Postecoglou to lead Socceroos in Brazil

Four-time national championship winning coach Ange Postecoglou has been named as the new Australia coach following the recent exit of Holger Osieck. Postecoglou, a former Australia U-20 and U-17 national team coach, has been appointed to the Socceroos helm for a five-year term; a period which includes the next two FIFA World Cups™ and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Capped three times by Australia, Postecoglou has enjoyed significant club coaching success winning the national league title twice with South Melbourne in the now defunct National Soccer League. More recently, he won the A-League in successive years at Brisbane Roar with the team receiving widespread recognition for their modern fast-tempo possession-based brand of football. Postecoglou also led Australia at a total of six FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cups (2001-05). The Melbourne-born Postecoglou said he felt honoured and humbled to be chosen as coach of Australia. “The Socceroos belong to the people of this nation” he said. “It’s my job to make sure we represent all that’s good in Australian football. We need to strive for greatness, to play with spirit and have an unwavering belief in our mission. “I was proud to represent my country as a player and I have the same immense feeling of pride today.” The 48-year-old Postecoglou is set to be the first Australian-born coach to lead the country at a FIFA World Cup. Frank Farina (1999-2005) and Graham Arnold (2006-07) are the only locally-raised coaches to have managed the Socceroos in the modern era. “I have never taken the view that the coach should be an Australian for the sake of having an Australian. I have always believed we should get the best person we can for the job,” said Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy. “The fact that Ange is the best qualified, and an Australian, achieves our objective.” FFA chief executive David Gallop said the appointment of Postecoglou was symbolic of how far the game has come in the past decade. “I’m delighted that the game has reached the point where the best-qualified coach for the Socceroos happens to be someone who’s learned his football in this country and who lives and breathes the mission of Australian football,” said Gallop. Postecoglou’s first match is set to be against Costa Rica in Sydney on 19 November. Source: fifa.com