper, drew comparisons to the ‘glory years’ when our stars all played in Europe’s Big Five leagues. This one, on paper, was inferior, everyone said, in a group with two sides in the Top 10.
But the moment you arrived at Socceroos HQ in Doha, you sensed something special was brewing.
Suddenly, the rhetoric you’d hear out of Graham Arnold each time the Socceroos played, started to become a sound track. The players referenced it. The more you heard it, the more you believed it – or, you sensed, the players definitely believed it.
We leave Qatar celebrating a Socceroos outfit that claimed six points, kept two clean sheets – all Australia World Cup finals milestones, scored four goals and pushed world No.3 Argentina to the brink.
This cohort doesn’t need a moniker – it would be wrong to call them a Golden Generation, because their predecessors were, indeed, that. But given their achievements it would also be silly to label them silver, or platinum. They’re a team, as much as they are a generation of individuals.
This team had its own quality hallmarks – most importantly, a team; a brotherhood, a 26-man squad whose strength was the sum of their parts, galvanised and coalesced by Graham Arnold in the high point of his international coaching career. Arguably, this cohort can claim to have achieved one of the the greatest team performances in Australian sport.
Before the Socceroos’ play-off with Peru, a prominent columnist in a national paper described the Australians of 2022 as the Soccer-Whos. Besides the sheer joy of the wild ride the side has put the nation through, capturing the imagination and, inspiring a generation, the great benefit of these three weeks is the platform this outstanding group of Australian athletes have now got to spread the gospel about our sport. They have always been there; now, their performances have the nation’s attention, and a time when football fans want everyone to unite and seize the moment, they can rest easy knowing that in these players, there are stories, personalities and ambassadors that can play their part.
We saw signs prior to Qatar, where, in conjunction with the PFA, the squad made a collective, united statement about Qatar’s human rights record.
Since then, their stature has only grown.
In Mat Ryan, they have a leader who kids can look at and take solace in his journey. A hard working, talented goalkeeper, given a crack as a teenager in Gosford, who has made it all the way to the Premier League. You got a sense of Ryan’s leadership from the deep, intelligent and passionate KEEPUP column he wrote prior to the campaign; that he fronted up to the media after erring during the loss to Argentina says all you need to know from an honest leader; the response of the side after his mistake, and the way they rallied around him, tells you about the team’s culture.
But there are a number of players who also showcase the richest tapestry of Australia. Harry Souttar, Martin Boyle and Jason Cummings spearhead the Scottish connection who have embraced their Australian roots. Souttar has caught everyone’s attention in his four displays – more games in three weeks than he had played in a year prior! – and is bound for a move to the Premier League.
Ajdin Hrustic and Milos Degenek spoke intensely and deeply about their journeys to Australia, and the testing paths they had to traverse through Europe when they left their home comforts to purse careers abroad. Degenek, a usually understated defender who has achieved a stellar club career in Europe, playing Champions League football and winning titles with his boyhood club Red Star Belgrade, was a revelation in Doha. His media performances, and his leadership, were compelling. He spoke about a Lion’s Mentality, gave a perspective about sport compared to life in a war, and when Australia progressed past Denmark, he broke down contemplating the magnitude of the achievement – in a sporting sense, and in the context of his life, in a country that has embraced him and his family.
This is a cohort that can become household names in the years to come, because, they’re a perfect age. The likes of Keanu Baccus, Cam Devlin, Kye Rowles, Nathaniel Atkinson, Marco Tilio, and Riley McGree might all be part of the national team for years to come. Notice a common thread? All of these youngsters have played in the domestic competition in the last two years. Tilio, Maclaren, Mathew Leckie and Craig Goodwin now have the opportunity to be the faces of a domestic competition that they’ve single handedly given more gravitas to thanks to their displays.
Any World Cup is rich with storylines, and within this cohort, there were a couple of ‘stalwarts’ who enjoyed an international coming of age. Mitch Duke, for example, produced some of the best performances of his life, and proved he has more to his locker than graft. Behich, who has been a stable of the national side for years, suddenly had the whole world knowing his name because of that run and that scuffle. Imagine if the goal had gone in!
With European seasons still adjourned some have come home; others, like the A-Leagues stars will be straight back into it – with a standing ovation from their fans and rivals, well deserved.
