On Friday 9 December, the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals take place.
Also on Friday 9 December, Brisbane Roar hosts Adelaide United in the Isuzu UTE A-League, which resumes after a World Cup hiatus.
That pause has seen football take centre stage in Australia – and some of the moments that have stopped the nation and dominated headlines have come from the biggest names in the country’s domestic football league.
“I hope and I do expect that Australians start respecting the A-League for the quality it has,” Socceroos boss Graham Arnold said.
“I have been a firm believer in the A-League for a long time; people sit back at home and compare it to the English Premier League because that’s the only other football we watch.
I’ve been out and about and around Europe and the A-League is as good as most European competitions.
“There is only one thing the A-League needs to do is play more football.
“25, 26 games isn’t enough. 12 teams isn’t enough.
“You need to give kids more opportunity to be professional footballers and play more football.
“The quality of the A-League, the boys here have shown, who have come from the A-League, that they can match it on the world stage.
“I’m a firm believer in it. We’ve got those young kids coming through and they’ve got to be ready.”
For the first time ever, the season will resume off the back of the global showpiece, one where the league’s stars have proven, yet again, the bona fides of a competition that has fuelled the careers of 21 of the 26 Socceroos who made it through to the knockout rounds in Qatar, with Craig Goodwin and Mathew Leckie stepping up from the A-Leagues to the biggest stage on the planet.
“I think it shows that at times the A-League is underestimated in the quality we do have and the standard of the Australian players,” Goodwin told KEEPUP after his strike against France.
“It is a good moment for the league and does show the quality it does have…from a personal perspective, very honoured to score for Australia at the World Cup.”
The squad is laced with different experiences in the competition, showcasing there is no right, or wrong journey in football.
It is a well told story that Goodwin, now one of the superstars of the competition, was still working at KFC making ends meet when he made his debut for Melbourne Heart. Newcastle Jets, where he caught the attention of Emile Heskey, was where he got his professional springboard, but after sojourns abroad, to Holland, and Saudi Arabia, home was where the heart is.
This is his third stint at Adelaide United; but home comforts haven’t seen the 30-year-old plateau. Rather, he has taken his game to a new level, developed a leadership role for his side, and as an advocate for the league, helping raise the standards of those around him.
Similar questions were asked of Leckie after he returned to Australia last season following an underappreciated career in Germany. Recruited by Aurelio Vidmar a decade ago, the A-Leagues was Leckie’s professional breeding ground; a classic ascension from domestic league to Europe. But if there was any scepticism about Leckie’s international prospects once returning home, he is the pinup proof that you can take on France, Denmark and Tunisia off the back of games against Newcastle Jets or Perth Glory.
“Coming into this tournament I worked super hard to get myself physically fit,” he said.
“It turned out perfect that going into the A-League season, (I had) six games to get my body into game shape, and I feel great.
“I feel like, physically, I have been able to have a lot of input on the field.”
While there is a pining for more Australians playing in the big European leagues, it is a testament to the competition that two of Australia’s three scorers, in a record World Cup points haul, are arguably the two pre-eminent stars in the domestic competition.
Striker Jamie Maclaren said: “Him and probably Goodie (Goodwin) are the best players in the A-League.
“They’ll go a long way this season in terms of the (Johnny Warren medal).”
Maclaren’s energetic, high quality and purposeful display against Tunisia, following his successful penalty in the shootout against Peru, feels like the international coming of age of a three-time Golden Boot winner, who has scored for fun, be it in his early years at Perth, or at Brisbane and now City, where he moved after a couple of seasons in Germany and Scotland.
Both Leckie and Maclaren’s form vindicates their move home.
“A lot of people questioned myself, coming back to the A-League,” he said.
“You see it with Lecks now at 31, it’s the perfect age – he’s a machine. He’s played all three games, nearly all 90 minutes. The workrate he does, he probably doesn’t get the credit.
“Tonight he got his reward and I’m sure the country are looking down and so proud of him.”
Melbourne City have three players in the squad, with Marco Tilio the replacement callup for Martin Boyle.
Last season, when the A-Leagues brand was launched independent of Football Australia, Tilio was the pin up boy of the Here Come The Future campaign, and his star rose further when he scored a dazzling goal for the Olyrroos last year in Japan against…none other than Argentina.
His success is an interesting one. On one hand, he should be a poster boy for the league giving kids minutes, especially during the COVID impacted years where the inability to recruit from abroad meant more local kids got more match minutes.
But he left Sydney FC searching for more game time with their Championship winning squad laden with established talent, and at Melbourne City, also found himself competing for a first team berth alongside Leckie, Maclaren, Andrew Nabbout and others. He has thrived in that environment, and his ability to force his way into the XI, ultimately held him in good stead coming into Socceroos calculations.
The Melbourne City trio are part of a record contingent of eight to represent the league at a FIFA World Cup finals, and their three representatives, alongside Central Coast Mariners’ Danny Vukovic, Garang Kuol and Jason Cummings is the most a single club has contributed to a Socceroos World Cup squad.
There is a Mariners influence infused through the Socceroos.
Striker Mitchell Duke was a favourite son in Gosford, before a stint at Western Sydney between forays in Asia.
“It deserves that respect and that attention,” he said of the A-League.
“And it is only going to grow, and get more respect, the better we do on the national stage.
“We (Socceroos) have been doing a brilliant job and I hope it does turn more heads, brings more attention, because the game deserves it.”
Japan-based Duke said the standard of the A-League was “very much underestimated and not as respected, probably globally, as it should be”.
“If you speak to a lot of foreigners that go to that league, they do say it’s a shock to the system, about how physical is it and the quality that is there,” he said.
“So hopefully that just keeps growing the attention. And I would love to see that happen after this World Cup and be more in the conversation.”
Indeed, the Mariners have been instrumental in the careers of the captains at three straight World Cups, handing Mile Jedinak (2014, 2018) his professional breakthrough, while 2022 skipper Mat Ryan was thrust into the spotlight as a teenager by Graham Arnold.
Kye Rowles earned his move to Heart of Midlothian from Gosford; indeed, when he endured his Socceroos baptism of fire against Peru, it was off the back of a domestic campaign.
“I think they should be extremely proud of the players developed through the years that have gone on to have fantastic careers,” he said.
“They’ve laid such a good platform for players there…young Garang now as well, Jason has come into the spotlight. They have done an amazing job getting young boys in and turning them into such amazing players and furthering their careers.
“It is great to see so many people represent the nation from such a small team and area – a real family environment, everyone gets around each other. Great to see so many of us involved in the club, able to reflect on that.”
Rowles is one of the league’s graduates now in Scotland, alongside Cam Devlin, Aziz Behich, Nathaniel Atkinson, Aaron Mooy and Keanu Baccus, with the Scottish Premiership a potential gateway to further pastures in Europe.
“It’s massive for us back home, a lot of people write us off,” former Western Sydney midfielder Baccus beamed.
“Majority of us have come through that league, and moved on. We’re old enough to move out of there with more experience and going to leagues to better ourselves.
“The A-League’s quality.”
For some, it has been a professional breakthrough; for others career redemption. Some, like Andrew Redmayne, have had to be patient; others like Jackson Irvine tasted youth team football before taking a leap of faith abroad.
For others, timing is everything.
What might have happened to Behich had Melbourne Heart not come into the competition in 2010, having battled through NPL Victoria and not made the cut at Victory.
“It means everything,” Behich said. “I reflected a bit after the last game; I started in the A-League, not getting a contract, went back to NPL, and here I am playing my second World Cup and playing Round of 16 and (have) been playing overseas the last 10 years.”
It can also provide a reset. For Aaron Mooy, it provided a springboard after a few years in Scotland, and his Melbourne City stint, following Western Sydney, provided the trigger to head to the Premier League, while Riley McGree gained minutes, and experience, before landing the right move abroad.
The midfielder, still only 24, has played for Newcastle Jets, Adelaide United and Melbourne City but after a few departures is now a Championship player.
“Great exposure for Australian football and the A-League in itself,” he said.
“Hopefully it inspires younger generations to go into football and follow in our footsteps going forward.”
