lol, but it's the truth. 

Everyone goes on about the lack of Big 5 league players, but the basics are these guys don't play enough games. It really is that simple.

You can't expect performance from a team of part-time players.

watched the replay last night, never seen us bullied off the ball so much. Leckie in particular is usually pretty strong but hernandez made him look like a child, behich got a pretty similar response but dealt with it a little better. 

People were harsh on Atkinson, it was a big lesson for him. He did make some decent tackles but just struggled to set up positionally when mbappe got it wide, instead of coming close he should of just guided him down the touchline and look to stop the cross. Not pressing him too close cause he just gets stoop up everytime. The experience will make him a better player for sure. He really only has a football brain of a 18-19 year old still. 

Just looking at the two teams from this and last World Cup I am not convinced that the team is any different on quality- no stand outs but good solid players. Maybe not having Rogic impacts our creative output, but we didn't necessarily receive the ball in the attacking third much to do this. 
Biggest difference is the formation two banks of 4 protecting the backline in 2018. It was played to stop France playing and it worked to some extent. 

I agree with you about pretty much everything above... My point though is this:
Wasn't the whole point of the "Frank Lowy New Dawn FFA Pty Ltd" to fix all this? To bring a new found professionalism and therefore money into the game? To get rid of the perception that soccer is for "sheilas wogs and pooftas"? to make our youth development the best in the region and to have us play in a so called "stronger" confederation so that we as a nation improve our standings in the world? 

None of this has happened in my view. Yes Aleague gets better crowds than the NSL, yes more Australians feel "acccepted" by the franchises (fuck the rest of us btw, we don't count as humans in this country I guess) and yes we have now qualified for the WC a few times .......... but what else? Is this all we should settle for? Its costs 15 times more for our youth to play now than during the NSL. our best players are benchies in second tier leagues overseas and we routinely get spanked at major tournaments.... Don't you think its time we ALL looked at what could be done better? How we can ALL progress for the betterment of OUR country?

I don't see the improvement you see with player's first touch. Yes France put on an amazing performance and Mbappe is just sublime on the wing no doubt but did you not see Argentina's 1st 45 mins against the Saudis? I thought that was devastating football and the fact the Saudis hung on for dear life, squeezed them high and got  4 goals disallowed by millimetres was more a testament to how amazingly out of their skins the Saudis played than that Messi and co were off that night. 

Well your view is patently wrong:

1. There has been a "new found professionalism and as a result(vastly) more more money like over a $billion dollars
2.  The wogs, sheilas and poofters perception is still there but far less than it was.
3.  We do play in a stronger confed
4. Youth development as Arthur  here says :The FFA NC was a good document to improve the development of players, but it wasn't implemented properly along with the resistant to change it also needed to be evolved over time which hasn't been done.  Is that Lowy's fault that the those at the grass roots fucked up the implmentation, unwittingly or deliberately?

You really have an irrational hatred for Lowy.

I've said similar in a couple of other posts. France are awesome in every respect. WC Champions again?

I think they're better than the team we played in 2018.

One phenomenon I acquired from goodness knows where ( a Football Aus National Conference?), is that the French league is easily the most physical in terms of body on body contact  of the big five leagues in Europe. Most think it is the EPL, but it isn't. 

Surprisingly, some Spanish players who have played in the A L consider it more physical than any of the Spanish pro leagues. They've said they have struggled to match Aussies physically.

I'm not sure how France compares to Scotland in terms of body on body physicality? In  the past the Scottish  have regarded themselves as the hard men of European football. For the French to have such a physical league, which is also highly technical and tactical, is testament to their development system.

Poor journalism. No way was John A was overly critical. He was circumspect and respectful as a critic. He has always conducted himself graciously on TV as a pundit. 

Bozza  and Foster shot their big mouths off though. Pertinently, both stupidly said Pim should resign as coach after we lost to Germany 4-0 in the 2010 WC! They  went missing  when the same Socceroo team under Pim  drew with Ghana 1-1, and then beat Serbia 2-1, in the South African 2010 WC in the next two games.

As for Spider, he probably said what he did!

The only one of the aforementioned who is a pro team coach is John A. None of Spider, Fozzie and Bozza have coached at pro level, although Spider has been a specialist keeping coach.

And for the record, neither Fozzie or Bozza played in Socceroo teams that were good enough to qualify for the WC. Spider also played poorly against Croatia in 2006 in his only WC game for the Socceroos too.

This trio should be more gracious, analytical, professional  and circumspect when analysing players and coaches  who have achieved a lot  more than they did international football. 

I see a difference in the type of physicality in a league like SPL, and physicality in a more technical league. I don't have any data or facts to back this up, it is just my opinion. And it is a generalisation. The physicality in SPL is more about "hard men" with lower levels of technical skill wanting to kick anything that moves, or believing that the way to impose themselves on a game is to be overtly tough. I think the physicality in more technical leagues is more subtle, and is more related to players who these days have developed higher levels of strength (through gym work, very detailed and specific conditioning programs, etc) compared to 20 plus years ago, and use that strength together with excellent timing that comes from their high level of technical skills to be physical without having to kick the shit out of someone.

Probably a very accurate post, Keeper.

The French use their bodies well in terms of shielding,  shoulder barging, tackling, heading duels, etc  - but they  don't need to kick lumps out of the  opposition as a factor in winning. 

Youve named Milligan twice. The MF was Jedinak, Mooy and Rogic. Furthermore the better players we have were all at their peak inc Mooy (27) Rogic (25) Sainsbury (26). Ppl forget just how good Sainsbury was back then for the national side. I think Ryan and Behich have regressed a but since that cup too. The team looked extremely good in the defensive and MF thirds as well just could not score. If we had of had a decent front three we would have been a very good team. I still think BvM should have started Arzani and Cahill in the final match against Peru. Shame we didn't pick Boyle earlier too so he could have played at this cup. 

Simply can't believe the flak hat Atkinson has coped. His opponent is the fastest player ive ever seen on a football pitch even faster than Ronaldo circa 1998 and Henry Circa 2002. He looks like a video game character!!  

Atkinson actually dispossessed him a number of times and really only made the one mistake with that heavy touch  a touch that had he made that in the SPL would have pounced upon so quickly. 

Atkinson won about 6 duels with Mbappe. Early on he was getting the ball well. His tackling in the Olympics is what got everyone into him. Goals 3 and 4 could've been avoided if the crosser had been mauled much earlier. Leckie ran along as did Atkinson. Someone had to go to the man and clear the ball or draw the foul. 

Re read Anges pov aflEnzo 

Final minutes but Baccus had a lot of energy. He won the ball a few times and his passes and movement into spaces was good.

With Mooy and Irvine on yellows I'd love to see Baccus Devlin and Hrustic be the midfield against Tunisia. 

I noticed for the Ryan save that Rowles was shoved a bit but once again lost his footing. He's got to be more imposing on set plays.

Interestingly I find the Mbappe open goal miss and Giround sidekick moments that deserved goals whereas all 4 they did score could've been neutralised had our players got right into the face.

The 3rd needed Goodwin or McGree to charge Dembele and he won't be able to cross. 4th needed Leckie or Atkinson to at least break the run from Mbappe. Serbia had a moment like France's 2nd goal tonight but the keeper smothered. 

Yeah I agree with this. It’s the difference between blood n thunder tackles and athleticism. I still remember when Harry Novillo played at MC, it looked like a man against boys.

Sorry that was Barca4life

From the article you quote:

The biggest question there is you’re seeing the result of people in France way back when they missed out in 1990 and they sat down and put together a massive plan.

“You are seeing the results of that now, and you see the difference in the class and the quality.

It took France THIRTY TWO YEARS to get to that point.   That's THIRTY TWO YEARS LATER......Our NC began in 2007, and wasn't really adopted widely due to resistance at the grass roots clubs to any significant degree years later, so we're into it about 10 years......

Bosnich’s comment is kind of nonsensical. They missed out in 1990, but became world champions just 8 years later. So, not 32 years. It took them 8 years to produce a generation that was the best in the world.

It’s just completely ridiculous to expect Australia to develop on a similar trajectory to France. They are not a useful barometer for development here. The football culture and the amount of money available for the game will simply never be comparable. 

I didnt state who was to blame specifically just that this "clear out" doesn't seem to have produced the results we were promised.... 

You left the spaces out of this persona Paulie.... thats progress at least. 

BTW your "fiddler on the roof" response is just a tad racist don't you think?

You wrote:

wasn't the whole point of the "Frank Lowy New Dawn FFA Pty Ltd" to fix all this?

Well wasn't it? I hate that Frank Lowy turned Australian Soccer into a Shopping Centre plastic franchise ponzi scheme for his own amusement but the way it was sold to the football loving public was that by clearing out the "old soccer" it would pave the way for a new found football revolution... 18 years and donuts????

Frank isnt to blame anymore but he certainly "lit the burners" on this dumpster fire 

He achieved all the things you said he didn't.  The NC hasn't produced the technical players it was designed to.  The reasons are complex.  The solution is not tunr back to the clock relying on the children of European mmigrants in the 1970's.  That source has dried up-China and India are now our top 2 sources of immigrants.  Other than Sarpreet Singh-and he's a NZer- not one player has come from those communities.  So that strategy won't work.  Relying on under 100k Sudanese refugees is also not a long term strategy.

Not sure where the children of European immigrants comes into this particular conversation? Im talking about Australian children (yes some of them happen to be the children OF children of European immigrants, while other can trace their ancestors back to the first colonial invaders.... so what?)

1. There has been a "new found professionalism and as a result(vastly) more more money like over a $billion dollars
Sure, as I stated, but that money (up until recently) has not been used in any way to benefit the national team setup (in fact we clsoed the AIS, FUTSAL program, beach soccer etc etc just for this reason) Happy that Lowy's mates got ROI but my point is that billion dollars hasnt led to a state of the art national football academy and world class player snow has it?

2.  The wogs, sheilas and poofters perception is still there but far less than it was.
Seems to me the MSM sink the boot into soccer at the drop of hate no more no less than the ALWAYS did..... Soccer is still not dinky di in the mainstream just because a bunch of anglo kids now also play FIFA and light flares and break seats at the Victory games.

3.  We do play in a stronger confed
Stronger than Oceania, yes I agree with you there but we still rely on dumb luck intercontinental playoffs to qualify for world cups.... sorry for me it JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH... if you are comfortable with this so called "progress" I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

4. Youth development as Arthur  here says :The FFA NC was a good document to improve the development of players, but it wasn't implemented properly along with the resistant to change it also needed to be evolved over time which hasn't been done.  Is that Lowy's fault that the those at the grass roots fucked up the implmentation, unwittingly or deliberately?
OK .... so the grass roots coaching failed the NC but the billion dollar Aleague "industry" surely covered the defecit somewhat? Im sure there are dozens of players, that started SAP and NC programs at Aleague academies over the last 18 years, marching to the prescribed Dutch tune .... where do most of them play again?

Look,  the NC was the result of an assessment of what our weakness and strengths were, and a framework to get the whole of football on the same page for youth development that could work for us.  When the FFA found there was deliberate resistance to its implementation at the grass roots, I recall the TD going off his nut at those clubs and coaches.  Whose fault is that?  The FFA's, right?

Im still not convinced that a NC (without the physical and administrative structures to properly implement it (academies, centres of excellence, call it whatever you want) is the way to go but then again Im not part of the football technically trained "milieu" of brainwashed neophytes so what would I know?....  As an outsider I can see (again this is just the perception I get) that franchises see youth development as a cost NOT as an obligation. Some NPL clubs see it is a way to either profit or jockey for some sort of hierarchical power (this is the fault of the state federations in my opinion) and the grass roots sees youth development as the top levels poaching their best players to no reward for them.

FFA/FA is supposed to be the overseer of football in Australia yeah? If they decided that a TD and adutch NC was the way to go and found that it was not being coached properly was the right move to make coaches pay 11 thousand dollars to get a meaningless (not recognised pretty much outside AFC at best) FFA coaching license and force NPL clubs to "coach the syllabus" driving cost of participation through the roof? 

Circling back to my first fundamental question .... Frank Lowy, the white knight of Australia Soccer rode in on his Westfield horse, vanquished the corrupt, inept, effnik run Soccer Australia, punished the little tinpot clubs that did him wrong in the 80s and promised his mate ol fuzzy ears Howard that we would be a professional well run sport, no crowd issues, mainstream popularity and sporting results on the world stage.......  well????

agreed re Bozza Derider, my reason posting that link was Ange's POV FYI.
Enzo talks out of his commercial mind set and against the ethnics, seems to not dot i's cross the t's before making some statements as well.
32yrs whereas they won in 8yrs - its not about us being able to achieve that impossible might I add.
In some other things he makes sense but not in the big picture of football development.
Enzo there are wrongs either side of the fence and our complications are vast and being a no3/4 behind gayfl/nrl - your mate generated the resistance in our own game in the first place hence so many barriers below the Pro league for all to see IF your nose is on the ground that is.