It took another 32 years of the Socceroos trying and failing to qualify for a second World Cup finals for Rasic’s achievements to be properly felt,and they were acknowledged again on Thursday,when one of the game’s pioneers died at the age of 87.
When Football Australia chairman Chris Nikou hailed Rasic “a giant of Australian football” it was meant in the truest sense. It was only eight years after the Bosnian-born Rasic migrated to Australia in 1962 that he was recognised as a brilliant tactical mind and entrusted with the stewardship of the national team at the age of 34.
Four years after that,in 1974,he was in West Germany at the FIFA World Cup,having moulded a team of part-timers including miners,electricians,truckies and labourers,into something much greater than the sum of its parts. He was a stickler for logistics and preparation,and a hard taskmaster at training.
“Throughout the 1974 campaign I also wanted the boys to train three times a day,not just once as had been the custom,” Rasic told SBS in 2021. “They used to wake up at 6.30am for a run,then have a training session in the late morning and another one in the early evening. The idea I wanted to convey was that I provided everything for the players,but in return they needed to work hard to achieve our goal.”
As one of only 16 teams to qualify,Australia lost 2-0 to East Germany and then 3-0 to eventual champions West Germany. After a credible 0-0 draw with Chile,captain Peter Wilson and the late Johnny Warren and company returned home without a win but with plenty of credibility. Rasic had put Australia on the world map and on a pitch with Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.
Despite it all,he was sacked before he could get on a plane home,having butted heads one too many times with the federation president,Arthur George. Rasic said he thought it was because the organisation did not consider him a “real Aussie”. “They took from me something that I was doing better than anyone else,” he said. “I was a true-blue Aussie and nobody can deny that - I taught the players how to sing the national anthem.”