Straight-talking Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek may not be making many friends with his honest assessment of the A-League, but former international Tony Popovic believes the Dutchman will still be feted as a hero if Australia qualify for the World Cup.

While Sydney FC coach John Kosmina said Verbeek's criticism of the standard of the competition was giving rival football codes a leg up, his club captain Popovic believes all will be forgotten if the national boss gets results.

"I think friends will be made or lost by results," said the 2006 World Cup star.

"If we qualify he'll be a hero, as (Guus) Hiddink was.

"I think everyone forgot about what Hiddink said before we qualified, and once the results were there he was like a god wasn't he, and I'm sure Pim will get the same reception if we qualify and rightly so."

A day after causing a stir by saying a training run for a struggling German club was better than playing in the A-League, Verbeek said he meant no insult by his comments.

Football Federation Australia had no qualms with the coach's frank assessment, with chief executive Ben Buckley, who was seated next to Verbeek at the time, saying: "Verbeek prefaced his comments with the observation that the A-League is fantastic entertainment for fans."

But Kosmina, who said he could understand the Dutchman's point of view, believes Verbeek could have chosen his words more carefully.

"The thing I think a lot people actually forget is we compete against three other football codes in this country ... and we don't need credible coaches from overseas bagging the competition, because it just does the marketing job for other codes," said Kosmina, a former Socceroos star who scored the first goal in the NSL back in 1977 and is the only coach to feature in all three A-League finals series.

"I'm not insulted and I'm not having a crack at Pim Verbeek.

"I'm just sticking up for Aussie football. I believe in it, I think we're good enough to compete certainly with European football.

"There are defensive lapses in our game here but there are defensive lapses in every league in the world, in the Premier League ... Italian football, Spanish football, Dutch football.

"Everyone makes mistakes, goals come from mistakes, so if people don't make mistakes you get nil-nil."

With 20 A-League players heading in to camp with Verbeek in Melbourne on Monday, Verbeek won't have long to see what affect his comments have had on the local talent.

"It's absolutely not my meaning to insult anybody, I don't do that, but it's just reality and sometimes reality is harsh," said Verbeek, who has named 19 overseas players in a 39-man squad for the Socceroos' opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar in Melbourne on February 6.

"It's impossible to compare leagues who are only three years (old) with European leagues who have been there for 100 years.

"So you have to build up the credit," he told Sydney radio 2KY.

"The fans are unbelievable, countries in the world are dying to have so many fans in the stadium.

"That's the most important. The fans are excited and it can only be better and better.

"We have to get back to reality here in Australia.

"The league is three years old, it's very promising and has a lot of talent, but it's still different than Europe."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP