I think this is a priority

Didnt this group play a mini tournament in the usa recently? I watched all 3 games and they looked better against better opposition

we were physically dominated in this world cup which makes us look worse than we are. No doubt about it and on a technical level i thought we were better than mexico which is an acheivement.

butthe team is less than the sum of our parts imo particularly compared to that mini tournament a ear or so ago

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We lost 0-4 to Brazil, 1-2 to USA, 1-2 against England. We may have "played better than here but I wouldn't say opposition was better. USA only collected 1 point at the World Cup and looked terrible, England failed to reach the Semi Finals of the Under 17 Euros this year (Came 6th which gave them qualification) and finished third in their World Cup group, winless. Brazil is the only team that are performing decently at the World Cup.

Fair point i forgot the list of teams we played but i remember the performances being better despite the results being worse.

it is very possible that our performaces were worse becaue our opposition was tougher

youth results are inconsistent because the're not the finished product yet. Mistakes will be made bad performances will happen it all helps towards developing them as players.

Dont understand the pessimism here at all. We are likely to get out of a group that contained Germany, Mexico and Argentina. While some of the performances haven't been 90 mins of pure quality I have seen things aspects in this team that have been lacking in our all our teams (both senior and youth) for quite some time. I am loving the technical ability of this group. The skill and confidence of some of these kids in tight spaces is wonderful to watch and we seem to have at least one or two genuine threats from set pieces. Would be very surprised not to see a lot of these boys to go on to good club careers.

Our joeys keep possession better than most A-league teams

my pessimism only relates to the coaching at u17 and u20

looking forward to their careers and fingers crossed for round of 16

Didn't catch the game this morning, unfortunately. I've seen the highlights of the goals but nothing more. So it's interesting to hear that they played atrociously and yet still won.

That penalty was deplorable. What was the referee doing? I think referees tend to give the diving player the benefit of the doubt. It shouldn't be this way. They should be told not to give either player the benefit of the doubt. If they're not sure, then let it be. If they see contact (and it's illegal) then the player who goes to ground get the benefit of the doubt. If they see no contact, then the player who goes to ground should get booked for simulation if he's claiming a foul.

I'd also like to see FIFA follow the example of World Rugby or the AFL and cite or call players to the tribunal.

So if a player dives and the referee doesn't notice it, FIFA can cite them. Then they stand to miss several games. That will stop the cheats who are giving this awesome sport a terrible name.

Anyway, as for the Joeys. It seems a recurring theme that the coaching is poor. What are the Vidmars' and Okon's coaching qualifications? Why do they get the job on the basis of being very successful former players? Why can't we get top coaches from Belgium or Holland.

We've seen some encouraging signs from this group (admittedly lots of improvement is needed, still). Imagine if they had a top youth coach?

my pessimism only relates to the coaching at U20 down including NPL,rep and state I also want to know why we keep regurgitating old failed coaches instead of finding quality ones.
as for angie if U17 dont play exactly the same as the socceroos then we are wasting our time.

Quick observation on the little I've seen of the last three games. Some great individual technical skill at times, set pieces as well. Some sloppy defense, even clearing the ball in the box at times was sloppy. Seemed at times that our off the ball running and quick pass and move play could be worked on. Keeping possession is great, but if we lack team vision and pitch generalship so we run into blind corners and end having to back pass then it gets frustrating. This though could come down to coaching. Where as with ange the sum of the players is more than their individual skill , you don't get that feeling from vidmar. I wonder at times how well schooled he is at angeball. Some real bursts of brilliance, but still unable to stretch it for 90 minutes. We have struggled physically, it seems we get muscled off the ball a bit, maybe we have swung from one extreme to another, I don't know, as a country with the highest level of sports science in the world fitness and physical conditioning shouldn't be an issue. There is some real talent out there and in 5 or so years I think we will be served well

Great Observation.

Edited by Barca4life: 25/10/2015 11:39:01 PM

We're through. France beat Syria easily. Our Tasman pond brothers have pulled out a major upset though. Won 2-1 with a goal in extra time. They're through in second spot.

Yes!!!!

North Korea and South Africa can still win their games

New Zealand through too.

Paraguay finished with 3 points. That's 2 teams below us

So we'll play either Nigeria or South Korea in the Round of 16 - is this correct?

We're playing Nigeria either way, which is going to be a huge test. If we do Manage to get past them we will be up against either New Zealand or Brazil. Hopefully they can knock the Brazilians off. Anything is possible I guess.

Edited by capac: 26/10/2015 08:40:10 AM

As much as we can all sit back and analyse the boys/coaches performance I think they have done a great job to get through to the top 16. Any further from here and its a bonus. Great experience and let hope that junior development in this country only gets better from here on in.

Half-time Russia leading South Africa 1-0. Need SA to not win.

Actually we should be ok regardless. N. Korea leading 1-0 and if they win they might get through but we should still be just ok.

Absolutely. To go to an age world cup and demonstrate that our players are technically on par with 2 of the best in the world is good, to then play a proactive game and get results is at the very top end of the expectation chart.

Just wish we hadnt got the tactics wrong when playing through the German 442 in the 1st game.

On the plus side, it looks like Vidmar mkII learned from that game and were able to get two excellent results in the remaining games which is something we've seemed to lack at youth level with Okon and Aurelio.

Vidmar mk11 has Deroo with him.

Its not a matter of sitting back (unless you think running 4 different teams ) is sitting back. Personally to me how we get there is much more important than getting there. Against Argentina i only watched the last 30min but in that time i saw a single 5 or six passing string that shows what the boys can do. So i know they have the skill but i only saw it once and it should of been all the time. I only watched as much of the Mexico game as i could stand about 65min i did not catch the German game.
The panel were very non committed on the style of play i noticed not wanting to say too much against vidmar i think.

I can not see angies influence in this style.As for coaches, we need to get the very best for our young players.

Edited by krones3: 26/10/2015 10:21:05 AM

If Korea can beat Brazil, we sure can :d

Do understand what you are saying maybe the difference is at what stage does the performance become very important. To me u17 is performance phase of development, how to win. Using our preferred style of play when possible and if the opponent is capable of effectively stopping us being able to solve the problem with a variation to our style. Lets again not forget who we were playing.

With all that said and understood- we must be able to string together passes and not turnover possession as often as we did.We must have great supporting movement on and off the ball and more collective defence and attack. these are coaching issues.that is regardless of whom we are playing because we will not progress in senior level unless we do.


peter de roo

They have shown moments they have done this, but to do it against quality opponents is another thing.

Agree it could be down to coaching too.