In tonight’s match against Spain, the Young Socceroos have little to lose in what’s likely to be their final game at the Under 20 World Cup in Colombia.
It’s been a largely forgettable tournament for the young Australians characterised by a nervous back four, an unsettled midfield and an attack which has been hung out to dry by coach Jan Versleijen.
The Australians enter tonight’s game on a nine match unbeaten streak at Under 20 World Cup level which stretches back to 2003 and against a team, who like their men’s counterpart, are at the very top of their game.
An unlikely victory over the dominant Spaniards and the Australians might not only restore some wounded pride, but perhaps even collect one of the ‘lucky loser’ wildcards these youth tournaments kindly and routinely dispense.
However dreaming about beating Spain and actually doing so are two very different propositions.
For starters the Australians have looked a long way from decent, despite Thursday’s loss to Costa Rica producing a better effort than the drivel served up against Ecuador.
Crucially however it’s a team working for a coach who’s simply failed to maximise the team’s abundant individual talent.
Versleijen’s Young Socceroos haven’t been restrained in Colombia as much as they’ve been bogged down by technicalities and conservative football theory.
The coach seems intent on a philosophy driven by a patient, possession orientated game that begins at the back, which professes to work the ball gently through the midfield and which relies on that killer pass to the sole striker.
In theory, Versleijen’s plan is commendable however in practise it’s been chopped apart by the Central and South Americans who’ve based their outfits around optimising the strengths of youthful exuberance and instinct, rather than textbook theory.
When Verselijen hasn’t been so dogmatic and been left with no choice but to attack, the results have inevitably been better.
When Bernie Ibini entered on the hour in the opener against Ecuador he provided much needed support to an increasingly alienated and frustrated Kerem Bulut. The Australians scored fifteen minutes later.
Against Costa Rica, Ibini was again belatedly introduced, as was Mustafa Amini, and despite trailing, the Australians found a certain bounce and pep which before too long was good enough to tie the scores at two-all.
If not for yet another defensive lapse minutes later, the Australians may have gone on to win.
It’s that same kind of improvisation and commitment to attack, witnessed so far only through desperation, which must be employed from the outset against Spain.
Coaches motivated more toward conservatism in any sport need to appreciate that an attacking mindset needn’t necessarily be viewed as working to the detriment of defence. Instead it can actually be of great assistance and relief to a defence and midfield constantly at work.
With that in mind, and as far as I’m concerned, both Kerem Bulut and Bernie Ibini must start up front together from the opening whistle against Spain.
It’s a combination in Colombia which has operated together for a total of one hour but produced two goals. In the two hours of play when Belut’s been isolated, just one goal has been scored, thanks only to an instinctual tap in by Tommy Oar following a hail-Mary type throw in.
In order to play Bulut and Ibini together however, a savvier approach to the midfield needs to be adopted.
It needs to function both as the source of supply for the strikers while providing cover for what’s been a shaky defence all tournament.
Most importantly it’ll need to find some grit and energy to compensate for the loss of captain Ben Kantarovski who’ll be unavailable through suspension.
If Versleijen had the temerity to drop Amini against Costa Rica, then he surely has the pride to be so brash as to play two strikers tonight.
His contract is already hanging by a thread and I doubt clinging to a game plan which does little to maximise the team’s strengths will likely get him a new one.
Leaving the tournament with one point from three games, but with a message of teaching the fundamentals is an overly worthless exercise in a major tournament.
Serving it up to the Spaniards from the opening whistle however, regardless of the end result, would be something else.
David Heidelberg
Guest
And every weekend Bernie and Mustie play for the team taht also contains Ryan and Kantarovski. Such a shame it is my wife's team instead of mine.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Mintox---I think we are all of the same opinion that our back four were slow and were caught on the back foot far too often with no support. Yes our wingers dropped back but were still not in the game staying out wide and not properly defending---Danning the worst of them all when we need them to defend the midfield. Second half was different when we switch in my opinion to a 4-4-2. Oar and Almini were in much tighter that gave us extra bodies in the midfield to defend we took control of the game from that point on with Bulut and Ibini moving from one flank to the other and causing havoc everywhere. Almini and Oar suddenly came alive as attacking midfielders. Yes this team with the strength of Bulut and Ibini up front play a lot better as a team playing a 4-4-2.
Kasey
Guest
I'm really looking forward to it, Hoping to get to Oman and Thailand as well this year for WCQ...No interest in Saudi... if they saw what was on my iPod, I'd be beheaded as soon as I landed;) That and I need my security clearance for work so no travel to verboten countries and unfortunately KSA is on the DFAT no-go list:)
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Good hunting in Wales Kasey---enjoy the trip.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Yes James, I think we are on the same page of how this team should approach the next game against Spain. I think we will see the 4-4-2 come into play as it did in the second half with the Costa Ricans. I reckon we can pull off an upset tomorrow.
mintox
Guest
We weren't playing a 4-3-3 in the first game against Ecuador, it was instead a 4-2-3-1 which is discintly different to a 4-3-3 in that the positions are more static and the interchange of positions occurs between the attacking 5 players rather than the three midfielders. The 4-2-3-1 is more akin to a 4-5-1 is the wingers drop deep into midfield. We did play a more fluid 4-3-3 with a point down midfield (one DM and 2 AM's) which worked better than the first game. In fact our second half was some of the best attacking posession football I've seen an Australian team play. What you've both failed to pick up on is that there is no faith in our backline. Clearly we don't have defenders (especially full backs) technical enough to play out from the back, against Ecuador we were caught out by their pace and sat too deep. Against Costa Rica we got caught in transition from attack to defence when we turned over possession and it killed us. The most important by-product of our inability to play out from the back meant that we couldnt press high up the pitch and this often meant we won the ball too deep and left Karem Bulut too isolated. It's clear to me that we have some talented attacking players both in attacking mid, up front and on the wings but we're let down by a dearth of quick and skillful full backs and centre backs. This is clearly an area that we need to work on and it's no surprise considering that I still continue to see junior players asked to boot the ball clear from the back line when they are under pressure (something we resorted to at times in the last two games).
Kasey
Guest
I'm flying out for Wales(for the Socceroos game!) mid morning tomorrow(Sunday) I think I'll get up nice and early and wait for the taxi to the airport by watching the young lads try to take it up to the tiki-taka of u/20 Spain. If we don't win, then as long as i see some good passages of play and evidence that they young lads can play under pressure then I'll be happy. There's still a hell of a lot of development to go into these lads and a lot will depend upon which club, coach and manager gets them for the next 5 years. I'm really looking forward to seeing how young Bernie Ibini Isei goes for the Mariners this year. , same goes for Musty Amini...there you go right there, as if I needed more reasons to watch the HAL, I'll be looking at the future of the Socceroos every weekend.
james rosewarne
Roar Guru
I also believe in the 4-3-3 system and don't believe its defensive at all. The problem as I see it, is that the 4-3-3 often acts as a disguise for something more akin to 4-5-1, where the wings (as you rightly point out) sometimes disappear and leave the striker very much unsupported. I don't think we're ready to play the 4-3-3 the way the likes of Barcelona or even Brisbane do (we're far, far away to be sure) while we haven't really got the talent in the back 4 which indeed kick starts that particular formation. I'm advocating a flatter 4-4-2 type look, at least for this team. It would mean asking Oar to track back a little more, in the same vein as Matt McKay for instance, while I think Amini should partner him there. I don't know quite who should occupy the two more defensive midfield positions in the absense of Kantarovski and any other natural fits, though I suspect Atonis and Petratos would be our best bet for now. Maybe Grant could be moved into the midfield, or Sam Gallagher perhaps? To address the first comment I'm just a little sick of hearing about processes and development and learning. Its the Under 20 World Cup for Pete's sake! It's kind of a little pathetic continually losing at youth level yet attempting to justify the results by the old 'learning the right way to play' rhetoric. Surely that's what their clubs are doing for these individuals as well. Surely there's some sort of a duty to deliver some positive results when it comes to representative football?
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
James---I think the problem here is that the manager has been trying to play a system imposed on him by the Technical Director of Football, (Han Berger), and that's not to say it's a bad system. You have to start somewhere. However, this group are not up to playing a 4-3-3, which is not a conservative one you are suggesting btw, but a very attack system formation, however, it requires a very high level of technical skill by our group, which has not been there. The problem has been we have wingers who have not been able to get into the game, because the midfield due to lack of technical skill has not been able to cope with the higher pressing game of the opposition. We have to return to a lesser attacking formation like the 4-4-2 with Bulut and Ibini (as you rightly point out) as our twin striker force. Oar then can drop deeper at the back and join an attacking midfield with Almini this will provide extra cover in the midfield to help defend the high pressing game of the opposition. Although I'm a believer of the 4-3-3 we are not ready for it just yet.
mintox
Guest
It's articles like this that show that people still don't undestand the purpose of youth football and the u20 team at this world cup. For too long we've been trying to maximise "individual talent" to get us as far as possible in youth world cups all the while sacrificing the development of our players ability to posess the ball, build out from the back and attack as a team. It's been a far from forgettable tournament for the Young Socceroos, the second half of the Costa Rica game was particularly impressive in that the team started to play fluidly and were able to create goals. Too many people, yourself included, judging by your comments, put too much stock in us trying to go out there and win the game. More important is the manner in which we play. If we are unsuccessful playing our game, we need to go back and analyse what went wrong and what we need to change in our youth development system. These championships are a guage for how well we are doing in developing talent. It's not the place to abandon what we're trying to build and switch to two up front just to acheive a result. You only need to look to our last great success at youth level, the 1999 u17 World Cup in which we ground out a lot of results and finished runner up to Brazil. You only need to look at the careers of many of those team members to see that we were largely unsuccessful at producing talent that was good enough. The majority ply their trade in the A-League with only Josh Kennedy, Scott McDonald and Adrian Madaschi really creating any sort of lasting career overseas (and for most of them that wasn't until their mid to late 20s). The team needs to go out and try and out play the Spanish their way, by posessing the ball, building up from the back and not being scared to attack in numbers. If we fail doing this then we will have learned a lot more than we would from winning and abandoning our development plan.