2 penalty saves that's bad

4:3 now. Nervous times.

FFS every time. Why can't we settle it once we lead well and then let the opponent fall into the trap of overextending themselves? 

Going to be nervy now 

Helter skelter.

Could be in strife here if not careful.

our defence really needs work as does our penalty taking - but lock at them celebrate like aloisi getting us into the world cup

Who is the youth coach? They seem to have issues with organization but wow they are putting passion for the jersey into these kids. 

Far out. We need to learn how to keep the ball towards the end of the game to wind the clock down. The number of hoofed balls upfield in the last 15 minutes was just ridiculous.

Good to see the Aussie booked for diving. Fuck right off with that garbage.

Nice last goal to seal it.

Irakunda's  second the pick of the goals.

yeah poor pens. Let's hope we can improve that before we get to a pen shootout!

Thanks for the link. Some great goals there. Irankunda's was crazy. 

I get the feeling there was a bit of panic set in when China came back at us. Especially after their third goal. A lot of passes to no one or blindly hoofed forward. A lot of boys cramping.

It was a basic tactic from China to hit it forward fast trying to spring the offside trap but it caused us headaches. I feel we were a bit more reactive and poorly organised. Who's our U17s coach? 

It was good to see the team grind it out. 

jesus another worldie from Irankunda, he has to be one of the best 17 year old's in the world atm....

This team has some great attacking players but geez they are awful with their defending, I get it they are very young but they make some basic mistakes when they do try to defend they also dont respect keeping hold of the ball just to slow the game down and give their defenders a breather its like they playing football as street footballers but lack discipline at this level.
So alot to learn but some of these players have got great potential I liked the look of Bennie the No.7 physically strong but also has decent technique however he should have put the game to bed with the penalty as 5-1 would have been curtains instead it gave China the chance to come back into the game.
I also dont understand why Maloney persists with a back 3 as we seemed to get outnumbered in midfield and therefore puts pressure on the back 3 to cover ground for the midfield and the wing backs.

Irankunda has confirmed hes status as a world class talent, that strike for he's second goal was stupendous.

Very little chance we’ll progress beyond group stage unless our defence massively improves.

Saudi beat Tajikistan 2:0. As tiebreaking is H2H they top the group. We can hope for second a likely clash with Japan. 

https://youtu.be/R8nocOBpNUM

Highlights. All 3 conceded goals could've been stopped. 

Two years ago we had a development camp. I think it was probably 16 year olds and a striker up  impressed me. I don't think it was Glasson though. I remember a very black hair. 

Der I have a question

Are there any media like podcast or Twitter bloggers or anybody covering the olyroos or under 17s? 

Looks like joeys will play Japan that will be scary 

I got excited about the U23s beating France until I realised we played their U18s.

Yeah but on the other hand there was a Bayern Munich Bundesliga striker on in the second half and quite a few who've played Ligue 1. The current French players under 23 are all full national players :D

Just watched the highlights and the Chinese goalkeeper had a shocker. They must have been poor penalties if he kept them out. Irankunda’s goal was magic.

That opening-game loss to Saudi proving very costly in that case. 

I used to worry more about underage national team performances.

In any given era, few go on to play at senior international level.

One Football Aus SAP  coach, whose tutelage I was under, only really worried about the technique of his underage players compared to the teams they  played  against, when he took teams overseas. Mainly because so many other facets of football can be fixed up in the future.

His major worry was that the academy team from Sporting Lisbon was technically slicker than any other team he encountered - by some margin.

Under 23s are much more significant though.

I was too.

Disappointed to read how young their  team was.

France are producing a production line of quality players ATM.

After watching the Olyroos, the u20s and now the Joeys I can say the technical level of our boys is alot more higher than it was say a decade ago.

I think there are issues with the speed and physically of the game but I guess they are not used to that level back here which is why they need more games especially more International exposure.

Interesting that we used to rely on speed and physicality but were found out by the superior technical ability of the footballing First World.

Now we can compete technically but not so much physically. What on Earth happened?

I guess it's the blend of technique with physique that really matters these days. Good footballers are like aliens.

Here we go joeys need to win or draw 

Tbh I don't think this Joeys team is getting past the quarter finals. 

Tajikistan all over us atm.

How can we waych live?

Pathetic performance so far by the Joeys - Sutherland is useless, so is the left back 

pretty poor performance here. Awful pitch and hot weather, but need to find a way to improve dramatically in the second half

lots of misplaced passes, little off the ball work to make passing options....not pretty tbh