Nothing wrong with sitting back as long as you can hold possession when you do get it. Aussie teams need to be better at keeping possession so they don't expand so much energy chasing the ball. Very important when travelling to Japan and Korea because those team can keep possession and make most of the travel factor. You'd do a lot less running if you have 50% of possession (or more) compared to when you have 40%. Also, having more of the ball releases a bit of the pressure. Fending off wave after wave from the opposition builds pressure.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo blog Why Aussies Teams Fail In Asia?
Australian clubs have again struggled to succeed in the Asian Champions League. But why?
In my view the key to doing well in the Asian Champions league is making sure you shut up shop when you play a...

Have your say.

Edited by TheMagnificent11: 2/5/2011 02:48:51 PM

Good article.

Good stuff gary

Money!!

Aussie teams fail in the ACL by not taking it seriously.

The jets under GVE did very well beaten in the quarter finals by the eventual champions Pohang so it can be done but i think a home semi final is the key.

GVE must be kicking himself now Tinkler has taken over the Jets if only he stayed 1 more season

The reason? Our clubs have no money compared to relatively wealthy Japanese, Korean and Chinese clubs.

Gary van Egmond, I am one of those who have said it before in this forum. I hope you did throw your hat in the ring to join the MV and I hope you are given an opportunity to state your case as to why you could take MV to the next level. I agree with your thoughts and if you do not get a chance to join the MV, It will be MV's loss. I have actually suggested that you and Eddie Krancevic are two guys who could do the job. I have not lost hope yet.

TBH i think aussie teams fail in asia because the asian teams are technically superior,faster,sharper and dont play the standard euro , pommie game.....we have become used to the euro pommie style of play due to our heritage now we need to learn about the asian style of play.......

Go to Hell Egg mond..... how AIS oh ans teams prob fail becasue there are no coaches to really stick around when it gets to the acl

Go to Hell Egg mond..... how AIS oh ans teams prob fail becasue there are no coaches to really stick around when it gets to the acl

Melbourne Victory is still alive in the Champions League, it got its first result against a Japanese club side the other night, what's he on about... Is he referring to the NSW clubs in this instance?

Edited by diego's son: 6/5/2011 09:06:53 PM

I tend to agree. The Japanese and Korean teams are technically superior and these days they are as good tactically (if not better). Once upon a time they were a bit naive, but not anymore.

Edited by TheMagnificent11: 6/5/2011 09:15:43 PM

IMO it is us that holds our players back
They can be every bit as good as the Asian players if we learn to unleash their potential.

Aussie teams fail in Asia as they don't have us Kiwi's to kick you up the arse.

Our players are not as good technically because of our junior coaching is not very good. Fortunately Han Berger is addressing that so in about 20 years time we'll have generation who are technically as good as anyone else out there. Right now we have a handful of technically good players and that's because they were from migrant backgrounds or had junior coaches who were migrants e.g. clubs like Marconi, Sydney United, South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights and Adelaide City had several excellent junior coaches that are responsible for developing our "golden generation". Football is not a game you can pick up when your 10-12 years old. You need to develop your coordination and touch from the age of 5/6/7.

Adelaide have reached the Final, and have beaten several Japanese and Korean clubs in their three ACL campaigns....

By playing to their strengths, being very disciplined, keeping excellent shape and following sound tactics.

They beat these teams by playing counter attacking football - they didn't play circulation football (dominant possession football).

Because they are not capable of it (at that level). And I agree, they played to their strength and rode their luck a bit. However, to be successful on a consistent basis our teams need to be better at keeping possession. It'll be interesting to see how the Roar go because they have demonstrated that not only can the keep possession, but they press high up the park and win it back quickly. It'll be interesting to see whether they can pull these tactics off against teams that are better at keeping possession than the majority of the A-League.

Agree, Magnificent 11.

Roar will be a very interesting. The trouble is, they are losing players and possibly won't be as strong as they currently are.

Well they've lost Solorzano, Susak and Devere. Devere has been replaced by Jurman...nothing lost there. Everyone else is under contract so the Roar would receive a transfer fee. So, unlike previous A-League champions, the Roar are in a good position to hold onto most of their players. Resigning Ange quickly was a good move because I think a lot of the younger players see working under him as good for the development as moving to an Asian league or lower European league.

Where did Susak go? I think he can be adequately covered.

I think Devere is better than Jurman, but we'll see.

Solarzano is a very good player to lose too, hard to replace.

Susak has gone to Indonesia. I believe he was on a one year contract so he went for free (not loan).

Solorzano will be difficult to replace and I think Susak is better than both Devere and Jurman (Susak doesn't make the mistakes that Devere makes even though Devere has more talent). However, Jurman improved a lot last season and expect him to keep improving.

Given their general dominance over Australian teams in the ACL, Australian coaches need to visit Japan and see what they are doing which is different to A League clubs.

It might also be beneficial for A League coaches to visit Korea and Saudi clubs too, since all these nations had four teams who managed to get out of the group stage of the ACL. In Europe there are visits between officials/coaches of football playing nations all the time. We need to do the same.

I read Craig Foster say that Japan has had a strong Brazilian influence in coaching.

I have to admit my admiration of Japanese football.

Schools do cultural football trips to Europe and Japan and Korea are on our doorstep.
Go figer

Any mention of trips to Japan or Korea seems to be incomprehensible to the teachers running the tours,