I haven't watched the entire  replay yet, but it is our greatest performance on the biggest stage - the World Cup tournament.

Serbia have been our biggest scalp in the World Cup. I don't think Pim ever received the recognition he deserved in Australia for that victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQh9Rd0WLqg

Argentina vs. Australia | USA '94 | FIFA World Cup Play-Off *2ND LEG*

Shit version though.

Better version but not English commentary.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXxgP6Hr5Ik

thanks! Will add!

One poster said to me off forum after viewing some of the older videos, how much better some of the old GG were in winning the ball back after losing it, than keeping the ball when we had it.

An astute observation!

Baan and Berger identified exactly the same phenomenon. They were the progenitors of a curriculum designed to improve us as footballers. They advanced we had to work very hard ( too hard) to keep the ball in possession before their TD tenures. 

In the past we had been known, like the USA, more as football athletes than footballers.

 

Interesting description and valid.
Barring the exceptions we're still more athletes than footballers imo.....
How many games do we actually dominate for thats "footballers" as in a squad all over the park with the ability to dominate.

Interesting re GG winning back ball better mention, was it some read the game better ? was it jumping in sooner than compared to todays backing off don't lunge in or commit make them play backwards ?

The past pre GG we were very aggressive, other NT's knew they got kicked off the park if poss, hence description athletes for eg, maybe the GG had both.
Look at Moore for eg compared to Sains, who's likely to take ball and all at critical times more than not.
Grella in the mid compared to current - who's got the grunt like he had.
Bresh had his aggro.
Current Boyle is by far the most aggro followed by Irvine.
Athletes or footballers, individually is one thing and as a unit is another good point of discussion.

What a fantastic thread this is!

Having a look at the France/Aus friendly in the early stanza of the game played at the MCG just before the WC play off against Uruguay in 2001, a few things stood out for me.

* Harry Kewell was at his peak. For possibly the only time in history Australia had a world class player.

* This superb manifestation of WC and European champs, France, was playing the modern possession football  former Socceroos presenting at Football Aus national conferences stated  they so desperately wanted Aus to play. 

* Our inability to disturb build ups of this quality, through mediocre  defensive game plans and mediocre  organisation in Ball Possession Opposition, stood out. Take a look at Aus under Bert VM, playing  against France in Russia 2018 in comparison.
Both French teams we played against  in the 2001 friendly, and Russia 2018, were world champs. Our defensive organisation and structure has improved immeasurably since 2001. Nearly every ball won seemed to be through a desperate Aussie tackle in 2001.
The 2018 Socceroo version against France in the Russian WC, could break up French attacks by cohesive and well- organised  defensive  structure. Intercepts were made, and turnovers were created from forcing French mistakes in 2018.  

* When Aus  gained possession of the ball in the 2001 game , the off the ball running and positioning  of players to support the ball carrier was slow to occur, haphazard and ad hoc. The Socceroos'  game plan seemed to be 'just give the ball to Harry' at the time. He was well marked by the French. Playing Australia at that time was like playing Harry and his 9 less talented outfield teammates.

* What a huge  crowd at  the MCG. Why has their support for the current Socceroos declined?

Current Socceroo teams are far more disciplined.

Grella was a terrific player, but conceded a lot of fouls in dangerous positions and collected too many cards. He sometimes didn't track players as well as he could either.  Vinnie is an all time all time favourite of mine though. Great all rounder - terrific ball winner, good distrubutor, and able to rapid-fire pass and  move effectively in tight spaces. Jedi and Millsy were  just as rugged in ball winning as Vinnie, but calmer with refs.

You've been listening to the anti-intellectual pundit Luke Wilkshire too much, LFC!

ATM  Irvine is probably closest to Vinnie's role, but  the barely capped Stensness and Devlin,  are now the hard men Socceroo DM ball winners.

Duke and Leckie dish out plenty of physicality in attack too.


Always think of Bresc as a gentlemanly type of footballer, but an exceptional technician by Aus standards. Unlike his great mate, Vinnie, who was volatile and very aggressive, he didn't protest much about being roughed up.

Best thread ever !!!

ofcourse current Roos more disciplined, thats the game today period generally.

A player as Grella is hardly perfect, for any of his negatives quoted I agree his positives out weigh them for me.
You need that kind of player int he mids, like Fabinho at LFC, gems.
As I posted the mention of Irvine, he's just no where near Grella's overall quality.

Yer Duke/Leckie's mention putting in some agression but overall lacking the IT factor in attacking positions.

Only read 1 article of Luke W's FYI D2, I'm my own pundit rightly or wrongly :)

Bresch was all class agreed but he did dig in now and then when fired up.

Looking at Moore playing against France in the 2001 friendly at the MCG just before the knock out WCQs against the Kiwis and Uruguay,  a couple of times he made very good tackles at the correct time.

 However, that  Socceroos team lacked good shape  in BPO. Often there were 3 Socceroo players swarming on 1 French player, with second and third defenders supporting the Aussie challenger,  when at most a second defender was needed.  This led to  space being created for  France behind the Aussie players.

Henceforth, holes would be left further back in the Aussie defence. Again there were too many high risk, last resort challenges from the Socceroos, with a  high probability of conceding a foul in a dangerous area.

 Not enough clever, disciplined jockeying, showing and delaying was on show from the Socceroos. I'm not sure what this generation of Socceroos were doing at club level, but the organisation at this level of  international football was poor at times. Farina was struggling to coach effectively at this level.

As for  Sains ( I started another thread on him as he has played virtually no club football over his entire career), he is possibly calmer than Moore and has more composure, certainly  at his best around the 2015 Asian Cup. However, Moore was a more constant performer for the Socceroo over time, because of Sains playing so little club football and losing his match sharpness. 

Sains is a better distributor than Moore too. Although  Arnie's son in law Socceroo form declined from playing so little club football at stages of his career 2017-21.

I'm starting to think that Arnie played favourites with his son in law Sains. Whether  Degenek, Souttar, Rowles, Wright, Good, should have played instead, given Sains has played so little club football for long periods in his career, is a matter for debate.

Ange and Bert VM have also chosen Sains, despite him playing little club football too.

Again when we look at the France v Aus game in  2001 at the MCG, France were playing very neat, high quality football in Ball Possession. They were effective building up wide and through the centre.

They held that 4-4-2 diamond midfield very effectively in Ball Possession too. The French players were constantly receiving with effective body shape to play forwards as they received diagonal balls from their inherent  triangles and diamonds created in the 4-4-2 diamond shaped midfield  formation. Zidane was incredible , as he received so many balls under tight  Socceroo marking, but was still able to play forwards to team-mates. This kept  the French build up progressing forwards. 

In BPO France also struggled, like Australia, at times ,compared to teams another four or five years on from that era. They also looked ragged and lost defensive shape and structure against the 2001 Socceroos.

Whether the full press, half press, partial press and squeezing era, conceived by Victor Maslov, Rinus Michels and Valery Lobanovski, had commenced in this era I'm not sure? However, France's play  in possession  as an attacking team unit was superior to their  performance  as a team defensive unit. Their play in Ball Possession was good for a team of any era .

 Australia's most effective build up mode was  swarming with accelerated attacks in Socceroo Ball Possession. There were   few Aussie patient systematic build ups,  with the creation of triangles and diamonds in the Aussie build ups, and Aussie players receiving diagonal balls to keep playing forwards. 

Also, Australia was reluctant to play backwards, unlike France, if they were under pressure. This caused  too many  turnovers. The build ups  from Aus were rarely patient. The Socceroos rarely changed the rhythm of the game. Ball carriers were not really thinking about taking up  optimum passing options in creating passing lanes a little before their teammates received the ball either. There wasn't enough planned thought in build ups.

I was also surprised to see so any Aussie straight balls played up the pitch? Players have to turn blind or simply play a backwards bounce pass, or be told 'man on' or 'turn' by the player passing the ball to them closer to the Aussie defensive goals - if they are receiving straight balls.

A further observation, was in BPO, both Skoko and Okon were almost luxury players as central midfielders. They made a lot of desperate lunging last resort  tackles, and didn't pick up the all important intercepts of later Golden Generation players  in the 2006-9 era, like Grella, Culina and Valeri did. Skokes and Okon struggled to disturb French build ups.

Even later, Milligan and Jedi, made more intercepts from effective reading of play,breaking up opposition build ups, much more than the likes of Skoko and Okon did against France.

A further issue in the French game in 2001, is there was no apparent difference in Ball Possession and Ball Possession Opposition team shape. More modern manifestations of the Socceroos tend to  spread the field wide creating maximum width and depth in Ball Possession, whilst making the team shape, smaller and more compact in Ball Possession Opposition.

In the French 2001 game , Dukes held the ball up well a few times, but  didn't  contribute much else. Certainly none of the aggressive closing down done by Brosque, Duke, Boyle and  Leckie, or Ikon in the 2019 Asian Cup, later on. Both  Emerton and Kewell caused a few handy turnovers against France in 2001 though. Dukes also didn't check enough to shake his markers, hence , created insufficient  space.

Kewell was a real  menace and threat to the high quality France throughout the game. His ball carrying, and 1v1 dribbling skills were really good. Emo was also effective at times in these areas.  I reiterate, it is a real shame that the Kewell of  1997 -2003, at his best, wasn't playing like this when Australia had the opportunity to play a lot more meaningful  fixtures in WCQing and Asian Cup Qualifying campaigns.

Another  massive difference was how poor Schwarzer was with  his feet with the ball on the deck,  compared to the modern Ryan who  plays as Socceroo  sweeper.

He is also a current Ten TV football pundit.

Fantastic thread!

Don't suppose anyone knows where to find the Aus v Chile Confeds cup game from 2017? Peak Angeball with the roos apparently.

I've seen a 12 minute highlights vid on youtube but thats all I can find.

I can't access quite a few games in the 2006 and 2010 WC. I have an older Mac with an upgraded operating system.


Nevertheless, thought I'd watch a few minutes of Aus v Uruguay in Sydney, 2005 WCQ. I ended up watching 65 minutes and going to bed at 1pm, it was so interesting!

* Uruguay 2005 was a really physical,  roughhouse side. They played a lot of direct high ball, long ball  football. The Spanish referee struggled for control and should have given a a lot more early yellow cards. It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of experienced refs, like Muz, on this. The Peru we played in Qatar were a much more technical side. 

*They targeted the tall  Morales with quick lofted balls to nod on. The roughhouse stuff suited Australia - Dukes, Emo, Kewell, Grella (in particular), Neill, Vidmar, Chippers and Cahill thrived on it!

*In the first half in particular, Socceroos also played a lot of direct, play forwards at every opportunity, style football.

*In the second half, Australia  became a bit more patient in the build ups from the back, but compared to Pim's era in the WCQs post Aug 2008, Socceroos have built up much more slowly and patiently since 2008.

* There was hardly any play where a foul and subsequent free kick, a ball  was put of play for a throw in, a goal kick or corner, seemed to occur every 30 seconds of playing the first half! It was like an egg ball contest!

When I watched football prior to August 2008, I hadn't undertaken any Advanced Coaching courses. Hence, I had much lower critical level at the time in terms of analysing football. It has been interesting viewing games prior to August 2008, with a different critical level.

* Few Socceroos from this era should beat the pulpit about how good they were in terms of Socceroo performances - based on this game. Having said this, the 2005 Socceroos had improved immeasurably  compared to the Socceroo  teams prior. The number of mistakes in Ball Possession, conceding so many turnovers, was pretty appalling. At the same time, fans might like this style of football more, as there were so many more physical clashes in transitional play, because both teams in this game battled to win so many 50/50 challenges. The  French team we played in 2001 just before the Uruguay play offs, was a far more sophisticated and technical team. They were superb at keeping the ball and advancing forwards in their build patient build ups.

* It was good to view this game to see a few Socceroos playing at their peaks. Unfortunately, our memories of many players tend to be just before they retire and some are a shadow of themselves at their  peaks.

* I think our current Arnie coached Socceroos are an infinitely superior, cohesive team unit to Guus's team that played Uruguay. However,  a number of individuals taken out of Guus's team, would  have infinitely strengthened Arnie's current 2022 team if just that one player joined the current cohesive, well organised unit.
For example:
If Grella of 2005 replaced Irvine as DM. 
If Cahill of 2005 ( of course he improved as an international footballing goalscorer after 2005) replaced any of our current central strikers.
If Kewell of 2005 replaced Leckie at left wing. Kewell of 1997-2005 is our best  international player we've produced, but unfortunately Harry hardly ever played for the Socceroos in his peak.
If Culina of 2005 ( he probably played as well and better than this for some time after 2005) replaced Irvine at DM.
If Neill of 2005 replaced Wright at CB.

The biggest difference would be replacing the 2022 Leckie (in any period where he  has played) with the 2005 manifestation of Kewell.



















 

Going back to the Sydney/Uruguay WCQ elimination game a few players were at their peak.

* Grella
- I could not get over how mobile he was. Grella covered a lot of ground screening, as did Culina. Both of these players had really quick handling speed - the amount of time taken to receive  the ball and pass it on. A few years later, after injury,  Vince lost this mobility. Hence, he mistimed a lot of tackles and conceded free kicks in dangerous areas  later in his Socceroo career.
 
 In 2005/6 his timing was better and he won a lot of hard balls (high risk).  To be pedantic  his  slide tackling could be off the wrong foot, achieving worse body shape - not using both feet like Mooy, and to a lesser extent, Milligan. At times he could have slide tackled with his left foot rather than his right, when players tried to dribble past him on his left side.

 Grella  passed very well over range, with both feet.  Vince also had terrific vision, knowing where he was going to play the ball  before he received it. His rapid fire passing and moving, with Culina, was good to watch - and effective. This was  in a team where few others,  besides Bresc,   did this regularly in their club football. Nowadays, Mooy, Hrustic, Behich, Rogic, Sains, Rowles, Maclaren  previously Milligan, Brosque, Holman, McKay, have excelled in this facet of football. Vince was  such a two side of the body player  too.  He was easier to pass to than most of this teammates.

Grella, also with Culina, closed down space quickly in the central areas in  front of the defensive line. This caused a lot of opposition turnovers with them disturbing build ups - and- they made timely intercepts.

*Neill-
The 2005 manifestation of Neill in Uruguay v Aus, was a very good  CB. He had superb judgement in knowing when to tackle and when to jockey. Neill won a lot of hard balls. His  heading ability faded later in his career, when he left heading duels to Ogger.
In 2005, he was a better header of the ball. His distribution was good in the Uruguay game, but players in front of him didn't move as well off the ball in opening angled, diagonal  passing lanes  as the Socceroos did about 3 years later an onwards. His defensive  positioning was good too.  Neill really lost his ball winning abilities in  his latter games for the Socceroos, but his distrubution kept improving ( a common phenomenon).

* Kewell
Kewell was so good in the 1997 - 2005 era, exemplified in this Uruguay game. Whereas most of his Socceroo teammates  need to play a  diagonal  ball, so the average receiver faces forwards to continue build ups,  straighter balls could be played in  Harry's general direction and he would often win them regardless of who and what body position they had trying to defend against him!  
Harry had great speed and acceleration  over the turf, excellent 1v1 body swerves, terrific balance and changes of pace  when running with the ball, a great deal of physical strength, plus a silky first touch when receiving even at top speed. This   resulted in  a consistent  supply of crosses and passes into the box.  Kewell of this era was a  constant menace to any opposition on the left wing.
Moreover, defensively, he tracked back well, closed down opposition  space well forcing turnovers , tackled effectively, outmuscled opponents  culminating in him flattening Uruguay bully boy Diego Legano!

I must look at this trio's club careers to see what occurred from 2005 onwards. I think this trio were probably  our three top players in 2005.

  

https://www.facebook.com/myworldisround/videos/1065726607390035/

I've gone right back to 1993 WCQ game against Argentina in Australia.

I'm up to about the 65th minute mark of the game, but I'm astonished at what I've found.

*The Iran team we played in 1997 at the 1997 WCQ game at the MCG, had quite a weak last line in their defence when we had the ball. Yet their Squeezing, which was a bit haphazard to call it that, or more  correctly their closing down of the ball in midfield and the attacking line in BPO, was far superior to Argentina's in 1993!

Hence, the 1993 Socceroos playing against Argentina, had more opportunity to play through the lines, building up from the back to the front. Argentina gave them more time and space with languid Squeezing pressure. At the same time, Argentina's last  line of defence was much better than Iran's last line, and they were relatively effective at preventing Aussie  shots on goal.

* Another conclusion is that the 1993 Socceroo team was playing better and more cohesively as a team unit, coached by Eddie Thompson, than the Terry Venables coached 1997 manifestation of the Socceroos. Johnny Warren said after the first half against Argentina , with the score at 1-1, the Socceroos had never played so well. He was also thrilled they had 55% possession against Argentina.

Australia had the better of the first half in 1993 against Argentina, a world class opponent on paper. Except they weren't world class on the pitch. There was a reason they had come 5th in South America, or whatever, for an intercontinental World Cup play off. They had a weak defence  as a team unit. Particularly defending as a team unit in the attacking line and midfield, and as an overall team unit.

Maradona had returned to play for them, but was well past his best and wasn't match fit . However, he was brilliant  sporadically, and bettered Ivanovic to play a perfect cross for the first goal.

 Argentina also had the incredible Batistuta, one of the greatest international strikers of all time. There was another player, I think called Balbo,  who was classy in midfield.


Australia's differences from the 1993 team to the 1997  team were quite interesting.

*Tony Vidmar played WCQing sudden deaths games against Argentina in 1993, Iran 1997, Uruguay 2001 and Uruguay 2005. He was pretty consistent over the 12 years, probably slightly improving over time.

*Yet Ned Zelic, in 1993, was a far superior player to the Zelic manifestation of 1997. He had put on quite a bit of weight, muscle, by 1997. However, he was nowhere near as mobile. He was more proficient at screening the defence in 1993, than 1997 in BPO. Having said that he was way behind DMs Grella, Culina, Valeri, Jedi, Milligan, Luongo, Mooy (a few years ago) and Irvine at screening when they were at their peaks ( some have had much longer peaks than others). 

With the ball at his feet, the 1993 Zelic was able to beat payers 1v1, ball carry effectively, and passed and moved  in effective one/twos. Against Argentina  he was given more  time and space than 1997 against Iran. His tackles were better timed in 1993 than where he was often later to the challenge  in 1997. His  mobility, speed, deftness on his feet when ball carrying, or turning and chasing, was  much better in 1993 than 1997.

Furthermore, his first touch under pressure in limited time and space, was more assured in 1993 against Argentina than against Iran in 1997. 

I'm guilty of rating Zelic by what he did post 1997 for the Socceroos, compared to prior.   I don't know how many friendlies he played between 1993, and Iran and NZ WCQ elimination games in 1997? 

  I looked up  Zelic's club career. He played at Borussia Dortmund from  1993 to 1996 or 7. After he left, he seemed to change clubs almost every year and appears to have declined rapidly as a player. In books few of his Socceroo teammates liked him. He, Bozza, Aurelio V, were considered to be primarily  European pro footballers whose major aim was consolidation  of their club careers in Europe.
They were perceived to see the Socceroos as a useful club shop window. Ned also  rolled his eyes to the back of his head if a teammate didn't deliver the ball to him as well as he would have liked. I have no doubt Ned was considered a difficult personality  to coach and had volatile  relationships with coaches from then on.

*Graham Arnold as a target striker was more effective in 1993 against Argentina  than a tightly marked Viduka  was against Uruguay in 2005. Arnie was able to check, and shake his marker more effectively. It might have assisted Arnie that Aurelio was playing closer to him.

*Robbie Slater was a constant threat on the wing against Argentina in 1993. He had searing space and aerially crossed well on his right foot.

*Aurelio Vidmar, was a  constant threat around goals. Apparently he had scored 19 goals in the Belgian league in the 1993 seaon. He scored a clinical finish  with brother Tony assisting.

*Ivanovic, although  displaying  classy ball carrying at times, as well as overall defending,  was culpable for the first goal.  Maradona rounded him after a Milan mistake in distribution and put a perfect cross on a striker's head, who scored. Ivanovic was inexperienced as an international player at that stage, despite playing heaps of games for Red Star Belgrade.

*Even though they were good shot stoppers,  both Bozza in 1993 and Schwarzer, from  then on , were awful  playing with their  feet with the ball on the deck as sweepers, compared to Matt Ryan.

*Some of the Argentinian build ups in midfield and attacking interplay, usually featuring Maradona, Balbo and the two strikers, one being Batistuta, were extremely classy at times in the game. They featured the use of a diagonal passing and moving in tight paces, creating and utilising  triangles.

Australia didn't do this in 1993 or 1997, or even against France in 2001. I couldn't get over the number of straight balls Australia played. Argentina played heaps of straight balls to marked Argentinian  teammates  too.  This extended to 1997 from both Iran and Aus, and Aus still doing it playing France in 2001.

However, France was superb in 2001, opening diagonal, angled passing  lanes, in their build ups. Their build ups through midfield were high quality in any era of football. The inherent diamonds and triangles that most quality teams endeavour to create were  on display in their classy build ups.  France, through their academy at Clarefontaine, was leading the world at this stage in their football methodology, which was mainly devised by Michel Platini.

Thanks.

Shame the footage wasn't entire games of the 1974 WC campaign.

However, it was interesting to view. Interesting to see Peter Wilson playing, who was the Socceroo skipper at the time.

Remember that the back pass rule only started in the European 1992/93 season (the 1993 season in Australia) when both Bosnich and Schwarzer were 20 years old. So they, like all goalkeepers playing at the time of the rule change, had played all their football without having to be good with their feet. Compare that with Mat Ryan, only born in 1992. So it is no wonder that they were nowhere near as good as Mat Ryan with their feet. No goalkeepers of that era or before (Australian or otherwise) had anywhere near the foot skills of most keepers today.

^^^ Good point regards Boz and Schwarzer. 

Great article about the backpass rule and how it came to be here. 

https://sport.optus.com.au/articles/os45292/thirty-years-of-the-backpass-ban-the-story-of-modern-footballs-best-rule-change-the-athletic

agreed, for all the time D2 is reviewing games of so so long ago how is it possible to compare to the later gens of today.
Thats been discussion forever who's best ever etcetc....you can't its just not that black and white.
With all due respect Ryan's career isn't even a patch on MS's even if his footwork wasn't the standard of todays game.
366 games for Boro.
172 for Fulham.
103 for the Roos, Ryan will never surpass MW's standard and highs barring Roo appearances.

I'm finding some interesting phenomena. Nothing like every contemporary  Socceroo is superior to former generations. I've even stated how useful some former  Socceroos, at certain high points in their careers, would be if they replaced some current Socceroos in some positions.

What has been most interesting, has been that France in 2001, were the first team to play the modern  football style in possession. I'd have to look at footage of the 1998 World Cup to see if they were doing it then as well. They won it.

In 2001, France were doing all the proactive running off the ball, opening diagonal passing lanes in triangles and diamonds in build ups from the back to the front  - which has since been the basis for the highest  quality passing football teams since - Barca, Bayern Munich, Spain, Germany,  France, etc. 

This occurred when I was in an underage rep team in 1971. The coach told us to play in a triangles on a board in the sheds, but had no idea how to execute it on the training track in sequential stages.

Another phenomenon is how consistent players like Tony Vidmar were over a long period of their career - 12 years at least. Whilst Ned Zelic had a very, very short peak in comparison. I feel sorry for  Tony Vidmar that he  isn't 15 years younger. He could have played a lot of international  football for the Socceroos in big tournaments, World and Asian Cups, and their qualifying rounds, if he was.   

Your correct about Zelic, the reason for the decline by 1997 was that he received a terrible injury after he returned to his club after the 1st Leg v Argentina.
He was out for 12 months and was never the same.
The same occurred with Paul Okon

I know you've done a few specialist keeper coach education courses, Keeper.

I'm not sure if you were asked to do this too?  Dean May asked us when he was the goalkeeping coach educator, that when we coached teams, to have the keepers roll the ball out to defenders nearly all the time - rather than punting it up the ground. When one looks at the Socceroo games with  Schwarzer and  Bozza, they, and usually the opposition keepers, punted the ball up the pitch most of the time in that era.

I now wonder which professional keepers were the first to play as sweepers from 1992/3 onwards with the changed back pass rule - and use their feet with the ball on the deck quite a lot?

I must admit until the last few days, I had never seen any  REPLAYS of Zelic prior to 1997.

 Of course I've seen him play live on TV a lot decades ago, but not through the prism of a semi-pro trained coach. I always thought Zelic was totally overrated, but after seeing most of the game against Argentina in Sydney in 1993, he was a very, very good player at that time.

Still very worthwhile watching though.

I've learnt a lot from viewing it. We actually outplayed Argentina in the first half in Sydney!

Sometimes it isn't always a question about one being better than another. It can be a question of different attributes, and strengths and weaknesses.

However, Schwarzer and Bozza, could never play effectively in the current style Ange, Bert and Arnie have wanted the Socceroos to play.

I've done a few keeper coaching courses, and still know little about shot stopping techniques, but have learnt a lot more  about how to incorporate a keeper into a team unit.

Zelic wasn't picked for some match and turned his back on the NT never to play again. Weak as piss.

I loved him as a player and then he went and did that robbing Australia of his talents like a spoilt, petulant child.

That's the point LFC is trying to make, you can't effectively compare eras because of how the game changes, in this particular case a very significant change. Of course Bosnich and Schwarzer could not play the current style effectively, they didn't have the opportunity to develop those skills in their formative years to the extent expected today.

While I've done general coach education courses and am an active coach, I've not done any specialist goalkeeper coaching courses. My keeper training consists of spending 25 years as a goalkeeper, both pre and post back pass rule, and many years watching other goalkeepers (live and on TV).

Re keepers punting it up the ground, yes a lot more of that was done in the past, but not exclusively. It was still relatively common for goalkeepers to roll or throw the ball short so their team could keep possession, in fact most coaches I had myself encouraged it whenever possible. Again, the game has changed a lot, I think if you look back at games from previous eras you will see that it wasn't just goalkeepers punting long balls upfield, it was quite often done by centre backs and other players when in their own third. Compare that to the playing out from the back style which is much more prevalent these days, in all levels of football.