🏟️ Venue change 🏟️

The #Joeys' #AFCU17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2025 Qualifiers, scheduled for October, will now take place at the Al Shabab SC Stadium in Al Ahmadi.

📋 #YoungSocceroos Head Coach Trevor Morgan has selected a 23-player squad for Australia’s upcoming #AFCU20AsianCup China PR 2025™ Qualifiers to be held in Abha, Saudi Arabia between 21 – 29 September 2024.

📰 Details: bit.ly/U20-Squad

Recognize a bunch of names there

Trevor morgan is a slightly better coach than vidmar

Young Socceroos v Afghanistan tonight 11pm aest 

Anyone aware of a broadcaster or website streaming this set of qualifiers? 

Apparently its on youtube with fa tweeting the link

Cheers grazorblade

📋 Here's how Trevor Morgan's #YoungSocceroos line up for tonight's opening #AFCU20AsianCup China PR 2025™ Qualifier against Afghanistan 💪

⚽ Kick-off: 11:00pm AEST
🖥️ Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@Riyadiyatv/streams

Just writing in number order

1 Pavlesic
2 Razmovski
3 Bonetig
4 Lisolajski
5 Schreiber 
7 Yull
8 Badolato 
10 Youlley 
11 Waddingham
17 Nadjovski
18 Di Pizio

Di Pizio shirt 19!

Large bench too. So we should see a few. 

10 group winners and 5 best runners up qualify for U20 Asian cup in China. Great, we're in Saudi's group along with Palestine, Macau and Afghanistan. 

Ht

We had a goal incorrectly called off side but while there were some nice individual skills it took ages before we stopped overrelying on wings

From the 25 minute mark we started trying to go through z14 and had some success. Lots of time wasting that half tho so we really need to take our chances better

2:0 win Australia. Left late with Afghan keeper running to side of box to sweep but to not get it clean and then a scramble with our man. Good square ball and first time shot into top right corner with 2 defenders on the line.

Second was a late penalty. 

It appears Jovanovic scored both. Really hope for a big A League season. 

afghan were surprisingly organized and succeeded in wasting a large amount of time the ref didn't add back on. Was perhaps even worse than the bahrain game. This is tough for possession based teams because part of what makes possession effective is making the other team tired, which is hard when they only have to run 45 minutes

in any case was happy to get the win, awful reffing disallowed a goal, allowed time wasting, very one sided with fouls but in the end that is good experience for asia

Good:
1) ability to control possession and territory (like our senior team).
2) Able to work through their lines playing out, dribbling if passing lanes are blocked (unlike recent games with seniors)
3) able to pass through zone 14 and create chances from central areas against a deep block (unlike senior team, ever)
4) able to nullify counter attacks with good counter pressing (like senior team)
5) really quick handling speed and players can turn quickly in traffic while shielding the ball (unlike senior team)

Bad
1) Not a lot of  effective 1v1 take ons
2) poor finishing
3) Some heavy touches after some silky z14 play spoiled a lot of chances
4) some poor decision making in the final third, players presumably not looking up enough as they weren't reacting quickly enough to changes on the field

So again I think we are improving but still miles from where I'd like to be. In any case happy for the win

one interesting thing about the game is that for the first 25 minutes there was no z14 play from australia, we overrelied on the wings and afghan would commit 2 players wide to double team the australian attacker, rendering us completely ineffective

At 25min on we started playing the ball on the deck centrally through their block. This caused afghanistan to defend narrow (which you would expect). However, they would still double team us on the right while allowing space on the left. Such a complicated game plan suggests afghan have studied our team and identified the left flank as less dangerous than the right.

Anyone know who was on the left v right wing and fb for us?

We lacked players that go past players 1v1, but Quintal did just that when he came on and made an impact with he’s directness.

We have of a lot of midfielders who are neat and tidy but lack some punch in the final third, a shame the likes of Younis aren’t available.

our mids were brilliant at producing eye of the needle passes through traffic in z14. But there weren't any crash runs into the box from midfielders and the shots from distance weren't effective

who was our lw?

Not sure but I only saw the second half from what I’ve seen.

They got potential but they have plenty to work on so hopefully they can get better with more game time.

yeah agree

the technical base is better, though still not where I'd like it to be, but the decision making, the weighting on passes, the ability to solve problems on the pitch, all this comes from game time

that is hard to fix without a longer season, a league expansion, a nst and a nyl

I've only watched him a few times but every time I see him he looks quality. 

How did Quintal go? I only just saw his assist when rounding the keeper, he looks like he has some skill.

He’s our starting striker at this stage so I’d expect him to score a few this season.

Will have to rewatch to identify individual players tbh. I could only identify areas on the pitch. The only poor area was the left flank, where they gambitted on giving us more space than the right flank and it appeared to pay off partly. The rest was quite good

really need a striker to start exceeding expectations. Toure, caputo, jovanovic and waddingham all the ones catching the eye

who is missing from this team that is eligible out of curiosity?

Paul okon jr, Daniel Bennie, Irankunder, Younis come to mind

Thanks.

He made a great impact, took players on and changed the game for us.

yeah to break down a deep block you need
1) first touches and handling speed tight enough to threaten through z14
2) good shooting from range
3) good aerial threat
4) good 1v1 ability
5) good finishing

The senior roos have 1 out of 5, this group has 2 out of 5 but quintal does seem to supply some 1v1. Irankunda, bennie, younis and caputo all missing for various reasons who could make a difference too

Some highlights for the interested https://x.com/FootballAUS/status/1838368242227953802

Nice round up, agree you need multiple things to break down a deep block it’s something Aus football teams in general have struggled for awhile now so it’s something it needs improving badly.

the law of large numbers works against us. From what I observe we either have players with good first touch and handling speed, or are good aerially and atheletically, or are good at 1v1 or can hit a long shot with the best managing 2. If we had twice as many to choose from you start to get more diversity in your skills

Not every a league club has an academy right? I think until we get 14 a league academies, a 2nd division and a national youth league the net isn't cast wide enough. I'm curious what happens with these state ais's and whether that helps