No budging Postecoglou in Socceroos stonewall
SYDNEY: If Australia’s defence was as obdurate as coach Ange Postecoglou, it’s a fair bet the Socceroos would have long since booked a ticket to a fourth successive appearance at the World Cup finals.
The 52-year- old faced a media pack on Tuesday for the first time since reports he would step down next month regardless of whether his team qualified for Russia.
At a news conference ostensibly called to discuss his squad for the decisive World Cup playoff against Honduras, which begins with the away leg next week, Postecoglou instead fielded a barrage of questions about his future in the job.
After 20 minutes of questioning, noone emerged from the room at Football Federation Australia’s headquarters any clearer about his plans.
“We have to quali fy first,” Postecoglou replied to the first question.
“I have said all along that’s where the focus is. My energy is to make sure we are going to get over the two games and qualify for a fourth successive World Cup.
“Nothing beyond qualifying for the World Cup and getting the team ready to do that is important to me.”
Postecoglou said he refused to discuss “hypotheticals”, with the media or his players, reiterating that the only certainty about his position was that he would lose it if Australia failed to beat Honduras.
“If we don’t qualify, which no one seems to care about in this room, my future is certain,” he said.
“My contract doesn’t run until the World Cup. It runs until the end of the World Cup. It could have been 18 months ago if we didn’t beat Jordan.”
Australia thrashed Jordan 5-1 in March 2016 to ease into the third round of Asian qualifying but from there their campaign got bogged down and they missed out on an automatic spot in Russia.
A 3- 2 aggregate playoff win over Syria earlier this month earned them a playoff against the Hondurans and it was the day after the decisive second leg in Sydney that the story broke about Postecoglou planning to walk away for a club job.
The coach has not only declined to clarify his position but also to enter into any discussion at all over why he might countenance such a move.
Some in the media have suggested it might be that he was sick of the questioning of the threeman defensive formation he has introduced, others that it was born of a broader distaste for the disrespect some pundits showed for him.
On Tuesday, he maintained that the media criticism did not hurt him, even if some of it reminded him of the racism he experienced earlier in life as a child immigrant from Greece. — Reuters