Adelaide City legends claim the game needs to refocus on its culture
Socceroos 1974 FIFA World Cup coach Râle Rasic slams Australian soccer’s short memory.
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SOCCEROOS legendary coach Râle Rasic blamed Australian soccer’s cultural crisis for many forgetting a key date which shaped the nation’s football destiny 46 years ago.
Just weeks after the players union – Professional Footballers Australia – released a document ‘Culture Amplifies Talent: Building a Framework for Golden Generations’ which highlights why Australia needs to reboot its soccer culture, Rasic was bemused by a feat which should never be ignored.
The 14th anniversary of SA’s Socceroos legend John Aloisi’s decisive penalty which took Australia to its first FIFA World Cup in 32 years was clearly remembered across credible media platforms.
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However, there was an eerie silence on Remembrance Day the 46th anniversary of Rasic’s Socceroo amateurs getting to its first FIFA World Cup appearance in 1974.
The late Jim McKay scored the winner over South Korea to qualify on November 11, 1973.
“It was a Neil Armstrong moment,’’ Rasic said of the 1973 achievement.
“A journey for so called amateurs that never participated in that kind of global tournament.
“A massive success for the country and a massive success for the people who sacrificed everything, their jobs, their families an absolutely phenomenal success.
“I think there is something to that I received a message from (a German Socceroos fan) Andre Kreuger.
“He started following the Socceroos from Hannover in Germany, he was 11 years of age and he wrote the number three on his shirt (captain) Peter Wilson’s jersey so he could play in the streets of Hannover.
“When I rang him up about the 46th anniversary of Hannover, he stopped the car on the side of the road and said ‘I’m crying now I cannot drive anymore.’
“And you wish that 23 or 24 million Australians felt the same.
“If you’re uninformed of the generational changes, we are suffering here, there was no reaction, no thank you, and you receive such emotions as far as Hannover.”
Rasic, 84, is in Adelaide catching up with SA’s legendary Adelaide City soccer aficionados.
Rasic met Edmund Kreft, 92, City’s first national soccer league coach and boss of the state team for 13 years, ex-Socceroo, Adelaide City midfielder and coach and Adelaide United inaugural football director John Perin and City’s 1982 FIFA World Cup New Zealand international Glen Dods.
The quartet talked about Rasic’s 1974 Socceroos inspiring the golden generation that were born in the 1970s such as Aloisi, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Stan Lazaridis.
“Surely the game has improved but the question is, has it improved enough?’’ Kreft said.
“Not only the players but all around the other people who make the big money decisions.”
Perin concurred with his former Adelaide City NSL coaches.
“The technical side, I’m still a bit dubious of because let’s face it if the tempo of the game increases something has to give,’’ Perin said.
“To get to that level we’ve still got a fair few years to go.
“Looking at the Asian teams coming through at the moment Asia are leaving us behind.”
Dods – Adelaide City’s football director – said the club was aiming to again make loyalty a focus.
“I’ve given the club a 10 years commitment to change what’s happening at the moment, to get back our culture that is what is primarily we’re missing,’’ Dods said.
Originally published as Adelaide City legends claim the game needs to refocus on its culture