In 2006 the socceroos included Archie,Millsy ,Beauchamp and Wilkshere.
We had a few quality players,but the majority were average on the world stage.
They did not go into the World Cup as the golden generation..They were expected to lose.
Kewell was the only X Factor player.If we had not drawn against Croatia we would not have got out of the group phase and thus would have been no better than any other Socceroo team.
Really apart from having strikers who could score and Kewell ,we weren't that great.We just had more average players playing in overseas leagues.
The golden generation was really Kewell.Without him they weren't.

‘Back in the day everything used to be better’ I hear that a few bit from the older generation whether that’s agreeable is debatable but it does give me a laugh from time to time.

Overall rants don’t help our cause what we need is solutions and real deep understanding of what is going on, why doesn’t he get involved instead and see it for himself instead of taking shots from the sidelines, of course because he’s too good so he’s opinion does make it a little ilrelevent in this case.

Maybe, maybe not.

It's very easy to say the bloke is wrong, to act like an FFA company man and to steer clear of criticism.

Each of us need to be able to consider biases (including our own) and just do our best to evaluate the opinions of others. Rather than simply disliking whoever criticises the current establishment. You call for 'real deep understanding of what is going on'. We're not going to get that without frank criticism. Maybe the bloke is right, at least partially?

@Quicklfick i personally don’t think he knows what is happened with the system, people that I’ve spoken to who are coaches at junior level know what is going on have a much better understanding than someone like Rasic.

Does he have a point, don’t know? It depends if you agree with him with him or not, I personally don’t agree with him.

I much prefer to listen to people who are in the system that can provide solutions as opposed to someone outside of the system who might not be informed with everything what is going on even they make interesting points.

A balanced argument is needed but it depends who in the media talks too and this what concerns me.

If you want things to improve don't just ask yes-men and don't just ask people within the system. That approach will only provide one-sided and convenient answers. And nothing will get better.

A proper appraisal looks at the problem at all levels, liaising with all manner of stakeholders and takes soundings from experts on the inside and on the outside. From there, establish facts from corroborating evidence and try to work out where the ambiguity lies.

This is process in areas where we've done far better than we've ever done in football ;)

@Quickflick I meanted the same thing with the Ron Smith robotic AIS thread.

Maybe the FFA could organise a public forum on all things youth development with past and current players,coaches, TDs, media, volunteers, external influencers from outside of Australia....who is ever has been involved from the past to present and discussion what has happened, why the current is different and what will the future will look like.

It seems everyone has a different opinion whether in or out of the system so maybe there should be a time where everyone can come together and discuss it in a robust way
Youth development needs a whole priority to itself because it means everything else counts for our game.

Just one thing with bias it’s the same with people outside of the system too, they will say something like that because they have an agenda or have some sort of self interest too.

The game in Oz has had too much of it, we need everyone on the same page and that has been a hard task for a quite awhile.

The first step in overcoming a problem is to realise you have a problem.
The truth is Australia has never been a force in football.Not even close .The sooner people stop talking crap about how good things were the sooner we address the problem.
An add hoc system of the past that produced random players of quality was not a system.
Never have we had a football pyramid and until we do ,I cant see us reinventing a development pathway for young footballers to become elite players.
I can't name one country that produces elite players that has done so without a football pyramid system.

Not close? Could have had 3 in the first 30minutes if we had a finisher

He and tiatto.  And Emerton. A joy to watch

So a circle jerk of losers, squibs, non achievers and nobodies and yobs that coach 9 year olds. And then not anyone else  . Yeah , totally sensible 

Like the nong telling us stan Lazaridis wasnt that good just over rated. Unfknblvbl 

Nobody needs to be "a force" to go deep into a world cup anymore. Just beat their matchday opponents at the WC . This is the thing. How long is a "generation " now in world football...5 years....3?

Useless olden day talk. 

would arzani have stood out in the GG era?  maybe he only stands out because of the lack of other attacking options.

He has a nice dribble, very classy feet, we will have to wait and see if he develops, cause atm the drop of the shoulder tactic maybe his one trick  which can be shut down by good defenders once they've had a look at him.  
I sometimes wonder how he'd do in a central role?

With all things subjective (things were better back then vs look how much we’ve improved).....the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

We should learn from the past...take the good things we had and try implement those with what we have now.

I think most can agree that an expanded comp where clubs have academies right the way down to U12’s (like the old NSL days) would vastly improve the development of our tour whilst still maintaining the high standard of coaching education/licensing and curriculum.

mate he has scored 3 goals in his entire career and we're talking about him standing out in a whole generation!

He is the most over hyped player i have EVER seen in Oz. 

I am from those "olden days" and they were not really "Golden" .
I remember the players Rasic speaks of and there were some great players but how well they would have gone in today's game is debatable .
It is a much different game today .

Back then we played a very British style of long ball football and attack at all costs .
It could be fantastic and exciting to watch at times ....but bloody awful at others .
It was very, very physical and an Arzani would be crucified the first time he tried to go around a player .
To put this in perspective...back then tackling from behind was legal ....as long as you got the ball first ...so a winger may get past a back but he could then take you and the ball in one movement , from behind ...and not even be penalised ...let alone yellow carded. There were many many swollen ankles nearly every game back then.
The game is far more technical and tactical now and better to play for skillful players as they have more protection now .
Pitches are 1000% today on what they were back then...even 7th division teams in Brisbane now play on far better pitches than the Socceroos did in the 70's and 80's. (No exaggeration)

There are still "bloody awful games but the overall standard is much higher and less physical now .
I have always thought it is hard to compare different time periods .
I would like to think a good player then would probably be good now as he would have adapted his skills to todays game ....but who knows ? 

My take on how we went in the World Cup 2018 is much simpler than most.
I really think many overthink what is required to do well.
Football is a very simple game .
We were quite competitive under BVM.
We did have many opportunities which for want of better finishing, we could have taken .

In a season long competition talent and class will put you on, or near the top.
However in tournament play,such as a World Cup, a team of "average" but solid  players mixed with one or two match winners can go deep into the Competition.

If we can concentrate on producing some reasonable strikers of our own and then play a good solid compact game as we did in the first two games we could have snuck a couple of decisive winning goals in and gone to the next round ...and for a team sitting at its highest point in some time at 36 in world rankings... that would have been a good World Cup tournament.

We simply need to concentrate heavily on producing young strikers . This will have to be a visible and concentrated effort.
It probably won't help much for Qatar (if we even get there) but it may produce someone for 2026.

Dont just come with problems, not if you are former top level, come with solutions. We fluked some top players despite that lack of system not because of it.
Im old enough to have watched a lot of pre 2006 games and we played a direct hard runnong game. Lazaridis was not rogic weaving through defenders. He was a very fast winger with a decent cross.

I thought we qualified in 2005 in a penalty shoot out to an average Uruguay side who missed some sitters? 

 And then in 2006 got to the second round with one win, one draw and a loss.  The win was a "loss" until the 82nd minute.

We have NEVER been a dominant football nation.

One can only imagine if Forlan was not injured. 

Japan's goal was definitely a foul on Schwarzer though

Not true.

Some of the older players acting as pundits on TV can't admit how the methods we used were responsible for us failing to qualify for WCs. Moreover, many of them display their lack of knowledge of contemporary football when they appear on TV. The counterparts who've pushed contemporary coach education have acquired  new knowledge about modern football tactics.

There is a dichotomy between those former player pundits on TV in Oz. Those who have undertaken FFA coach education demonstrate decidedly more knowledge than those who haven't. Furthermore, the player pundits who've retired recently  have considerably more knowledge than the player pundits who retired  10  - 15 years ago.  

It isn't simply a question of resources. Israel, New Zealand and Iran, probably had similar resources to us when they knocked us out of WCQ campaigns in the 32 years of failure. 

Partially true.

Since we've acquired European powerhouse football methodology, we've definitely had a greater share of possession, and more control of the game, against the same opponents we've always played.




It is interesting that some of the old guard cannot bring themselves to praise current Socceroo teams for;

 improved team structure,

 improved defence starting from the attacking line,

better patterns of play in midfield build ups,  

better modes of communication  between players within the lines and between the lines, 

Improved teamwork with modern Socceroos better at playing as a cohesive unit, with and without the ball.

They focus on one weaker aspect (out a of a myriad of strengths) at any given point in time, then use it to denigrate the entire team and whole game plan. In addition, they use it to argue the methodology from FFA Tech Dept is flawed, when it was designed and imported from the nations whose football we've adulated!



The aforementioned positive qualities and improved facets of play  have been achieved against the best opponents  in world football on the biggest stage - the WC.  Few of the pundit/player/coach/critics ever achieved this in their careers, although Rale coached a team to the WC in 1974.




Yes, we have a huge problem in current attacking interplay and  scoring goals from open play, but it needs to be appraised within a context of the Socceroos having many other strengths. It needs to improve to bring it up to the standard of the standard of the rest of our game.



I've watched the Socceroos since 1973.

We have never had 20 players the calibre of Arzani, and Rogic, in terms of skill on the ball. Apart from Harry Kewell, I don't think we've ever  had any players of their calibre in terms of ball carrying, balance on the ball, acceleration, ability to change pace and 1v1 evasion skills.

Ned Zelic was  a good ball carrier too. Stan Lazaridis was a fast ball carrier. I can't think of too many others though. Maybe Adrian Alston, a Pom who played for Oz, had some of these qualities which he displayed in the 1974 WC.

One also has to evaluate the capabilities and football knowledge of the naysayers who criticise the  current system.

Right back at those incapable of criticising anything in the current system.

Was the golden generation a fluke or due to the development expertise that is currently being ignored?

The nsl obviously had half a dozen players from the golden generation playing there in the late 90s (all of them left by the 90s except chippers who was a late bloomer). The problem was the next 4 years produced dross and before the golden gen there was a lot of dross too particularly in the 80s where the roos were absolutely hopeless 

Seems more to support that it was a fluke since things were very poor before and after

more damning though is when they say that youth today play like robots. Can that really be said of arzani, mcgree, caletti, pasquali, gersbach, atkinson and about 20 other young promising players? They are some of the most creative young aussies I've seen. Now none of that means they will make it. But if they don't make it, its not due to a lack of creativity. So when the old guard claim we are producing robots they really come across as silly and I'm inclined to believe that not only was the GG a fluke that developed independent of their input, but the GG probably bloomed in spite of their input.

In fact this goes for so many of the old guards criticisms. Now thats not to say there aren't problems with the new curriculum, but it definitely seems the old guard lack the skills to propose any sensible improvements

Shh. Stop looking at history objectively and put on these rose tinted glasses.

The closest and most accurate account of the situation lies here in Crims comments.

Further, the golden generation had far more more opportunity through overseas clubs.and federations having less restrictions importing foreign players at the time.

Is there a review process for the NC? It has been 9 years and i was wondering if it gets tweeked and if so who by and how often? 
This WC has shown that football evolves and it seems that there always should be room for improvement 

well I'd say kewell viduka and cahill were the golden gen so 3 players

unfortunately dukes didn't score frequently for the roos (but contributed in a lot of other ways)