Yeah youse guys who are exported don't understand.
I make enough and youse don't. Now sing the anfum!
Kewell fires up under pressure
GREG BAUM
June 18, 2010
ALL AROUND Ruimsig stadium, controlled grass fires burned, filling the air with smoke and as dusk fell, turning the sky ruddy. It was a suitably livid backdrop. In the stadium, there was another blaze, in the hearts and minds of the Socceroos and their adjutants. They are a team feeling the heat and on Wednesday, radiating it.
http://www.theage.com.au/world-cup-...ressure-20100617-yjw4.html?rand=1276779564078
In a makeshift media corral mocked up out of hurdles in a groundsman's garage, Harry Kewell had a question before anyone could ask him one. ''Where's Mike Cockerill?'' he demanded to know. Cockerill, the Herald's chief football writer, had written a trenchant column that morning, saying the time when Kewell might have saved Australia was gone, and that he was now more preoccupied with saving his own career. ''Why's he making these accusations?'' Kewell asked. ''Does anyone have answers for me?'' Cockerill, properly, was at a game.
Kewell did not warm up with the other substitutes before Australia's crushing defeat by Germany in Durban, and was not called on in the match. His voice rung through with exasperation, Kewell said on Wednesday he had been ready to play that night, but had to abide by coach Pim Verbeek's decision, that he was good to start against Ghana on Saturday (midnight AEST), but again was in the hands of the coach, whose judgment he said he trusted. He denied reports of a fermenting mutiny.
''I fully support and am behind him,'' he said. ''He's the boss at the end of the day, like anyone else who's got bosses. You do what your boss says. It's a shame people don't get it in their thick heads: it's his rules. You follow them.''
This is football's oddly feudal protocol, that the coach's word is final and no correspondence is entered into. It means he gets the credit, but also the blame, and sooner or later, the chop. But in Australia's predicament, and considering Kewell's standing, it is hard to believe that there was no consultation. Kewell said he had not warmed up with the other substitutes, not because he played by different rules, but because that was his instruction, and like the coach's, was not to be doubted. ''I was told by my physio and trainer specifically not to do it,'' he said. ''I had to do my own preparation. There's no rift.''
But there is testiness. At length, a media minder began to shepherd Kewell away, only for him to double back to deal with the unfinished business of another question. Twice, Kewell misguidedly attacked media. ''Youse are all s'posed to be on our team. And it's a shame youse are all having a go at us,'' he said. ''Youse are all s'posed to be here supporting us, making us feel good, and making us go out there and do our country proud.''