Let's be real about Verbeek's men, they punch above their weight

CAN we please have a reality check about the style of play of the Socceroos ("A win, but Socceroos fail to shine", Herald, June 11) and our place in world football. Italy, the second most successful nation for World Cup wins, has traditionally played a defensive game that led to the term "catenaccio" (doorbolt). Holland, the most successful football nation of the past 40 years with a population similar to Australia's, play a more attacking game based on a style its great team of the 1970s developed called "total football". Holland has never won a World Cup, and in a 100 years Australia will not equal the Dutch as a football nation. Aussies should be happy that our team makes the World Cup and in the really successful years, with luck, will make the final 16 and maybe the quarter-finals. England, where the game was founded, since 1950 has only once, in both the World Cup and European championship, other than at home, progressed past the quarter-finals. Remember we are going to South Africa, and at this stage European nations such as Sweden, Portugal and France, with a football pedigree of many decades, might not be there. The millions who follow these teams would not complain about the style of play so long as they had a win and would see their team in the 2010 World Cup.