Australian clubs continue to disappoint in Asian Champions League
What is it that our Asian neighbours have that we don’t? The answer is simple — sublimely talented individuals and, more importantly, the money to pay for it, says John Kosmina.
Opinion
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It seems about this time, most years of late, we lament the inability of our representative Hyundai A-league teams to get results in the Asian Champions League.
The script is virtually the same from one year to the next and apart from changing names, the story just keeps repeating — “played well but the opposition had the quality to punish our mistakes”.
Why is it that? What is it that our Asian neighbours have that we don’t? The answer is simple — sublimely talented individuals and, more importantly, the money to pay for it.
Sydney FC have become the benchmark in the A-League the past few seasons for fluent, structured, disciplined attacking football.
They have built their reputation on the abilities of Milos Ninkovic, Bobo, Adrian Mierzejewski, Alex Brosque, Adam Le Fondre and the like.
Melbourne Victory are renowned for playing a tough, uncompromising game, grinding out a result when needed and being able to fight against the odds to win — with a little bit of style.
This season, after becoming the first team to win the Championship from outside the top two, they strengthened by bringing in Asian football royalty Keisuke Honda and a bona fide Swedish World Cup star in Ola Toivonen in an effort to bring the ACL dream to reality.
Sadly, it will remain a dream after a demolition at the feet of Guangzhou Evergrande last Wednesday night.
They have one point from three matches — five behind the others and are bottom of their group with virtually no chance now of progressing to the next stage of the competition.
Sydney FC have fared a little better, with two points, but are still bottom. They are still alive because they are only a good game away from second spot and look like they might be able to achieve some positive results.
Regardless of either team’s form to date, their opponents have simply had too much individual brilliance when it came to key moments in the game.
They have the kind of players we can only dream about having because they are simply unaffordable. Honda earns a reported $3 million from Victory and is the highest paid player in the A-League. Oscar, the Brazilian who plays for Shanghai SIPG, Sydney’s opponent last Wednesday, earns a reported $38m.
He played 131 games for Chelsea in the EPL, not for free I might add, but walked away for the pot of gold at the end of the Chinese rainbow.
A hard decision? I wish I had to make it!
Around the football genius provided by Brazilians in the main, Chinese clubs over the years have developed local players and it has taken some time to get to where they are now.
They’ve paid big money for world famous coaches all in order to fast-track the quality of their domestic, club competitions. Meanwhile, in Australia we are struggling to keep pace, let alone compete.
So, what do we do? For starters we obviously can’t invest in players of the ilk the Chinese clubs do. Our clubs just can’t compete financially and if we’re honest with ourselves won’t be in the foreseeable future. Players will always follow the cash.
As a game, we need to face the harsh realities of world football and realise our place in it, as much as that might not fit with our way of thinking about ourselves.
In Australia our sporting dollars are spread too thin — well, football’s share of them anyway — so maybe we just focus on the things we can affect, like youth development.
Why can’t we create an Oscar in the years to come?
In the wake of our consistent failure to make finals in youth tournaments across the past decade we need to wake up and change the way the hierarchy goes about managing the game here, starting with the way we develop our kids.
Invest in them — financially, spiritually and emotionally because they are the future. Yes, it would be great to win the World Cup.
But maybe we need to win at youth level first — that, for me, would begin to secure a future.
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