As it is, he did pretty well, steering the Socceroos through a tricky debut qualification campaign in Asia with an impressive absence of fuss and taking them to within a whisker of the last 16 in South Africa, despite having a star player sent off in the first half of the first two games against Germany and Ghana.
That win against Serbia remains Australia’s last in the tournament. It was a valiant effort.
It is a shame that Australian fans did not know that Pim Verbeek, who died on Thursday at the too-young age of 63 after a lengthy battle with cancer, was perhaps the nicest man you could ever meet in football.
The Dutchman treated everybody he met with the same respect and easy familiarity.
Journalists loved him because he gave honest and interesting answers and if he couldn’t, explained why not.
And it is a shame that Verbeek never saw the sad, warm and heartfelt reaction to his passing that spread to all the past of the world he worked, lived and loved.
It started in the Netherlands, rolled across and down to Australia and then South Korea and Japan, before being reported in the Middle East and North Africa.
There have been plenty of globe-trotting coaches in the past but few stayed so long in one place and made so many friends along the way.
Football coaches are often surprisingly sensitive to criticism, perceived or real.
His fellow Dutchmen Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat, both of which he worked with, made sure you knew that they were the head coach and others were not, but not Verbeek.
He didn’t care. He told me in 2006 - as he became coach of Korea Republic - that the fame part was the least interesting aspect of the job.
Verbeek - his playing career with Sparta Rotterdam (the current squad will wear black armbands this weekend as will others around the world) cut short by injury and who, by his own admission, got the Feyenoord job much too early (33) - loved Australia.
He also loved being Australia coach. After being in the somewhat full-on concrete and neon metropolis of Seoul, he loved laid-back Sydney and being able to wander out for a coffee and not get bothered.
That was a big reason he left Korea, his first international love. I first met him in Seoul in 2001 as he was Hiddink’s assistant for the 2002 World Cup on home soil.
Hiddink got the honorary citizenship for the run to the last four but Verbeek did a lot of the tactical training ground work that made Korea a force to be reckoned with.
Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm in 2005 with Dick Advocaat, he used his experience to avoid some extra-curricular activities.
Advocaat, whose change of mind about the Socceroo job in 2007, cleared the way down under for Verbeek, complained at being taken mountain climbing by Korea FA chief and FIFA bigwig Chung Mong-joon the day after returning from his Christmas holidays.
“He didn’t care about my jetlag,” said Advocaat.
“Or your short legs,” said his deadpan number two.
Verbeek didn’t enjoy the head coach job in Korea that he took in July 2006. It meant that he could go out even less without being mobbed.
When he was assistant we could go out for dinner, where he would always be given a bottle of something from a fellow diner grateful for 2002, and sometimes be joined by his wife Anneke and his daughters but as he took the main job, it was easier for me to cycle (as a Dutchman he couldn’t believe why anyone would cycle in Seoul) to his hotel, located about halfway between the Korea FA and Seoul World Cup Stadium.
He became a little isolated and after third place at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, he was soon heading down under.
He found it all a breath of fresh air. It was, he said, a perfect job.
It was Australia’s first Asian campaign and Verbeek knew Asia like few others and his family liked Australia so much that one of his daughters moved there.
A subsequent job in charge of Morocco’s U-23 team was also pleasant but he was perhaps happiest in charge of Oman, a lovely country, full of lovely people.
It was his last post and he returned home, his travels finally over at the end of the Asian Cup in January.
That was where I met him last: a 30 minute chat that turned into 3 hours.
It was not just about football.
