O'doherty for Mcgree

Alot of tired players out there, understandably - high tempo all game, the conditions, choppy, muddy pitch and heavy, moist tropical air. Not one player whose shirt isn't soaked through!

Izzo...

Oh boy Blackwood and Kamau, just not quite sharp enough. Commentator wrong, he said Popovic but that was Blackwood stuck on the ball in the box, I think.

From a ground-level camera shot - Blackwood looks a giant compared to some of their players!

Credit to Myanmar - 87 mins in, they aren't no Mid-East side, giving up and throwing the toys - still pushing for a positive finish!

Nice work in the box by Nigro or whoever that was! Play had almost broken down, but nice feet and shot off considering!

Which of these players will be getting a lot first team action this season?
Izzo should as Adelaide's number 1.
Probably Aspro for Western Sydney, Jackson for the Jets.
Nigro I am not sure, Cowburn probably not.
Will Caletti start much for Brisbane?
McGree probably not, Mauk might be coming back to the A-leauge but otherwise probably not.
Blackwood will be behind Baba at Adelaide
Sotiro not a starter.
Kamau should at City
O'Doherty might play quite a bit for Adelaide depending the rest of the recruiting
Deng and Tongyik might start a reasonable amount, but might not either
Wilson probably will continue to get time at Perth
Not sure about Clut. Baccus and Aranzi probably not.
Buhagiar probably decent time for CCM
Scott probably not much time.

They're tried hard Myanmar - we're just too good, better Athletes, organisation and skilled players like Kamau etc.. They had good crowd support and played till the end, credit to them and their fans.

Yay, we're through to the 2018 AFC Under 23 Championship, January 2018.

Popa's touches were absolute class when he came on. Cap him.

Job was done, second half different to the first as Myanmar pressed higher up and almost capitalised thanks to Paul Izzo he isn't Manuel Neuer put it this way...

Kamau MOTM, Popovic looks like an interesting talent he has great feet.

Good work Gombau too, he will make this team better

Its refreshing to see this compared to the rigid style the olyroos had under Vidmar

I have no idea what Nigro has to do to get decent game time, he was unreal in his first few games at victory 

Most of these guys should be getting decent game time. They're no worse than the journeymen being recycled 

Scott is direct back-up to their marquee - I think he's a chance for action, given how Poppa rotates his teams and any injuries or squad change-ups. Then again, Abraham Majok was the one to get a run-out against Arsenal and also looks an interesting prospect.

Deng and Tongyik should both see more than less football. Tongyik rose to be the first-choice partner to Jacobsen at CB with City. Deng has all-but proven himself with Muscat's Victory before and with a good pre-season and no Baro at the club, he will be a chance to slot straight back in.

Arzani featured more in this tournament than I expected and even his just making the squad, despite being a full 4 years younger than the 1995 age-limit, shows the faith the set-up have in his development thus far. If he keeps up a good pre-season, then no reason why the new City coach shouldn't take a liking to him either. Especially as the new City coach is Warren Joyce who is best known for bring through top young talents at Man Utd. So that bodes well for Arzani, Tongyik, Genreau, Pierias and others too.

Blackwood will benefit from his move and being primary deputy to Diawara will only help him and he'll likely see more minutes as a deputy at AU than he did as a third-choice at SFC.

Caletti will definitely feature more. He impressed Aloisi in his stints last season, including at ACL level and even at this level, he's shown he well belongs.

Nigro is a good talent and did well this tournament and clearly Muscat has faith in his talents as he was the manager who promoted him. He has more physical development now to manage the big and experience attacking threats in the A-League. Georgevski has left too, so that leaves an opening in the rotation.

Aspro is an impressive player and I see now why Poppa is such a fan. No doubt he's amongst his primary two CB options. The thing with Tongyik, Nigro and Aspro, as too Kamau, Sotirio, Mauk, Izzo and Cowburn - they are talents born before January, 1997 so in a way we can care a little less about their progress, not only because they'd be too old to be directly eligible for the Tokyo 2020 campaign, but also because they're already more established in the A-League.

It's the younger talents like Deng, Buhagiar, Blackwood, Wilson, Caletti, Arzani, McGree, O'Doherty, Scott, Keanu Baccus, Milislav Popovic, Thomas Glover and the others of Tokyo 2020 eligible age about this squad, who are the ones we need to watch and hope they progress much further to strengthen our pool for the Tokyo 2020 campaign and right the failures of the 2012 and 2016 campaigns. We can look forward to Gersbach, De Silva, Armenakas, Aiden O'Neill, Cleur, Brimmer, Liam Rose, Johnny Koutroumbis, Abraham Majok and many others rising up to join them.

Absolutely Barca. It's clear to see already, despite the standard of opponents, that the style of play has evolved for the better and Gombau has brought that fluidity and movement in his tactical approach to the Olyroos. The under-23 team was in dire need of this after the moribund stagnation under Viddie, who really should have departed from the role after the 2012 failure. And a few of us suspect that Gombau is amongst the leading candidates to succeed Ange or should be, if it's a promotion from within. But IF he does, the Olyroos set-up will miss him! It would be nice if the Socceroos manager could manage both and was surprise Ange wasn't given dual-roles, but I suppose in this day and age, long are gone of the days like when Philip Troussier took charge of Japan's NT's at all age levels! That was some 15 years or so ago now.

If Ange can't 'quite' be our Philip Troussier in terms of roles taken on, perhaps Gombau could be?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Troussier#Move_to_Asia

Having to use a translator, he struggled to get what he wanted from the players as they were knocked out of the 1999 Copa América1999 Copa América within the group stages.[11][11] The disappointing performance within the tournament gathered a negative reaction from the Japanese media, which saw Troussier go for a more youthful approach and take the reins of the under-20 teamunder-20 team as they participated in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship1999 FIFA World Youth Championship.[12][12] The Japanese teamhad a successful campaign and were runners-up within the tournament. He continued to take control of Japan's youth teams when he managed the under-23 teamunder-23 team in the 2000 Summer Olympics2000 Summer Olympics and led them to the quarter-finals.[13][13] The majority of that team would then go on to be called up to the 2000 AFC Asian Cup2000 AFC Asian Cup and win the tournament.[14][14] With this success, Troussier went into the 2002 FIFA World Cup with confidence and led Japan to the final 16, making it at the time Japan's best ever finish within the competition.[15][15]

Well with Georgievski moving on, and no replacement in sight (at this stage anyway) it's possible he may be able to snag the leftback role. I agree it has been frustrating not seeing him play, but as things stood over the last few seasons we had better options available (with the possible exception of Geria, but I think Muscat prefers Geria's superior athleticism at right back). However, there is an opening now, so hopefully he takes it.

I wonder who can come into the team and make it stronger?

Can only think we need a better GK and not Izzo, someone like Glover or Jordan Holmes

We need Gersbach at left back as Nigro offers better balance at right back, Cam Burgess and Rowles as alternatives at the centre back.

In Midfield is where we have a lot of players to choose from and given there are 3 options starting and 3 or 4 at the bench this will become a challenge, either stick to the current team or bring in someone new that might help with balance or extra attacking impetus. i.e Liam Rose, Kalik, O'Neill, Lyden, Brimmer, and maybe a couple of unknowns? A lot of depth.

And in the front 3 is also good except up front as im still not convinced with Blackwood and Scott, although Popovic looks like an interesting prospect, on the wings, Kamau and Buhagiar did really well and Sotirio surprisingly did ok although i would i see to some other alternatives, and Arzani looked promising too.
The likes of Armenakas, Ikon, Mabil, Deni Juric, Hrustic should all be considered if they can be available.

But the key in all of this is Gombau, if he can get the best out of every single player and fit them into his system of play i think we can give this a good shake.

Thoughts on the depth? 

Something like this could be interesting.

                        Glover
Nigro(Cowburn)  Aspro(Tongyik)  Burgess(Jackson)   Gersbach
                  Caletti( O'Neill)
           Mauk(Kalik)     McGree(Brimmer)
Kamau(Buhagiar)                 Arzani(Panos)
                    Popovic(Deni Juric?)

What more did Denis Genreau have to do to get a look into this squad, I rate him very highly as a deep lying playmaker. Very similar player to Mooy.

Chris Zuvela from FC really stands out as a prospect, he was one of the few players who looked up for it against Arsenal. he is a 97 born player as well.

The talk from some Melbourne City fans I know is that he's been impressing in pre-season with the first team and will be seeing A-League gametime apparently. Perhaps they decided to leave him out so he can focus on his club? He's only 18 so he'll have plenty of time to get into the team.

If every player here got regular senior game-time from this season onwards I'd be very happy about the future of the national team at senior level.

Goalkeepers? All sorted thanks to Ryan, Langerak, and Vukovic. Holmes, Margush, and Maynard-Brewer are ones to watch out for.
RB? Can be filled by Nigro, Cleur, or Leckie as a RWB. Melbourne City's Dylan Pierias is an interesting prospect especially if he starts getting regular senior gametime.
CB? Aspro, Tongyik, Deng, and Burgess are all under 21, and Sainsbury and Spiranovic still have a few good years left if they can sort out their club situations.
LB? Gersbach is first choice across all age groups at the moment, and we've got plenty of cover in this position.
DM? Caletti, O'Neill, and Genreau are looking like future options, and we've got Mooy for a few more years.
CM? McGree, Mauk, Kalik, Antonis, are all options, and this is already a well-covered position.
AM? Arzani and Brook are two great prospects, and of course Rogic is only 24 so he'll be around for years to come.
Wingers? Kamau, Buhagiar, Armenakas, Mabil, Borrello, Hrustic, and Ikonomidis are all under 23 and either playing regularly or in Europe already.
Strikers/Centre-fowards? Juric still has many years in him, and his younger brother is a prospect too. Popovic has been the standout of this group, and Reno Piscopo is full of potential too. This is still our weakest position unfortunately, but as nations like Germany and Spain have shown it's possible to be successful without lots of prolific strikers.

So overall, I'm optimistic about the future.

Watching Sotirio last night, I was very impressed. I think Gombwow is working his magic.So far I believe we have had an on par game and a little bit above pay game against Myanmar.

I caught none of the U23 games sadly - did the team look like a cohesive unit?

Agree plus throw in also Amini, Yeboah( i still have hope for him), J-Mac and Borello in Germany, and of course the player we all got excited about a couple years ago in Daniel De Silva there is no doubt good enough talents coming through, but like anything else with players its about quality game time,if they can this generation can carry from 2018 and beyond.

Its not all black and white as it made out to be....

Show's the difference a quality manager makes. Gombau is above this level.

Reallyyyy hope he's Ange's replacement for the Socceroos.

Managed to get a replay of the whole game via stream a few hours ago.

Watched 30 min, dashed out. Got back and the stream and youtube now only shows highlights!

Myanmar played a half press, not really trying to win the ball until their half in those 30 min. Oz dictated terms and made far less mistakes than the under 15s.

Having said this, the Oz defenders had a lot of time and space and little pressure from Myanmar on the ball in the first 30 min.

Blackwood has suffered by playing little HAL football last season.

At senior level Vidmar got AU to the Asian Champ League final.

Gombau's best was about 5th in the HAL.

Looking ahead to some "interesting" fixtures for the youth teams, we have qualification to the AFC U19 Championship (of which the top four qualify for the 2019 U20 World Cup) in November. Our opponents are Northern Mariana Islands, Hong Kong, and North Korea. The host country is yet to be decided.
I'd like to see us host our group, so we can play in an environment and conditions which we are familiar with rather than having to travel to saunas on the equator or long flights to faraway countries in Asia.

I'm curious what kind of squad we will select for qualifying, considering our opponents are about as easy as they come. No disrespect but a couple of those games have potential to be cricket scores. Northern Mariana Islands in particular are one of the worst national teams in the world and their last results include losing 14-0 to Hong Kong and 18-0 to Chinese Taipei (!!!).

This will be an interesting squad as it will be 99 born or younger competing. I was at the ntc challenge a few years back that see these boys compete. There are some very good lads in this age group. 

Vidmar in the last 2 campaigns(2012 and 2016) with the Olyroos have been nothing short of disastrous, Gombau won the FFA Cup whilst in the process did it playing the best football in the competition.

We always have had good ingredients(players) but often we have had bad chefs(coaches) when it comes to our under age teams. 

This is a stupid post, Gombau is much more than just a coach who got Adelaide to the finals.

Gombau is a great mentor for the young players to learn from, he has an exciting approach to Football. Which will only benefit the development of our players.

I agree
I generally enjoy Decentrics posts but this one is way off
for one thing its factually incorrect AU came 3rd underneath Gumbao in 14/15 season. They also played some very nice football and the individuals seemed to improve a lot under him. He coached a weak team on paper and did very well