Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sochi: Tim Cahill has long been used to being written off. One suspects that is almost the way he likes it. Certainly it is a mentality that fits perfectly with an Ange Postecoglou-coached Australia who revel in the idea of rocking the traditional order of world football.
As a teenager Cahill was told he was too small to make it. A brief quarter-hour cameo for Samoa in a youth tournament as a 14-year-old delayed his debut for Australia until he was 24.
Three years ago, Cahill trudged off the pitch in Porto Alegre having scored one of the FIFA World Cup’s most spectacular goals the tournament had ever seen. Cahill’s career obituaries were written, and understandably so. After all he was 34, and modern football can be a young man’s game, But Australia’s greatest-ever goalscorer possesses a special mentality, one that is admired by many and matched by few.
Now three years on he is back at a major FIFA tournament, preparing to do battle with world champions Germany in the Socceroos’ opening match of the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017.
Cahill, quite rightly, couldn’t be prouder of his achievement. “Being in this Confederations Cup was the first thing for me as a player to just get here,” he said. “I’m here now and for all us 23 players it is about contributing.
“My aim is to be at this competition and be ready for five minutes or 95 minutes. You have to be ready, if not you have no place here (at international level).”
