World Cup 2018: Socceroos base camp in Kazan within sight of venue for opening clash with France
SWIMMING facilities, a gym, pool tables, massage rooms and even their own chef. This is home for the Socceroos in Russia as they embark on their World Cup campaign and it is world’s apart from their Brazil accommodation four years ago.
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SINCE earlier this week they have trained with the venue of their ambitions in eyesight, on the crest of a slight hill, and as the hours tick down the Socceroos can feel they are at a World Cup.
The warm climes and relative luxury of their pre-tournament camp in Turkey seems a long way away, metaphorically as well as literally, as the final week before the World Cup kicked off in Kazan.
Based at Stadion Trudovyne Rezeny, the home of leading Russian ice hockey team AK Bars, the Aussies can feel how the atmosphere just got serious.
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For players used to a series of five-star hotels across Asia during qualifying, the reality of Kazan has been a little different. First scouted in 2015 by Australian officials determined to be ahead of the pack in securing a base venue, Trudovyne Rezeny was the choice of previous coach Ange Postecoglou before he decided to pull up stumps on his national team tenure.
Postecoglou’s priority, working in conjunction with team officials, was maximum utility for the players in a working sense.
In the Brazilian city of Vitoria four years ago, the 30-45 minute daily bus journey to training was viewed wearily by the players, who also felt sidelined from the World Cup atmosphere in a city where no games were played.
This time the Aussies sought a venue where the squad could walk from their living quarters to training, to the pool, to the medical rooms and the dining hall. Of the dozens offered as possibilities across Russia by FIFA, Socceroos officials say that none - at least in the host cities where games will be played - met those criteria and also genuinely had five-star accommodation.
Trudovyne Rezeny is not exactly austere, with the feel of a university campus on the verge of Kazan’s rather lovely Gorky Park. Certain luxuries have been utterly bespoke - each player has chosen their own mattress, after two of the 2014 squad were forced to sleep on the floor due to the condition of their beds.
But the whole question of the amenities on offer has been another of the jolts caused by substituting a new coach in at the last minute. Bert van Marwijk’s preference, based on his previous World Cup experience, would have been a more comfortable hotel with the trade-off of travelling to their facilities.
But like much of the World Cup build-up, van Marwijk has had to accept the blueprint signed-off by Postecoglou. The Dutchman could not have been more effusive about the base camp in Turkey; he has said rather less about the Kazan base.
A side issue is the extra staff he has brought in. Though they have not cost the FFA more in wages, all 10 (including van Marwijk) have needed accommodating, with a consequent squeeze on the space available.
By the time they have gathered in Kazan, with scouts joining the group, there are 36 non-playing staff, from van Marwijk to the osteopath, and some have had to share apartments on the edge of the complex.
But another of Postecoglou’s mantras was about making the Socceroos world class off the field, and FFA have been prepared to spend what it takes.
Luckily FIFA’s largesse is considerable, with $8m for simply being in the group stages (rising to $12m if you qualify from the group and climbing from there) and extra money for the preparation - in 2014 that was $1.5m.
The other major bonus of Kazan is not having to travel for the first game, giving effectively two extra days of training.
As they do so, the Kazan Arena is close enough to stare at, and dream about, for the players about to take on a World Cup mission.