Sydney FC coach John Kosmina admits Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek might be on the money with his criticisms of the A-League, but the Dutchman should have kept quiet for the good of the game.
Since taking over as Socceroos coach seven weeks ago, Verbeek’s enthusiasm for the local competition can be described as tepid at best. An extraordinarily large 39 man squad has been picked for Australia’s opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar in a fortnight. Most of the final 18 who will travel to Telstra Dome are expected to be overseas based players. The Dutch coach struck a nerve among locals when he claimed a training session in Europe has more benefit than an A-League match.
“I wasn’t having a crack at Pim Verbeek, I was sticking up for football in Australia,” Kosmina said at Sydney FC’s final training session before the first-leg of the minor semi final series against Queensland Roar.
“People forget we compete against other three football codes in this country, that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. We don’t need credible coaches from overseas bagging the local competition, because it just does the marketing jobs for the other codes.”
Kosmina agreed with Verbeek’s assessment that A-League defense’s can be accident prone.
“There are defensive lapses in our game, but there are defensive lapses around the world. I watch the Premier League and think ‘why did they do that’, the Italian league, the Dutch league. Goals come from mistakes.”
“I can see where he was coming from. Maybe he could’ve chosen his words differently.”
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