Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill shunned the in-flight movies on the Socceroos’ 24-hour flight from Melbourne to their training camp near Eindhoven before the World Cup. Instead, the Everton midfielder played computer football games with his long-time friend, the Blackburn Rovers defender.
Cahill seriously damaged his right knee playing for Everton in April, an injury that threatened to derail his World Cup plans with Australia, but his two-goal strike in the opening game against Japan was no computer-game fantasy.
Cahill’s knee was not the only thing inflamed when he tore his posterior cruciate ligament against Tottenham. His Everton manager declared he personally would be the man to green-light Cahill’s participation at the World Cup and described Australia’s medical staff as ”witch doctors”. In return, coach Guus Hiddink and his assistant Graham Arnold were not shy in putting forward their own views on English medical standards.
Back among his countrymen and with an Everton crest nowhere in sight, the Australian sidestepped club-versus-country friction, diplomatically suggesting the relationship between Everton and Australia’s medical staff was excellent.
Now 26, Cahill left Sydney nine years ago, arriving in England to sign for Millwall. In seven seasons with the London club, four spent alongside Neill before the fullback moved to Blackburn, Cahill made more than 250 appearances and scored 60 goals. One of the more well-known was in the 2004 FA Cup semifinal that sent Millwall to the Millennium Stadium and an ill-fated meeting with Manchester United.
”My story really is a fairy tale,” Cahill says. ”We have a big family back home and I had to wear tennis shoes when I played at school. The amount of times my parents took me and my two brothers to training with different teams and sacrificed the weekends … it’s not a cheap thing for parents either with boots, registrations, and the steak sandwiches at the game. Parents only earn so much a week. But they never talked about the money. They were always only interested in how I was playing.”
Cahill laughs: ”I could score two or three goals in a game but it was like, ‘Why didn’t you score five?’ I’d get in the back of the van and my mum would have her sandal off her foot and give me a slap on the back of the head while the old man was having a giggle in the front.
”I always think about what they did for me and I’m really pleased to give things back. Not just materialistic things, but things like being in the FA Cup final, playing at Wembley, playing for Everton. Each week I play in front of 40 000 people and they watch it in Australia. Just scoring is better than sending a cheque home. That is the biggest reward.”
Cahill’s mother is Samoan, a reason why many frequent visitors to his home in Liverpool (John Arne Riise is a next-door neighbour and Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia live up the road) are some of the Pacific islands’ more popular exports to the north of England — professional rugby league players. The Samoan connection is also a reason why injury was not the only obstacle Cahill had to overcome to play in this World Cup.
Cahill was originally tied to Western Samoa, for whom he made his debut aged 14, but lobbying of Fifa by his family and the Australian federation opened a window for Cahill to play for the country of his birth. After his first game for Australia, against South Africa in London in 2004, he shed tears in the dressing room.
”When I was 14, playing for Western Samoa was the biggest moment of my life,” Cahill says. ”But how could they not let me play for the country that was closest to my heart? How could they not let me play on the world stage and show what I could do? Lucky for me, common sense saw a rule change. It was a difficult time, but it’s all sweet now. I’m really happy to be part of Australia.” — Â