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Ange Postecoglou doesn’t miss much when it comes to appreciating the tactical nuances of world football. He also likes to be innovative and adventurous.
It’s been a long time since his early days as one of Australia’s national youth coaches, but it’s obvious he’s learned from his past mistakes. Postecoglou’s previous failures have driven him to achieve something special for Australian football.
Following a brief stint in Europe and his progression through the A-League coaching ranks, he’s made a triumphant return to the national stage to become head coach of the Socceroos. It seems a long way from his youth team failures and public embarrassment on national television at the hands of SBS football analyst Craig Foster.
Indeed, it now seems Foster is one of Postecoglou’s admirers now.
Under Ange’s leadership, the Socceroos’ results in the recent World Cup were encouraging but not flattering. Ange adopted an expansive, aggressive approach against clearly superior opposition, but the bottom line is that we lost three games, conceded nine goals and came home early empty handed.
Under the direction of Football Federation Australia, Postecoglou’s brief also includes watching over our junior national teams to oversee improvements and ensure a consistent, aggressive, attacking approach, in line with Australia’s sporting character.
“We don’t need an overhaul, but we need to keep improving,” Postecoglou said.
“We’re set in stone in terms of the way we want to play. We’ve been tested now and we need more depth.
“Our underage national teams will be a key part of that, that’s why FFA has asked me to get involved – the more exposure we can give these guys at international level the better.”
Ange’s quest to identify and nurture the next generation of Socceroos has begun. The list of potential young stars is growing and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get noticed these days. The competition for squad places is becoming fiercer, and so it should be.
One of those on the list, but probably unknown to many Australian football fans, is former Sydney Olympic striker James Demetriou.
Demetriou has always shown great potential in youth football and was spotted by Stevie Corica, the youth coach at Sydney FC. They quickly drafted him into the club, but shortly after Tony Popovic stole him from right under Sydney’s nose to bring him to the Western Sydney Wanderers.
In the end it was Sydney Olympic who offered him a better contract during the Wanderers’ off-season, and he made his senior team debut as a teenager and regularly got his name on the score sheet.
Demetriou had barely been at Olympic a few months before the then 17-year-old got the call up from Nottingham Forest FC to trial with them. They were so impressed with his audition that they signed him to a two-year contract on the spot.
Former Olympic coach Peter Tsekenis was quoted in a Football NSW praising Demetriou last year.
“James has lots of potential and he is most dangerous in striking distance of goal, because he loves to shoot with that awesome power, which will take him to higher levels in the game,” Tsekenis said.
After the first three rounds of the English Championship, Nottingham Forest are top of the table and there’s the real potential this season for promotion to the Premier League.
Demetriou leads the attack for the Forest Under-21 team again this season and has scored five goals in six matches so far. He was awarded with a pay rise and an extension of his contract.
His efforts obviously haven’t gone unnoticed by senior team manager and former Nottingham and England regular Stuart Pearce.
Demetriou has ancestry in Cyprus and has already been selected for Cyprus national youth teams. Like many other promising young players, he could one day be lost forever to Australia’s cause.
It’s also worth noting that Demetriou played junior football with his best friend Chris Ikonomidis, the young Aussie Seria A sensation who plays his football at Lazio FC.
“It would certainly be a dream come true if Chris and I could team up again one day, we developed a great understanding together as twin strikers playing in the youth teams,” Demetriou told Football NSW last year.
But like Demetriou, Ikonomidis faces the same uphill battle to be given a start in one of the senior Socceroos squads.
Demetriou, together with Ikonomidis were once selected for an overseas-based training camp in London by Under-20 Young Socceroos head coach Paul Okon, but nothing substantial ever came of it.
Instead James will be focusing on Cyprus training with the Under-21 national team ahead of an official Euro Under-21 game against Serbia. The Cyprus Football Association certainly believes that this is a huge win for them and a potential boost for their future national squads.
Are we in favour of investing in young talented football players in Australia, only to see them go abroad to play professionally and ultimately end up playing for their country of ancestry?
The overseas talent scouts are obviously doing their jobs. Does Postecoglou and the FFA have their own reliable network of football talent scouts? Or is it simply a matter of large distances and lack of resources hampering their work?
In the meantime, there is a growing number of young talented Australians of overseas background who have been discovered and selected by foreign football federations showing more interest in investing in these talents, right under the FFA’s nose.
Should we be concerned? Do we relax and place our trust in Ange that ultimately he will get it right and will always pick the best possible starting 11? Maybe in Ange’s estimation, Demetriou and Ikonomidis are just not good enough to play for Australia.
At this point in time, all Postecoglou will do is add James Demetriou to his watch list and hope for his sake, and the future of the Socceroos, that he makes the right assessment at the right time, for ultimately the right decision.
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