Aussie coach doing it tough in Cambodia

Aussie coach doing it tough in Cambodia
Wednesday January 31, 12:34 PM

Despite his on-screen, laid-back demeanour while working as a
television soccer pundit, Scott O'Donell reckons his job is one of the
toughest in the game.

When away from air-conditioned Singapore TV studios, the lofty
Australian has the unenviable task of turning Asian strugglers
Cambodia into a respectable soccer team.

With unfit players, a shortage of cash and only a couple of decent
soccer pitches, he says being national team coach is far from a
breeze.

"It's tough and I didn't really know what I was getting into,"
O'Donell told Reuters in an interview.

"It's no real surprise Cambodia hasn't had much success. Some of the
teams have to train on basketball courts. That's a real struggle when
you're trying to develop footballers."

The former Australian, Malaysian and Singaporean league player admits
he has his work cut out if Cambodia are to climb from their position
of 176 in the FIFA rankings.

His priorities, he says, are to improve facilities, promote
professionalism and make his team of students and security guards work
harder for their meagre $US80 ($A103)-a-month salaries.

"I've tried to instil some discipline and commitment. I've got a great
bunch of boys, they're working hard and they're responding well," said
the 39-year-old.

"But I have to start right from the bottom because most of the players
have never been coached. They taught themselves how to play, so I'm
always having to correct their mistakes."

O'Donell admits he is desperate to improve facilities for his team but
in a war-scarred country where a third of the people live on less than
$US1 ($A1.30) a day, there is little in state coffers for decent
training surfaces.

"Our pitches are bare and bumpy, you can't even pass the ball
properly," he said. "We don't need new balls or shirts, just somewhere
to play will do."

"I know I've given everything I can to improve Cambodia but everyone
has to be realistic. I have limits on what I can do," added O'Donell,
who is better known for his work as an English Premier League soccer
analyst with Asian cable TV network ESPN Star Sports.

The Australian has endured one of the most tumultuous periods in
Cambodian soccer and surprised many in 2005 when he refused to quit
following a bizarre intervention by Cambodian Prince Norodom Ranariddh
in the run-up to the South East Asian Games.

O'Donell's team had bought flight tickets and were being fitted for
suits when Olympic committee chief Ranariddh replaced the squad with
his own seven days before the Games.

"He thought his team would do a better job," O'Donell said. "We were
so shocked. I wanted to quit and the players wanted to quit. No one
had a clue what was going on.

"If I had known that would happen, I wouldn't have come here."

Cambodia were also threatened with a ban by FIFA following allegations
of political interference after military police chief Sao Sohka, a
close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen, was appointed president of
the soccer federation in place of the incumbent Khek Ravy, a rival
politician.

A defiant Sao Sokha vowed never to bow his head to FIFA but still
asked for money to help improve the national team.

O'Donell and his wife adopted two Cambodian children eight years ago
and have since settled in Phnom Penh, a colourful city of one million
where rich meets poor and French colonial architecture sits close to
squalid urban slums.

He says he has adjusted well to life in Indochina and like a true
local has been seen arriving for work on an old Honda motorcycle.

O'Donell says he is committed to his job and has set himself the goal
of improving his players and helping Cambodia to avoid a heavy
trouncing every time they play internationals.

"It's not an easy job but what keeps me going is the faith I have in
the players. If I walked out now, I'd be letting them down," he said.

"I want to bring some respect to Cambodia. I don't want them to be the
whipping boys of South East Asia."



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