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Tomorrow morning when Paul Okon’s Young Socceroos take to the Huseyin Avni Stadium in Turkey for their opening U20s World Cup match against Colombia, they will hope to showcase the results of Australia’s development work over the past eight years.
While the Socceroos and A-League have been in the foreground, helping grow the game rapidly since the Crawford Report, in the background has been an ongoing push to create better footballers.
In particular, the type able to influence games in the front third.
Through the hiring of a national technical director, now Han Berger but originally Rob Baan, the indoctrination of a guiding 4-3-3 template, development of a more defined pathway and the education and hiring of coaches across the country, there has been much structural work taking place behind the scenes.
With an emphasis on identifying the right type of players at a much young age, and then fast-tracking them through these newly defined pathways, the aim is that we create a production line of creative players with the tools to decide games on the international stage.
More of your Mesut Ozils and Marco Reus than your Carsten Janckers or Oliver Bierhoffs, if you get the drift.
That path, while lit up by Dutchman Baan and Berger, is certainly a similar one to that implemented by the Germans more than a decade ago.
The fruits of that work are now being reaped through the likes of Ozil, Reus, Thomas Mueller, Mario Goetze, Andre Schurrle, Ilkay Gundogan, and countless others, evidenced by the flow of the national team and Bundesliga clubs in Europe.
These days for the Germans it’s not only about results, but the quality of the football, and there can be no denying the strides made on that front.
As in Spain and much of the world, evidenced by Iraq’s performance with a crop of kids here on Tuesday night, talent identification and development is serious business.
Everyone is in the game, and gaps are closing across the world.
Certainly the FFA are playing catch-up after the previously cash-strapped administration took its eye off the end-game.
20 or so years ago the scene was much different. Australia was not only a regular contributor at youth tournaments, but, under highly successful youth mentor Les Schienflug, went deep into them.
The halcyon days were in 1991 and 1993, when the Young Socceroos made the semi-finals in Portugal and at home respectively.
Okon of course featured in that ’91 side which is still, along with the U23s that went to Barcelona the following year, one of our best ever youth sides.
But it was a different era. The entire world, and particular Europe, wasn’t as focussed on its youth programs as it is now.
While Australia has been playing catch-up the past decade, we are yet to see the fruits of Baan and Berger’s foundation work.
To these eyes, though, it’s not far from exploding.
Recently I was out at Valentine Park in Sydney’s north-west to check out the NSW Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) gala day, featuring the best of that state’s under 9s, 10s and 11s.
While still rather sporadic in its consistency across all the clubs you can already see pockets of high quality, where the players are comfortable playing out, even under pressure, and then combining decisively in the front third when they get it there.
When you see one or two of these teams execute the curriculum properly, it’s like watching a mini-Barcelona.
Those SAP players are still a few years away from making their mark.
For now we get the opportunity to run the rule over our latest crop of U20s.
From the evidence of their comprehensive 5-0 warm-up win over New Zealand in Wollongong a fortnight ago, this team looks more refined and ready than the ones coached by Okon’s predecessor, Jan Versleijen.
While the team has lost games in the build to both Holland and Chile, it has also drawn with German, and the vibes from Okon is that his boys are progressing well.
The biggest problem under the Versleijen was the lack of connection between the defence and the rest of the formation.
Patently, his teams, over consecutive World Cups, failed to integrate and look like a unit. It was as if the defence was playing on its own, with a huge gap to the midfield.
An inability to get his teams playing out of pressure was the hallmark of his work.
The ability of Okon’s team to play out from the back under intense pressing is their biggest test in Turkey, and certainly there were signs of improvement against New Zealand.
Central defenders Connor Chapman and Curtis Good certainly appear as composed as any youth pairing we’ve had in recent years, perhaps since Craig Moore partnered Ante Juric in ’93.
One of the features against the Kiwis was that the formation remained compact and there was consistently good integration from the fullbacks.
In particular, Josh Brillante down the right combined well with his Newcastle Jets teammate Andrew Hoole, perhaps a surprise selection as an advanced attacker given most of his A-League work has been as a fullback.
Indeed, the combinations on both flanks were pleasing, and one of the features was that Okon had A-League club combinations on both sides.
While the Jets’ Hoole and Brillante featured on the right in the first half, the left side featured Melbourne Victory’s Galloway and Connor Pain.
Pain and Hoole’s pace, in particular, caused New Zealand all sorts of headaches.
Splitting them as the number nine was another Jet in Adam Taggart, and he certainly appears to be an integral part of Okon’s planning.
While Corey Gameiro may have grabbed the headlines in the qualifying, Taggart, already capped for the Socceroos, appears to be Okon’s go-to.
Blessed with mobility and able to play both inside and outside the box, Taggart scored a hat-trick against the Kiwis, featuring one super strike from the edge of the box that he shaped, with power, into the top corner.
Behind them in midfield it’s become a little more interesting.
Okon appeared to be building his team around Terry Antonis, the stand-out in an earlier warm-up game against the Bonnyrigg White Eagles.
However the thigh strain he suffered just before half time against New Zealand means he has had to adjust his thinking for the World Cup.
At half time in that game he brought on Victory’s Jason Geria at right back and moved Brillante into midfield, sitting just ahead of the midfield anchor, the imposing Jackson Irvine.
Ahead of his final squad selection it had been widely thought that Mustafa Amini would be Okon’s number ten, but the manager sprung a big surprise by leaving him out, reasoning it was down to condition.
Against the Junior All-Whites, he used 16-year-old Daniel De Silva as his playmaker from the start, bringing on the more powerful Jamie McClaren with about half an hour to go.
Da Silva, like Taggart and Antonis, is thought of very highly by FFA technical team, having been introduced into Glory’s midfield by former Joeys manager Alistair Edwards last season.
In some circles, he has been described as a once-in-a-generation player, and any experience he gets in Turkey should only aid his development.
At the end of the day, this tournament shouldn’t be judged by the results against what appears to be a very hard group also featuring the hosts and El Salvador, but by the quality of Australia’s football.
How do they cope under an intense press?
Can they move the ball out of defence with combinations and short triangles?
Is the unit compact and integrated?
Do they press as one?
Is their fluidity in the movement of ball and bodies?
Can we break down opponents and create chances?
If the answer to most of these questions is yes, and the Young Socceroos get the odd result to go with it, then we will be seeing the first fruits of the FFA’s technical revolution.
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