Pim Verbeek, a subordinate to great-man Hiddink in South Korea’s 2002 World Cup campaign has been appointed as head coach of the Socceroos; And we won’t have to wait long to see if his tactics and ideas are worthy of comparison. Come February 6th, Australia will face Qatar in Melbourne with a depletion of its European based stars.
The reality is that Verbeek must work in a more difficult situation than even Hiddink faced. Verbeek now has virtually no time, perhaps one friendly to prepare, and must use predominantly locals to get the job done in the critical first two games.
I think it’s great that Verbeek was appointed because, given the time frame, he gets to work with the legacy that Hiddink initiated, the legacy that Rob Baan is desperately trying to implement throughout Australia and the legacy that Graham Arnold almost destroyed in the horror show that was the 2007 Asian Cup! All I know at the moment is that come Feb 6th, all eyes (or daggers) will be on Verbeek and his results… regardless of who can make the flight from Europe to Australia.
Riddle me this:
The Dutch have a rich culture and history and are generally a very intelligent race… so why do they have such ludicrous first names!?
Here are a couple off the top of my head: Pim, Guss, Edwin, Urby, Dirk, Ruud, Arjen, Henk etc, etc… and I won’t even get into surnames.
Labels: Pim Verbeek, Socceroos