And now a centre back takes on his man very clumsily, gets pick pocketed and their striker (who's been very good) rounds Delianov to score.
Hopeless defending. 
Socceroos better hope some kids kick on from somewhere or else it might get very difficult to qualify for the world cup over the next decade 

That was Pasquali and he didn't take anyone on, he just decided to look down at the ball and get robbed.

Saudi Arabia: 25 shots, 12 on target
Australia: 9 shots, 3 on target

I'm beginning to think the exciting to watch, effective, dynamic Young Socceroos theory is actually a myth.

The year is 2035. We have put in 1,000,000 crosses, aaaaannnd still haven't successfully managed to get it to a teammate.

Seriously though, is it the players or the coaching staff? why do we suck at U20 and U23 level.

Maybe its the curriculum? Maybe its the culture? Your guess is as good as mine.

Our opponents were faster (much), stronger, more skilful and smarter than us. Man for man. How are we so far behind the rest of Asia? It was boys versus men out there. 

We need a second division so these boys can get some proper gametime. It's incredibly obvious that playing in the NPL2 in NSW or VIC isn't good enough to do well on the international stage. 

A lot of the promising young names in this squad did better than the rest. They all need more matches and will hopefully develop well over the next 2 years.

Yet again Milicic shows he can't cut it against the bigger Asian powerhouse. Ok against minnows
Has fails with the Olyroos and now the young Roos. The only mitigation is that there were multiple injuries to key players and a few were not allowed to play by their clubs.

I think Milicic is at least part of the problem. When has he ever got the most out of a squad? He just doesn't seem to be a very good coach. Plus he seems much happier living in Croatia, which isn't exactly an ideal situation for an Australian youth coach. I'd be content if he got the sack from Australian football altogether. He can try coaching the Croatian boys, since that's where his heart is. 

It's painful losing to the worst country in the world. I think I absolutely despise Saudi Arabia as a nation. 

i think ive seen enough to realize that future Australia teams is going to be the Mr. Satan of Asian Football.



like, say if North Korea scores against us, we'll just say "its to make things more exciting for our fans"

we aussies love to talk about a brand of football that excites fans, yet im not feeling the hype. why? we're getting our butts kicked.

we cant seem to attack and if we do, we'll just cough it up anyway.

Please tell me im overreacting...

When will Milicic begin to be held accountable? Haven’t heard much negative sentiment towards him ever really.

The coaching may be the problem, but were we not missing our best player all tournament in Arzani? 

Kind of hard to replace a player at this level like that. 

The ball played to him from the keeper was a straight ball.

This is a very bad decision, because he can only receive with an effective body shape to pass  bounce pass backwards.

Young players make mistakes, but this was a shocker from the keeper.

Maybe the players are out of season, but Australia looked less fit  than the other teams - certainly Saudi.

Didn't realise this was true?

What portion of the time does he live in Croatia?

I have nothing against where he chooses to live, as I'd prefer to live in some Greek Islands like Sifnos, Paros and Naxos,  or the Lot Valley in France, than inner city Melbourne and Sydney. If he is the Aussie youth coach though, he needs to live here.

I haven't been to Croatia, but many friends and family have. I've seen enough photos and TV programs to see that coastal Croatia is as attractive as anywhere.

Although this is a small issue, on TV Milicic lacks the analytical ability and attention to detail  other coaches I've seen as guest commentators at his level.

A team can't just rely on one player though.

I haven't read a lot of the build up to this event about availability of players, but I hope there were a lot of players of this age unavailable for this tournament.

Successful HAL players like McGree and Josh Hope are close to this age group.

The defence was a problem as the whole team unit. Pressing and squeezing  in BPO starts from  the front.

 In the HAL at senior level, local Aussie coaches, and the overseas appointed coaches, German, Dutch, Englishman Joyce usually coach this very, very well.

The Aussie defensive midfield screeners, didn't break up Saudi attacks very  effectively, individually, and as part of a collective unit.

Another  issue was the lack of ability of defenders to win the clear majority of second balls, high balls, muscle on muscle  1v1s against the Saudi opposition.

At senior level, the likes of Sains, Milligan,  Jason Davidson, Spira, Jedi, Mooy, Degenek, Jurman, Wright win many more of these duels than they lose.

The major reason  the aforementioned  lose  them is  a player running towards them with the ball at their feet and being dribbled around, or outpaced.

I've missed this.

Which players were deemed ineligible to play besides Arzani?

When one scrutinises players from the past who were shaping up to be great players at 18- 19, many looked like world beaters at this age and faded or stagnated as they aged.

Think Kristian Sarkies, Kaz Patafta, Seb Ryall, Leigh Broxham, Stu Musalik, A Elrich, et al.

From this current Aussie cohort, how many are even pro players, or in pro youth set ups?

I'm not sure I recognised anyone outside Atkinson.

Do our opposition spend more time together as team units, because the majority of their  players  play in the country, and not in Europe? Hence,  it is difficult to assemble domestic and overseas players.

Apart from China, no other Asian country has to assemble a national team over such great distances.

The curriculum is predicated on top European powerhouses's methodology - without the money.

haha great example Mr Satan 

I thought we lacked conditioning too.

There is an issue of overage the cheating at underage tournaments too.

This has constantly been raised at FFA coach education workshops. Just google it.

We never have camps together, we never play together. To me its so obvious that our junior teams don't play enough senior football but also as a junior squad actually never get together to gel. That's what I noticed from this tournament. Other teams it's so easy to do and cheaper. As always with Aussie football it's a cost and travel thing. 

It's a known fact that our youth teams spend far less time together than other Asian teams. They'll have a one week camp together before a tournament, then we'll hear during the tournament that our opponents spend months together as a team multiple times a year.

 Lebo Roo and Maxxie, if this scenario is axiomatic, our  youth teams are always going to struggle in tournaments.

Tactics - pressing and squeezing in BPO, cohesion, communication, the four main moments, attacking interplay, etc, are always going to to value add to teams training together   a lot, if they are reasonably well coached.  

Delianov looked out of his depth. He shouldn't be the GK going forward.
And Pasquali gets turned over in the defensive half from a pass from Delianov for the third goal.
Playing f***ing Ange Ball. When will they ever learn?

#MilicicOut

Didn't watch last night, but watched them the other night against Jordan I think it was. Made the comment a few pages back that it looked like most our team didn't look they even knew the man beside them, let alone played together before.

Be interesting to see how many of the other nations have players that don't play domestically?? I'd imagine almost all, bar maybe some Korean and Japanese players, are mainly based within their own country.

Meanwhile Arzani rots in Glasgow, getting no game time at all...

I saw in this tournament the issue wasn't a technical one as much as it did last night but how crucial was the physical and tactical side of the game at this level.

Preparation is really crucial as well, this team was hardly prepared well and it showed on the pitch in most lengths especially in the last two games.

Along with the physical differences the players had struggled with its vital going forward that they play as many games of possible so they have the physical capacity to perform at a higher level, we have to remember apart from Folami and Pasquali most of these boys are still in pre-season mode and contrast to the other teams they are likely in season and the level of fitness was showing here.

However just isolating this game alone they were getting torn apart out wide, the fullbacks struggled alot against there wingers who were bloody quick and elusive and the midfield and center backs struggled in the physical side of the Saudi's pressing which i would have not said this 10 years ago (flip side this from before and that was our strength but we struggled technically now its almost gone to the opposite). and often than not were forced long or turned it over Pasquali was a casualty in this especially in the 3rd goal.

The big difference in this game was the level of physical pressure the Saudi's could do and Australia's struggled to keep up with them, forget the technical side of the game without that you would sitting like lame ducks.
Insane level of conditioning and physical effort.

At least there were some positive moments, Folami looks outstanding like Arzani he also has fantastic 1v1 skills but lacks the final ball but has a great game about him, Thurgate was good in the first games, Delianov was excellent too, a shame we did not see enough of Najjarine he also has got great creative qualities but i guess its a consequence of lack of physical conditioning for this kind of tournament.

Disappointing to fall just short but the experience the players and coaches got was vital going forward, i wonder how good the team could have been if they had a full contingent to work with but now we could speculate that with the Olyroos from now on.

To be fair the Joeys qualified in these similar circumstances but they did not fall off physically or get physically beaten up like what Saudi Arabia and previously Jordan did to Australia.

But its a problem for all youth teams regardless of this.  

Preparation and game volume is key just like the Socceroos, can't expect to do well all the time without it.