The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Where are the results for Aussie youth football teams?

3rd July, 2013
Advertisement
Socceroos youngsters shine in draw against Serbia. AAP Images
Roar Guru
3rd July, 2013
79
1481 Reads

Australia’s best under-20 footballers are on their way home from the FIFA U20 World Cup after they finished last in their group and hence, got eliminated in the first round.

Expectations were high and the reaction was positive following a 1-1 draw in the first match. Australia managed to score first, dominate possession and mix it with Columbia, the current South American U20 champions.

The youngest player in the tournament Daniel De Silva, showed some real potential and finished it off for young Socceroos’ only goal. He’s not for sale says Perth Glory’s manager Alistair Edwards.

A few knowledgeable commentators even hailed it as the best performance they’d ever seen from an Australian U20 team in recent memory.

Unfortunately, that uplifting performance was followed by two 2-1 losses in a row to eliminate Paul Okon’s team from the tournament in last place.

Thee FFA have introduced a new curriculum, appointed some very technical and talented coaches and managers to oversee the program and the FFA is enjoying an unprecedented boom in the number of young Australians taking up and playing the game.

Where are the results?

In those past eight years we have watched our youth and Olympic squads, scrape though qualification in Asia or not qualify at all and then get eliminated the first round itself.

Advertisement

On the other hand, in the last century, during the bad old NSL days, we witnessed some great youth teams make it to the quarter-finals and semi-finals of world cups with distinction.

Our Joeys U17 youth team at the 1999 FIFA World C up in New Zealand were only beaten by one unlucky goal by Brazil in the final. They were inches close to being the world champions for their age!

But since 2005, we haven’t even qualified for two of the four U17 World Cup tournaments.

To be fair to Paul Okon though, he has done a good job with the young Socceroos and there is no need to panic with mass sackings. Let’s keep Okon in the job and keep teaching that football philosophy.

Trouble is, unlike the senior side, the youth teams get older and move on quickly, so he’ll have to work once again with a new bunch of kids. And the way things are, if young Socceroos qualify, he’ll probably only get to spend two weeks in two years with his final squad to prepare them for next attempt at a FIFA youth World Cup.

close