Australian football great Craig Foster has delivered an impassioned plea for the sport to build on the success of the Socceroos’ greatest World Cup campaign and grow the sport down under.
Foster, a former Socceroo himself, was emotional and full of praise after witnessing the team’s magnificent performance against world No. 3 Argentina in the Round of 16 in Qatar.
But he declared Australian football “cannot miss that opportunity” to “take the next step” – and dream of getting to a place where the Socceroos join the likes of Argentina among the World Cup favourites.
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Foster told SBS after the heartbreaking defeat: “We’re all delighted with where the team got to.
“When Australian football does well, which has happened here, we tend to not ask questions, we tend not to want to reflect. If we want to be in this position in future, where we’re in the favourite position, where we’re not talking about being the underdogs and talking about nothing to lose, the idea is to have everything to lose.
“We want to play these games and be favourite. That’s what we want in the future.
“We need to manufacture on from this mind set as well. That means understanding where we have fallen short in this tournament. This team has maximised their potential and that is (amazing), they’ve taken Australia on an incredible journey.
“Two or three days ago, Graham Arnold, before the Denmark game, he wanted to make the point about development and that we need to continue to move forward and ask questions of ourselves and be ruthless in how we analyse this.
“We wanted Australia to engage with the team, take them to heart and understand the emotion of this game and they’ve done that. Now will be the time, after the tournament for us to talk about how we take the next step as well. We cannot miss that opportunity. Remember what Johnny (Warren) said at the start I mentioned it, when he said it’s no longer about qualifying, one day we want to win this tournament.
“We have to make sure that we take out of this the way that we played, how we can be better on the ball, how we can control games with the ball. What we did in this tournament was we controlled space really well. We controlled opponents without the ball. Absolutely brilliant.
“But we have a lot of improvement to make.”
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“The nation has come together. It is true that our national teams unite the nation, in no way that can happen in other (sports). That’s fantastic.
“We want the support of all of Australia to continue to grow this game. Albo (PM Albanese) came out this morning and (is) a big supporter of the game. But the game needs every single supporter.
“Because we want to go (further), we want to be that. We want to be in the quarterfinal. And imagine when we are. When we’re in the semi-final, if that’s how we felt this morning, imagine what’s going to happen to this country!
“Talk about bringing people together across all cultures, it’s extraordinary, the future for this game and it’s tied with the future of Australia. To do that we need to keep improving.”
Fellow Socceroos great Mark Bosnich labelled it “the most courageous Socceroos performance I’ve ever witnessed”.
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He said: “But upon reflection, this is an outstanding tournament. They can really feel as though they are now having inspired a new generation, like the 2006 inspired perhaps them when they were youngsters. They’ve done so well and very, very proud them. They should be proud as well.”
Bosnich added: “The most important thing right now for Australian football. It’s been a tough time for Australian football for a couple of years, exacerbated by the Covid situation. Let’s hope that not only does this inspire more young kids to want to play and be a Socceroo. Let’s hope we use it to propel (football) further forward.”
