It takes done getting used to. But they would simply acclimatise. I honestly don’t think ten to twelve hours in total would be especially bad. Especially if they have at least a couple of days between landing and the game.. Initially it might be unusual but as Euro-based players in Asia and the North America do, they would get used to it.

And they’re in business class. When I landed in Bangkok, I felt fresh as a daisy. By contrast, with flights from MEL to LHR with no possibility of sleeping horizontally and it’s a horrendous feeling when you land. But that’s 24 hours and all seated.

Ten to twelve  hours with a skybed (or 4 vacant economy seats) is lovely.

Fair enough. The Euros and Nations League is something in any event. To say nothing of WCQs not too long ago.

You should give them a try again. It’s gripping as there’s such pressure for that single automatic qualification spot.

I  feel that coaches cop too much criticism at times,  when players struggle to perform, or teams have extended periods of bad luck. Admittedly, I'm loathe to criticise coaches, as I can usually see some things that a team is doing well.

Football Australia's current curriculum is European based - an amalgamation of French, Spanish, German and Dutch. Half of the coach education in Australia I've done has been conducted under Dutch  staff coaches from their football federation, who've also coached pro teams.

You have made a fair comment though. I have not watched  much European football in recent times.

 I'm aware how much more  dangerous around goal many European strikers, attacking midfielders and wingers are in the League Of Nations. Also, the European pitches  are currently  very slick and European international  teams play at high tempos in cool conditions. The footage is often filmed much lower in the stadia too, which creates an impression the game is played at a  quicker tempo. 

 

Thanks but for my part, I feel it was probably a slightly unfair of me to think that you don’t watch football elsewhere.. Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall you commenting on threads about Euros a while ago.

You know what I've wondered why the aus footballing base of mostly anglos, italians, greeks and ex-yugos are told to try and play like the dutch. im a little bit baffled

The Dutch did so well in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Johan Cruyff went to Barcelona and carried on with the philosophy. He influenced Pep who uses that to this day. So it’s not without good reason.

But I think we can amalgamate. The Italian defence has so often been the best. And then when you think how they wanted a regista (like Pirlo) just controlling the tempo so beautifully. Getting the ball moving slowly then fast then slowly then fast. You can picture opposition defences just struggling to deal with the tempo and getting outmanoeuvred.

And then the Brits have loved an out-and-out striker. An athlete with the technical ability to drive through opposition defences with speed and control. The best example, imo, being Thierry Henry.

So I think all those things can be incorporated. And clearly major European football teams feel that way. Hence their signing of players from all over the world, as opposed to from a single football system.

Imo i don't think Henry was an out and out striker. Played as a winger before and after leaving arsenal and even at Arsenal played in a 2 where he was alllowed to drift over to the left to then cut in. I'd say Shearer, Drogba, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, RvN were more traditional number 9's as either target men or poachers off the shoulder of the last opponent. 

Maybe not a traditional striker in the sense that he also had a lot more assists than most strikers have. He had that creativity. But the sheer number goals he scored up front and the way he’d dribble defenders and attack the goal, make him the ultimate striker, imo. Although maybe he could have been better in the air?

Jamie Carragher said something along the lines of - when Henry got past you, it was like chasing after a motorbike.

On Henry’s conversion from winger to striker, I  vaguely remember parys interview where he described his reaction. Moving to Highbury, Arsène Wenger suggested to him that he wanted him to play upfront. Henry basically goes - I’m a winger. We won the World Cup and I was on the wing. Why?

But Wenger insisted. And how right he was!

Spain's current style of play is mainly due to Cruyff's influence too.

There was a good article on FIFA.com outlining a whole heap of stats about intercontinental playoffs (all stats prior to Aus v Peru and NZ v CRC though).

Some highlights I enjoyed were:
Highest 2 leg attendance: IRN v AUS 1997

Winning percentages:
UEFA 86% (6 from 7)
CONMEBOL 70% (7 from 10 - now 7 from 11)
CONCACAF 50% (3 from 6 - now 4 from 7)
AFC 33% (2 from 6 - now 3 from 7. Interestingly all AFC wins have involved Australia)
OFC 30% (3 from 11 - now 3 from 12. I was trying to work out the 3rd game, and it appears FIFA include the “semi-final” against Canada in 1993 as an intercontinental playoff).

Just two teams have lost the first leg of a play-off and reached the World Cup: Australia and Uruguay.

After adjusting for this year’s participants, Australia have competed in the most intercontinental play-offs (7 times). They are followed by New Zealand (four), Uruguay (three), Bahrain, IR Iran, Costa Rica and Israel (two apiece).
However, as the article alluded to OFC winning 3 games (which would be NZ 2009, AUS 2005, and AUS 1993 v CAN) that would technically be 8 times participating.

And one of the good stats: Only 3 times has an intercontinental play-off gone to a penalty shootout:
Canada v Australia, Uruguay v Australia, and Peru v Australia. Australia won all 3.

Exactly. The one-touch passing is inherited from Cruyff/Dutch “total football”, as I understand it. That’s what we were encouraged to do when I was a kid.

That’s a really important aspect and you want to be able to do that.

The problem is when people misinterpret that philosophy. My worry is that there have been plenty of coaches and teammates of player who believe that anything more than two, three touches is always strictly forbidden.

Wingers and strikers need 1 vs 1 ability. That usually takes way more than three touches. They need turn and/or dribble past defenders at speed while retaining close control of the ball.

If you look up Thierry Henry greatest goals, imagine having to exclude anything with more than three touches. Granted, he still scored cracking goals off volleys or touch, turn, shoot. But plenty of his goals involved dribbling past defenders.

Same goes for Cristiano Ronaldo, especially in the 2000s. And Lionel Messi.

So, in addition to one-touch passing, young footballers need to practise  1 vs 1 skills for hours each week. Both in training and on their own. And then they need to feel all right using those situations in match situations. That’s how x-factor wingers and strikers are developed, imo.

One-touch and two-touch passing is equally important. You want the whole team to be able to revert to it for passages of play. But players should focus on improvement in a variety of areas. The whole team, as a collective, should be able to unlock opposition defences. But, at senior level, there should also be about two players who can unlock the defence on their own (on the wings/up front).

Otherwise, you end up with toothless attacking footballers who have lots of possession, usually sideways, and no potential to unlock defences on their own.

One-touch passing + good off-the-ball movement allow the team, collectively, to unlock the opposition defence.

1 vs 1 dribbling/turning at speed allows an individual to unlock an opposition defence on their own.

A really good team must have both these weapons in its arsenal. And a really good system must encourage both types of players.

Just realized there will be a record 6 Asian teams in Qatar - if ever there was a time an Asian team could go deep its this cup. Iran, Japan and South Korea all have genuine world stars. 

Seeing that list of 6 on the 'by confederation' list was nice. It's also our 'home' tournament.

It is predicated on trying to emulate the world powerhouses in football - Germany, Spain, France, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Italy. All have  similar  characteristics  - apart from Italy. Since that criteria was formulated to determine a world powerhouse, it seems England, Portugal and Croatia, can also now be considered  football powerhouses.

The cornerstone of our Aussie curriculum is developing a style that wins World Cups. So what we've tried to do is similar to the European and South American powerhouses. It is going to take a long time  to see the benefits, because we have to improve technically.

Japan have gone for the Brazilian approach. They are starting to see the benefits of their world class development  system.

Very true.

There are two schools of Dutch football that have a major influence on teams everywhere - Cruyff and Van Gaal.

That is really good.

I'm not sure we have any world stars?

yep, Barca's absolute DNA is still Cruyff to this day.......
https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/club/news/2591572/johan-cruyffs-legacy-at-barca
Read some of his quotes.
Then Peps
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/07/pep-guardiola-exclusive-interview-johan-cruyff-unique

What staggers me for all my years involved in YL here with my son they we're strangled to play 1v1 during games, the individual ability was knocked out of them.
One german coach I experienced during that time didn't even want to take the opportunity of going for goal in perfect range free kick postion near the box, wanted the kick taker to play on to retain possesion therefore more passing back re set.
I was dumb founded so many times.

Warren always kept beating on we should be introducing the Brazilian approach.......

D2, I don't think your around football week in week out like some here barring your past coaching experience.
I'm at grounds all my life and to date, 2 boys through YL/NPL now Snrs.
Mate the amount of talented kids is brilliant/technical and all compared to my days in Prem leagues, trouble is there is not enough spaces for them to move UP and the politics/expense is the other stumbling block.
I see kids who have such good potential at the crucial age time leading into Snrs just get pissed with it all and go back to Club levels play with mates, its very sad to see.

I think it could go ether way 

as all 6 nations could be knocked out at the end of the 1st week 

it is somewhat unlucky Japan is in the 'group of death' as i think they probably would make it to the round of 16 in any other group the other AFC nations are in....it kind of reminds me of us in 2014... 

Saudi, Iran, Australia - are all underdogs in their group but all of us have a 'chance' to runner-up the group as there are win-able games in them and you never how 90'' will go...

S.Korea probably have the 'best' shot at qualifying Portugal tend to be hit or miss, Uruguay and Ghana are also beat-able at there current level - S.Koreans have a strong squad and depending on the draw they actually could go 'fairly' deep into the competition. 

Qatar are almost a certain to embarrass the confederation as they would not qualify for a WC in any other circumstances imo i can see them losing every games 3-nil or worse.... It has an 'air' of South Africa about them in the sense they are not worthy to be there but bribed enough people to host the competition...

Ideally we want at least two nations to make it to the round of 16 and 'hopefully' 1 nation to the final 8 (but that might be pushing it) - as we got 6 nations in the competition i think that would be a 'respectable' outcome. 

However it would be a bad look if we all went home on the 1st week - but im confident we will have at least one team make it to the knock outs but im optimistically hoping for 2....but i would not bet on it 

 I'll be supporting all the AFC teams though unlike some other retards here who support NZ i actually support my confederation and wish the sides well 

True. I haven't been involved in the club/rep team scenario for about 8 years now.

I despair hearing politics stops some kids progressing. When I was a rep coach,   for one of three  regional rep teams feeding into the state team, we sometimes got it wrong at selection trials where good players underperformed.

Mind you I would go out and  reappraise  players playing club football, who I was told we'd missed at trials.

It is not a bad thing, but a lot of players go back to a lower level to have fun with their mates. Rep football and system pathways can all be a bit too serious. I think the club environment provides an option to have some fun.

I know it is a big if, but if we could find a big target striker, who is a clinical scorer against quality opposition, I think we could progress past the group by beating or drawing with Denmark, and by beating Tunisia.

ATM we don't have that player though.

Also, didn't Qatar win the last Asian Cup? They must be ranked one of Asia's top teams ATM.

Oh dear!

Awful reading this last paragraph.

Mate the amount of talented kids is brilliant/technical and all compared to my days in Prem leagues, trouble is there is not enough spaces for them to move UP

This is the real, deep and bitter truth of the day.
This is the problem that must be solved before we move up in the world.  We will not be competitive until we have 500 professional players.  Maybe a 1000 before we win something.
Kids are still playing in backyards and parks and doing 1 v 1 stuff.  They are much much better at it than all of the generations before them.  They are not hamstrung by training and coaching but by opportunity.  Their inspirations come from all over the planet and access to that influence is pervasive and instant.

There seems to be much confusion and obfuscation about the so called "Dutch" revolution.  It was never an instruction or concept of doing nothing but pass the ball 3 feet to the nearest kid.  So what is it?

Historically, Australia produced teams of athletes.  Our whole approach to the game was dictated by our isolation up until the mid 1960s, modified locally after that by small coherent groups of immigrants imposing their "DNA" on their kid's development.

Until (let's pick an arbitrary but significant date) 1974,  the big fast kid that was sport minded that made the school team for swimming, cricket, soccer and everything was also the star of the soccer team. This was a natural outcome. Despite the fond memories of some, the vast majority of people playing the sport here were never the children of recent immigrants.  They were the same polyglot mix as the rest of country.
When television arrived new ideas flowed.  Maybe we learned 442 and made the switch from 532?  Scots had been talking about 443 since the 1950s at least, but nobody listened because Chelsea and Leeds and Manchester United took the ball down the wing and crossed it into the mixer.
The ideas on how to play came from watching "Match of the Day" and "The Big Match" and a few library books.  It was the overwhelming influence of the "English Game" that permeated the minds and deeds and styles of Australian Soccer.  The exception was the small, but powerful in terms of competition success, cultural groups forming in the east coast capitals.

All (including English) recent immigrants brought fresh playing and training ideas, but those that saw the game as a natural cultural expression worked harder than the others in demonstrating the wonders and superiority of their "style".  They actively sought out and even brought out professional players from their country of origin to bring their teams to be the best they could be.  The masses just played because they genuinely just loved the game and really for no other reason.  In fact, to this day, that it is the driver for the majority of the million or so registered and non-registered players in this country who go to training twice a week in the dark and cold and wander about on cow paddocks.

After 1974 we all knew we had to do something.  Our new heroes had travelled to Europe and in 270 minutes, probably failed to get a shot away from inside the box.
We could run fast, tackle vigorously, and even take on a single man and beat him (and then lose the ball in an isolated position).  Significantly, it was a mix of both recent arrivals and multi-generational home developed players that made that squad.

So what changed after that.  At first not much.  Everybody argued about well, everything. We cobbled up a national league and we continued to produce players for it in exactly the same way as we had for decades.  For the following 25 years (ish) we produced International teams with about the same success rate as those that had gone before.
The bright lights rising were the youth that had been plucked as teens and taken overseas to learn their craft in a fully professional environment.  Those that stuck at it rose to be genuinely Internationally competitive.

In the early 80's our National Teams were crap compilations of great people who couldn't actually play beyond their natural abilities because they had never learned to play competitively in some really basic tenants of the game.  We couldn't hold the ball in tight spaces.  We couldn't create opportunities for players under pressure.  We couldn't control the tempo of game to advantage.  I would argue we couldn't do any of those things in 2006 either.

Opponents knew that to beat Australia all you had to do was press and eventually they would cough up the ball in a critical position.  They were only worried about speedy wingers, 50/50 ball challenges and Kevin Muscat tackles.  The really basic skills of body position, movement off the ball close to the ball carrier, one touch passing, ball retention, and the indefinable "intelligent play" were never there.

Despite the current narrative as to otherwise,  we still send teams of really fast running explosive athletic types to World Cups.  Today though, most of them are able to pass accurately and receive a ball to advantage.  Our number 9 hunts for the ball all the time instead of wandering about lost waiting for the chip over the top or the high cross from the wing.  We are evolving.  We are just now, after 140 years, equipping our players with the very basic tools of coordinated team play.

The dream of producing teams of the same monster athletes as before, but equipped with essential skills and game intelligence was born and might yet even be realised.

The Dutch have been doing just that for 50 years.  It is a natural and attractive concept to see what they do and to copy the bits they do well and adopt them if they fit.

There is a focus in the curriculum on the bits we haven't had in our game (ever) but there is nothing in there that says "you shall not beat your opponent".
In fact there is the exact opposite.  In small sided games for little kids, the whole emphasis is on retaining the ball under pressure (tricky play), beating an immediate opponent and playing with the head up to make an accurate pass.  Positioning to receive the ball is paramount and every kid gets a chance to score and receive the joy of having a celebration.

It is not the stultifying work of the devil that the armchair experts accuse it of being always without any reasons given or endings to their rants.

By the time we get to U14s those skills are utilised by the players in real intense competitive games.  It is now natural for them to use the skills that have become almost innate.
The progression over the next couple of years of their development sees them translate their abilities using 433 as it is the system that allows them to express (not repress) their abilities and progress to the coaching, system and styles of professional coaches beyond.  It's all clear blue skies ahead right?

No! Because it's also where we lose 95% of them BECAUSE THERE IS NOWHERE FOR THEM TO FUCKING GO!

This is a great post. Particularly like the myth busting parts regards the NC.

I watch probably 8 to 12 hours of football a week refereeing. Some grassroots stuff, some NPL stuff and a lot of the top level where I am. Now I'm no expert but I know what I'm looking at and the kids are good. 
  
The amount of times I see online 'we're just producing robots' makes me wonder if any of these blokes ever wander down to a kids NPL match. They're infinitely better than what they were 30/40 years ago.

With regards to your post 2 points stood out for me.

'We will not be competitive until we have 500 professional players. Maybe a 1000 before we win something.' 

1000% 

and 

'Opponents knew that to beat Australia all you had to do was press and eventually they would cough up the ball in a critical position.'

I would argue that this is still the case at all levels of our national teams. Press and we cough it up. (I would love to see possession stats where we have dominated possession broken down into the final third. We are dead set ordinary.)

What a fantastic post, thank you for the insight. As one of the so called "armchair critics" I cant profess to have ANY knowledge of what the mythical NC contains but what I do see week in week out is a style of play at (at least at, NPL and Socceroos level) that has not made the "leap" past the 433 safety net. Where are the creative AMs and clinical #9s we should be seeing by now? Not trying to be a smartass but I dont see them anywhere?
Your very last line is absolutely the truth..........

Second time the WC is in Asia. It will be an eye opener for the UEFA teams particularly. I am expecting big things from our bunch, particularly Iran and the Saudi's, and us as it seems its now our second home.

Looking at the groups, Qatar has a pretty damn good shot at getting to the round of 16 as well. Plus home field advantage. 

I'm expecting this world cup to one of the most upset heavy in history. The conditions are going to throw off many many European teams.

Also. Right in thick of the European season is when the cup is on. No break like usual as a normal World Cup in June. Players from the top tier of football will be very fatigued.

on this: how likely is it that we really do see a 2nd division the next few years?

It is hard to imagine improving much until we get a full time 2nd division (I suppose though at first it will be semi-professional? Which means how many players are full time?)