For a country of only 4 million, they sure have a history of producing a stack of high quality players relative to their population.
This is why I can’t stand the back slappers in Australia who make excuses about our national side saying things like we competed well for a small country. Croatia have less than a quarter of our population and have guns like Rakitic, Modric and Lovren. Iceland are what, 300k? They implemented a youth program last generation and are now a very competitive country. It’s a mindset and in Australia we have a forgiving and loser attitude when it comes to Football. We’re like the Dees of the World Game. This is why the Socceroos flopping again in another WC was the worst thing for the game here. We are a developed nation and have no shortage of sport funding. We need a competent and ballsy FFA to move the game forward here.
It's a more complicated situation here in Australia which other countries don't face.
* We are the only nation in the world with 4 professional football codes with the AFL & NRL dominating culturally. We may have six times the population of Croatia but do we have the numbers invested in the game to the degree they do? We only have 9 professional clubs yet people deludedly talk about large scale expansion, two divisions with promotion & relegation, etc ... because that's the game's culture in Europe. Someone needs to tell them Australia is not Europe/European.
* Our technical skills are some of the worst for a nation that now regularly makes the World Cup. I agree our commentators are back slappers and overrate our performances 
. The Peru loss exposed our terrible technical deficiencies. It's all very well to have high participation numbers amongst kids but if it doesn't translate to teens/adults with world class skills then it's meaningless. Soccer is one of the easiest sports to play but one of the hardest to master. You don't need too much coordination to play a game as a kid or socially but the professional arena requires the elite of the elite skills. It's more important to focus on and provide pathways and technical training for the kids who have the natural ability and skills to eventually make it an elite level than just trying to win a phony "code war" with metrics. (This applies to the current AFL admin as well who are also obsessed with metrics over substance).
* The FFA is suffering from the same disease that previous versions of the game's administration did. Too much a boys club and too Sydney-centric.
* Being in the AFC is good for qualification as it makes it easier but is that hindering our development as a national team? Are we regularly playing the quality of opponents that will make us better to get past the group stage? Japan, Korea & Iran are really the only decent Soccer nations in Asia. It's not hard to qualify. If we were in UEFA say, I'd doubt we would've made the last two World Cups.
I blame an incompetent FFA and the AFL that is hostile to every other sport. Soccer has always had a massive junior participation rate and we would probably have more kids active in the game than some middle to heavy weight Euro countries. This participation needs to be harnessed and developed. There is also a dumb anti ‘wogball’ culture in Australia that seems to hold the game back. This is where this World Cup was another missed opportunity. Australians are a bunch of fair weather supporters when it comes to our national teams and we couldn’t even fire a shot which pretty much ensures the game will be largely forgotten for at least another four years. I’m not expecting much under Arnie. I’m actually expecting us to go backwards and will be surprised if we even qualify for the next one.
Every code is hostile to each other. It's been a battle that's been going on for over 100 years. Aussie Rules is the overprotected darling here with the Melbourne media but it is enemy #1 in the Sydney media. The Murdoch media especially appear to just swap the words 'Soccer' and 'AFL' in their anti-articles depending on which city the paper is sold
. The AFL is the fourth-placed footy code in NSW by some distance so it can't be blamed for Aussie Soccer's deficiencies and self-inflicted problems. NSW has the highest participation numbers yet I wouldn't say over our history that it had produced anymore top line world class players than out of Victoria.
Personally, I think the 'wogball' era has passed since the A-League and "new Football" arrived in 2005. It's rarely heard these compared to 30-40 years ago when I was a kid. Being a wog is now cool
while the shockjock/tabloid media has moved on from wog bashing to Asian bashing to Muslim bashing to African "gangs". Would the next latest migrant wave move in front of the fearmongering media & politicans' target
. Seriously though, I think what is holding the game back culturally is now more cultural cringe (Eurosnobbery) and apathy. That foreigners will always be far superior to anything Australians can do so who cares if we fail. It's why we still have a foreigner as our head of state
. Why we can fill ANZ for a David Beckham allstars game yet Sydney FC on a record season winning streak can barely get 10-15k to their games. We seem content to be seen and not heard at the World Cup and then just switch allegiances to the big nations once we're knocked out rather than there being widespread anger and recriminations for the Socceroos' deficiencies and failure to progress. I beat Italians aren't cheering on some other nation at the World Cup because they didn't make it
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