Verbeek predicts tough times for Socceroos

Love it! Dont agre with it all - but love it!

What would Verbeek know about strayan sockah, now he's in the remote sockah outpost of Morocco coaching youth? These second rate Dutch hacks and blow ins are unemployable in their own country. Verbeek's biggest gig holding the clipboard was with world powerhouse - the Netherlands Antilles. Verbeek, like all the other edam munchers, are just in straya on the gravy train. Any half decent clipboard carrier, like me, could have done a better job with the Socceroos than Verbeek. I'd have got them to the last 16 at South Africa.

philk - while agreeing with most of what you spell out, the question of time,which you appear to gloss over,has to be raised, for over the last 7 years we have had highly paid individuals brought to our shores ostensibly to give our "teaching methods" a huge uplift in quality and standard. In 7 years we can take a student and turn him into a doctor,a lawyer,or a myriad of tradesmen in various genres and yet we cannot, it appears , better a standard of education in football that produced underage world cup performers in the years previous to this supposed haitus we have had thrust upon us.You state that "once the benefits start to show etc", but that in turn poses the question how long is it going to take.You say there a disturbing "gap" in what I like to term "our production line" but do not expand on what has caused that gap which is really what this article and blogs is all about.Or better still, how is it going to be fixed. You mention the improved standard of the A- league but how much of that improvement can be allocated to local product as against the contribution of "imports".. "Stars" in this week's games so far show a disturbing trend that the "import contribution" is much greater than that of young local product. Go through it team by team and you may be surprised at how true that statement may be to the eye of the shrewd observer.jb

Of course Verbeek is right,he is stating the obvious. Qualification for the World Cup is paramount at Australia's stage of development in the general psyche of sporting achievement. Osiek is doing the best he can with limited playing stocks. Once the benefits start to show from the various Aleague academies and the overall improvement in the standard of the Aleague itself, then we will have a basis for player development. We can no longer rely on Europe or the UK to develop our youngsters for us. However there will be a gap and that is showing now with the performances of our various under-age teams on the world stage. If Holger can see us through this current World Cup campaign successfully he will have done his job and, hopefully, our next crop of players will be at a more advanced stage to take us through to Russia 2018.

"and some 2nd divisions leagues eg like in Norway for example would all be superior to the A-league in professionalism and standard," I don't think so Tim!

Between their Podcast, Magazine and Website they are probably the 2nd biggest producer of A league content after fox sports... and Adam Peacock from Fox was on that particular podcast. They do go to a lot of training sessions (compared to other journos) and I don't think they would bag the game if it wasn't true because they are normally staunch defenders of it. It seems something that is easy enough to fix and unhealthy to ignore it.

Bee-Bee -Can't help but ask you a question.Your reference to the "pig iron" generations I take to include the successful team of 1974. My question - In 2006 ,at huge expense, Guss Hiddink was brought here to get our team to the World Cup finals He did. In 1974,on a shoestring,a part time coach was asked to take a part time playing squad to the World Cup finals. He did. Now another question. In your humble opinion who had the harder task??????? Remember the vast majority of our Golden Generation were playing high class football with top clubs across Europe. Our part time Squad in 1974 was recruited from local leagues around Australia.I for one can never,ever belittle that effort. Yours jb

Beats me how anyone can blame Verbeek,,or for that matter Olger, for a perceived lack of quality players coming through our "system" to replace ageing players in the Socceroo team.Both men were employed to pick who, in their opinion, were the best 22 or so players to represent our country in the various international competitions at the top level of the game,Both have had limited succes in the role ,but if the World Cup is the yardstick, Verbeek got us there no matter if you like the tactics he employed. Olger's task is one "in motion" but one should remember his " pool" has been greatly reduced from that enjoyed by Verbeek. Now where in the "production line" do, or did, these two men operate?. Apart from the usual "drop-in" on a game, or an informsal chat with coaches , they have no official capacity in the scheme of things when it comes to that same "production line", for,at a huge cost compared with expenditure in the past ,we have, over the last 6 or 7 years, employed directors of coaching to plan,organise and control that same production line.Has it been successful?,has there been a return for the millions spent?,results among our under-age teams suggest not and that complaint has been expressed in these columns many times, over the last few years but it was interesting that, only last week, SBS's chief pundit,Les Murray,finally posed that question also . Maybe the message is getting through but even if the problem were to be fixed tomorrow we now appear to have a six year gap in the education of our most promising youngsters, so maybe,just maybe Verbeek is not so far away with his observation. jb

Where on earth did this urban myth spring from, and exactly where do you get this piece of highly unlikely information, AndyRoo? And since when to the "442 boys" count as some kind of oracle on all things accurate and truthful? It's a football gossip site. I despair of nonsense like this being peddled as fact.

I just think the so called Golden Generation was primarily regarded as Golden because they got us to the WC in 06. If we go to Rio and get past the group stage. (Not possible according to Pim.) Then I am sure a new Golden generation will be established. Maybe they should be called the Platinum generation if they manage to go further. I guess when we had 30 years of the Pig Iron generations its easy to put the 06s on a pedastool. But it was only results that made them Golden. Had we lost that famous qualifier against Uruguay the Golden generation would have joined the Pig Irons. Its like in politics when people remember the golden Howard years. At the time most thought he was terrible. (personally I still do) Could our current lot be only considered useless because we just don't appreciate them until years later

Beautifully said Whiskey. 100% correct and a far more balanced and comprehensive summary than Pim would be capable of giving.

I recall a young Mark Viduka playing in an earlier version of the A-league back in 1994 (?).. he then went to Croatia for a year when Man United made an offer for him, which he declined in order to go to Leeds United. So if local coaches are bold and pick the young guys, there is no reason we cannot uncover new talent which can succeed at higher levels. Agree with Pims comments about the Olyroos not being able to score a goal in 6 games.. that really is a worry.

Oh dear the Norwegian 2nd division is better now is it,of course you'd have watched plenty of their matches.

Not so sure about Norway. They have a very small population and the football is fun but not superbly supported (I watch the occasional IK Start match with my Norwegian mate via the internet). From the little I've seen of Polish football I'd have to say the same.

Pim is 100 percent spot on, but I fear even worse. You just never see kids out on the streets and in the parks after school kicking balls around anymore. They are all on their computers and consoles nowadays in doors. You don't see kids out of doors in most developed nations nowadays because of the same reasons. To get really good at something you need to spend 10,000 hours on it they say. You cannot do that inside on a computer playing Pro Evo or Fifa. You can have all the greatest coaches, the best fields, clubs, you name it but without hour upon hour of practice you won't get good. It is as simple as that.

Ian leagues in Europe just about all are superior. Leagues like Belguim,Norway,Croatia,Poland,Sweden,Denmark, and some 2nd divisions leagues eg like in Norway for example would all be superior to the A-league in professionalism and standard, and clubs salary caps or expenditure on players. Bigger populations and bigger club finances to spend on players and star players.

I think Verbeek is right, but its mostly because 'Golden Generations' dont come around that often. Im certainly happier with kids playing in the A-League rather than, say, second division in Switzerland - especially if this means they get picked for occasional Asia Cup matches, and the other games that you dont want to use your European-based Australians in. That said, developing players for national team duty needs to be encouraged in the A-League - personally, I'd be fine with giving an A-League team a bit more cap room every time one of their kids gets an Australian cap.

There are exceptions - am thinking of Walcott for arsenal who didnt play until 13. Also between league and union there do seem to be a lot of interchangeability (Rogers, Gower, SBW recently... And some the other way (Cross?)). Dont know re AFL - only heard of Folau and because of codewar jibberjabber getting posted. .. Is it spreading talent thinly or not coaching them properly at the outset? Some countries with smaller population seem to cope well enough - Holland, Croatia, Belgium, NZ, Portugal and, of course, Smithfield.

Well said, we have youngsters overseas at clubs like Villa, Spurs, West Ham, in the Erevedisie and the like - some may come good, many won't. There has definitely been a slump recently but that appears to being rectified, alebit slowly, notably with players who have come from the HAL - looking at Good, Oar, Sarota, Zullo, Kruse, Ruky, Amini, Langerack, El Babjl (sp) - in the Euro scene and some others in Asia (Devere). Is Pim overlooking McKay and Ogenovski again in his comments?.. Some players who have predominately been in europe, as per his preferred developmental route, are still there plugging away too - most of us read the aussies overseas sections and see their names. The question now is not is it better to train in europe than play HAL, but to warm a bench or play game time. .. Pim is not saying anything we all havent said at one time or another - the dearth of talent between the 06 crowd and now was always going to require a focus on better coaching - improved tactics and organization - for results as we cldnt rely on having cahill saving us for ever... hopefully this too is happening, at HAL level at least. .. The HAL is becoming a better league each season, one of its stated aims was to provide a pathway for developing the next generation. Potential is being realised, just not overnight. It is beginning to produce some players, and hopefully will produce more. Pim is wrong. he is judging the stocks at 2010 benchmarks, not 2012.

yes, if true, - i don't quite understand why, espec with all the coaches now having played or trained in europe and having been put through upto date coaching clinics etc, that this is the case. Does anyone know? Surely a professional team would train the same number of hours in Holland, Scotland, Ukraine, Japan etc.. the standard of training/ technique etc might vary but why would a HAL club now be so lax compared to a Euro club in this aspect.