LONDON: When Bert Van Marwijk was tossed into the air at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah on Sept. 5 by the Saudi Arabian national team, few of the 62,000 fans present would have predicted that a few days later he would be dropped by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF).
The silver-haired coach had just achieved something that had not been done for 12 years: Taking the Asian powerhouse to the World Cup. Almost as impressive was that the Dutchman had lasted two years, longer than most in one of the hottest seats around.
In the modern world of football, such achievements don’t always count for much and Van Marwijk was not given a contract extension by the SAFF. The reason given at the time was that he resisted suggested changes in his coaching staff, which seems reasonable for any manager, and that he wanted to continue basing himself in Europe, which seems a little less so. A national coach who lives in a different continent is not ideal, especially with the World Cup just a few months away.
Despite his distance, Van Marwijk knew the players, knew how he wanted them to play and vice versa. A pragmatic style of coaching had led the team into second place in a difficult group containing Japan and Australia. The 65-year-old did not just know how to get results in qualification. In 2010 he led his homeland to the World Cup final when the Oranje were just a few minutes away from taking Spain, at their tiki-taka peak, to a penalty shootout.
A solid squad with an experienced coach combined with a favorable draw could have produced a trip to Russia to rival the knockout stage reached by the Green Falcons back in 1994 in the US.
We will never know. It could be that in the long-term Edgardo Bauza, immediately announced as the replacement, is the right man to build a new playing style to take Saudi Arabia into the future, past Russia and beyond the 2019 Asian Cup.
Bauza’s resume deserves attention for two separate Copa Libertadores triumphs: South America’s Champions League, with LDU Quito of Ecuador in 2008 and then with San Lorenzo of Argentina six years later. His eight-month spell with the Argentina national team may have ended in March with the Albiceleste in danger of missing out on Russia but during his short time in the UAE, where he worked before Saudi Arabia came calling, the 59-year-old impressed officials with his long-term plans for the national team.
Yet in the short term at least, swapping the European for the South American is a gamble given that the draw is just a month away. As well as the experience of taking the team through qualification and taking the Netherlands through to the World Cup final, Van Marwijk may have offered something else. Recently, there have been reports that the federation is working to give the players as much international experience as possible before the World Cup on special loan deals to clubs in Spain and also the Netherlands and Portugal. If it is correct — and the SAFF did not respond to requests to comment — that Saudi stars are to go to to Europe then Van Marwijk’s European knowledge could have been useful. The former boss of Borussia Dortmund, Hamburg and Feyenoord has years of experience and plenty of contacts in the big leagues. A phone call from BVM to a colleague back home may have eased the path a little and put the right players in the right teams.
Not only that, a major factor behind the Dutchman’s departure was that he did not want to live in Saudi Arabia to keep an eye on players who are in action every week in the domestic league. If it turns out that, on the orders of the federation, a number of Saudi stars will spend much of the next few months in Western Europe and Western Asia then Van Marwijk could be forgiven for being a little annoyed.
If all goes well next summer then it will be Bauza thrown into the Russian sky with SAFF officials beaming on the sidelines. If not, then the criticism will be as hot as a June afternoon in Riyadh. As always in football, time and results will tell.