The Football Tragic

Prior to the announcement of the squad for Australia's "A-League only" Asian Cup qualifier against Indonesia, I suggested on one of my usual football forum haunts that if I were in Pim Verbeek's shoes, Matt McKay would be the very first name on my list.

The 26-year-old Queenslander is, quite simply, the most complete player in the competition. Possessing a good first touch, an exemplary range of passing, consistently intelligent off-the-ball movement, an indomitable fighting spirit and a useful (if not entirely reliable) delivery from set-pieces, he would be an asset to any team...and Frank Farina must be thanking his lucky stars that McKay turns out for the team in orange.

Most of the plaudits after last night's win over the Mariners went (understandably) to Mitch Nichols and Michael Zullo, who both had rousing games. But once again, McKay was centrally involved in the game's decisive moments as well.

For the first goal, he followed his crisp pass to Sergio van Dijk with the sort of cutting off-the-ball run into the area that we see so seldom in the A-League. Sure enough, the Dutchman's shot was parried, and McKay's pace and determination saw him emerge with the ball despite the attentions of both Danny Vukovic and two Central Coast defenders. A quick, smart ball back into the area, a half-clearance, and Massimo Murdocca's piledriver was deflected in by Nichols.

Then, the second goal. After securing the turnover with a headed interception, McKay occupied the vacant inside-left channel in typically shrewd fashion, and was rewarded with a peach of a pass from Nichols, to put him through on goal. Although his finishing is perhaps the weakest part of his game, he remained calm and slotted the ball neatly past Vukovic to seal the tie.

Some people still refer to the "Mass and Matt" nexus in the Queensland midfield as if the two were interchangeable. But there are important differences between the two players: Murdocca prefers to run with the ball, and often runs into cul-de-sacs; he is also, I feel, only really capable of playing at one tempo - that of all-out attack. McKay's passing is far better, and although he is perhaps not as dangerous as Murdocca when running at his man, he makes up for this with his ability to occasionally slow down the play when necessary (as we saw in the first leg of the semi-final, after Queensland had gone down to ten). I mean this, incidentally, with no disrespect to Murdocca, a player any A-League manager would be glad to be able to call on.

It is a shame that McKay (like Nick Carle) was, to some extent, a victim of the NSL/A-League hiatus, which perhaps put a dampener on his hopes of a European stint. In my view, he is easily capable of making the move, but at his age, he is unlikely to do it. The upside of this, of course, is his continued presence in the A-League.

A final thought, in the light of last night's game: as Queensland deservedly reach their second successive preliminary final under Frank Farina, it's sobering to remember the constant vitriol that was directed at him during (and just after) his stint with the national team. He should never coach in Australia again, we heard. He's an unstable, tactically inept nobody. He's never prepared to give young players a go (how ironic that sounds now!). After Pierre Littbarski's departure from Sydney FC, Walter Bugno announced to the fans at an awards night that our new coach "would not be Frank Farina". He was greeted with an enormous cheer.

How things have changed.