Holger hears a who?

As we see the exit of Pim Verbeek following Australia's FIFA 2010 World Cup campaign, a new coach has been chosen to prepare for the team's next effort in Brazil 2014 - Holger Osieck.

Holger who, you ask? You're not the only one.

Osieck has a reasonable resume when it comes to football coaching. A fairly uninspiring playing career was followed with a fairly unnoticeable coaching career in the German lower leagues. The juiciest piece of info for Aussie football fans, however, is that Osieck was involved in Germany's 1990 World Cup win, under the tutorage of German hero Franz Beckenbauer. This experience alone, in addition to his success as coach with Japanese club side Urawa Reds in the Asian Club Championship, has quite a few people salivating (in fact, the Reds have since been referred to as 'Holger's Heroes' since then - expect a Herald Sun report to use this at least 50 times).

But there's still trepidation. After such a great start with Guus Hiddink, Verbeek's stern, straight-faced tactics were unimpressive to many. If you watched SBS football tragic Craig Foster present the sports during the 2010 World Cup, you'll know that he was definitely not a Pim fan (even mentions of his name around Fozzy is enough to send him into an extended diatribe). The question is: will Osieck embrace the physical, take-no-prisoners style of football that Verbeek suppressed, or will he introduce something new?

After seeing the Aussies stumble against Slovenia 2-0 this morning, Osieck will not doubt have a few things to think about - not least the fact many of the Socceroos best players are on downhill-side of their-mid 30s now. He'll be heartened no doubt by a promising crop of young players beginning to creep through to replace the likes of Breciano, Neil, Moore etc.

I also suspect that Frank Lowy's decision to name Osieck could be based on the former Usawa Reds coach's former position within the FIFA administration following the 1990 World Cup. Having someone who was on the inside and no doubt has a lot of FIFA contacts couldn't hurt when you're applying to get the World Cup to Australia. Or am I being cynical?