Young Socceroos lose 2-1 to El Salvador

The question is JB how do we get that higher individual skill? I've seen Arsenal play the Barca way & get destroyed by Barca because they don't have players like Messi & Inietas. You saw Holland change their game in the World cup final & was nearly successful when they could not match Spain's football skill level. But all the Dutch players were also highly skilled. So yes you need the players to play a certain style, but to get to that level you need to continue to try to play this level & hopefully the coaching & the players skill catches up. BTW there is nothing wrong with a 40 metres (get into the metric era JB), Ange & MV used it beautifully with 2 fast moving wingers last year, but 'hoofball is when you consistently use it & the defenders are fully aware that, that was your only way out of defence. I liked the way the Young Socceroos played, but totally agreed that we do not have the players yet to fully take advantage of it.

Corey Gameiro. Had he put the ball into the back of the net when presented with a gilt edge chance ... ?????? I'm pretty sure Dukes would have buried it with his eyes closed. Can't see Corey being anything more than a good HAL player TBH.

Disappointing overnight result with Australia losing to Turkey 2-1. Again our boys went in front and then conceded almost immediately. You have to expect at this level that there will be mental lapses. Not good conceding almost straight away. I think while we played well against Columbia we didnt do ourselves any favours with the match against El Salvador. I think questions need to be asked of Paul Okon in particular why one of our best players was left out of the starting squad. It might have been a personality clash or what Paul might have perceived as an "attitude problem", whatever it was I wish it could have been worked out because I firmly believe he would have made a difference. Paul Okon may have had his reasons, but the boys in the squad were genuinely shocked that Amini didnt make it. It was a tough group and I guess now we will never know. Lets move on.

you'd think he'd get a start!!

Breaking News.....Corey Gamiero has signed a two year deal with Sydney FC. Good signing and hopefully Okon starts him tonight.

Stevo - you talk a lot of common sense here.Today in our game we have groups who pay homage to "beautiful" ,"possession based"."playing out of the back," styles of football as is played by Barcelona & others.There are some problems inherent in this thinking & that is seeing the overall "big picture" when it comes to football tactics which have been in an almost never ending state of flux since the mid 1920's. The first thing that is apparently ignored is that to play like Barca you must have players as good as the Barca players.If this is accepted as a given fact what then should the"average" team be playing,that is teams who don't have Messis,Inietas,etc. That is where the real problem lies for in today's game,one can try & play like Barca but as the ratio of turnover is so much higher success is unlikely to be achieved. So what should be strived for?,a bad copy that invariably breaks down, or a strategy that incorporates the "good" talents of the players you have,be they physical,mental,or skill based. As an example,long balls are described as "hoofball" etc but to me when a wide right sided player is left unmarked I see it as "clever" if one of his own can pick him out with a 30 or 40 yard pass,after all, passing is a skill not to be constrained by the distance the ball travels but does it reach it's target before a defender can pick up that target?. Your last sentence goes very near the truth. Until we achieve a higher level of individual skill & the number of coaches who do the educating, we will be constrained in what we can achieve.Therefore the tactics used by our top teams should be set to suit our "best players".Keep up the good work jb

Watching the Spain v Italy confed match you can see how the top teams deal with different problems. We've been banging on about playing out from the back and building up play and then taking opportunities in the final third. The Italians are expertly dealing with a team like Spain that can very quickly organise its defence and close down opportunities - transition quickly with an occasional long ball. Yes the dreaded long ball but very effective if played as part of an overall strategy. The frustration with watching Bris Roar has been the almost single minded dedication to a patient build up when a mix of approaches would have been appropriate. I guess that requires a higher level of individual skill and coaching.

Ah very good.

One thing I'd definitely do is allow "marquee player" dollars to be used for youth Socceroos, as well as for the usual marquees, as Its better for the league and the players for them to be playing first-grade in Australia than warming the bench at Grasshopper. Im not too worried by a loss by an under-20s team that has sixteen year olds in it. Keep em playing, keep em touring, and maybe we'll get another Golden Generation.

Got a lot of time for Diogo - hard working lad, who was played out of position at Right Back. He's much better as a holding midfielder. Glad to have him back in the A-league.

Off topic but: Fuss - Roar signed Diogo Ferreira, always thought he was garbage, but will reserve judgement for now. What are your thoughts on him?

I think we just need to be more aware of what the defence gives us and adapt our game to suit our needs. As much as I love playing out from the back with neat passes, triangles etc. Sometimes when the long ball is on...............you need to go the long ball. This is not just kicking it long for the sake of kicking long. It might mean a quick throw by the goalkeeper or a long crossfield pass by one of our defenders. Every trick in the book should be used and we shouldnt just limit ourselves just playing from the back. Do I like playing the long ball, off course not, the longer the pass the riskier it is to lose posession, intercepted, kicked out. So while I agree passing it out from the back is something to be encouraged and developed, it shouldnt be the be all and end all.

You guys are being way too harsh. I didn't see the game against COL (except for the highlights), but I did watch this one. I thought the team always looked to play out from the back under pressure and keep possession. Yes, they went to sleep a few times and SLV got the win. But they must have been UNBELIEVABLE against COL because what I saw against SLV I found extremely encouraging. I have not seen the senior team play with such consistency and adherence to a style of play like that for ages.

agree on young hoole ... i think he is there for his free kicks and corners !

The game was decided by the coin toss. I totally agree! Both goals tbh

Just like watching Brisbane Roar in the second championship season. All possession and no punch. Hoole is a very ordinary right winger. The system only works if you have quality on both flanks.

Great goal 9th minute by Brillante, but they really did fall apart once ElSal got their first goal, and then the lead. They passed the ball well, to their opponents who were not all that great but completely shut us down. I'm not sure about the coach - surely earlier changes were called for, but I guess tournaments like this are much harder than it looks to a mere wanna' be like me. I am disappointed though, after all the hype I read on here I got up early expecting a good effort at least, but that was ordinary, I thought. Let's hope our future is better than that.

As has been pointed out above the result is very much secondary to performance. That we struggled was no great surprise. We showed our hand v Colombia, which allowed our second opponent to adjust accordingly. One of the difficulties for players adjusting to a new philosophy and style of play is that under pressure they tend to resort to habit. Should we be surprised that the Jets players can't problem solve what happens when opponents shut down passing options and pressure them? They end up knocking the ball long in the A-league. Most of the team feature in the A-league and very few have looked technically excellent and super comfortable receiving and holding the ball under pressure. Against an opponent anticipating and blocking the next pass this suddenly wouldn't improve. This is not a criticism by any means. There are plenty of promising signs. Playing out is a real challenge, particularly against well coached sides, and when it isn't necessarily a natural thing for some. We should expect teething problems (for the coach too), particularly as this generation are still technically so-so

Agree with Curtis Good - and he's one of our boys from HeartFC! He did a dodgy back pass in the game against Columbia that nearly had us in the poo and this morning he had a nervy game. In fact I was nervous nearly everytime he got near the ball. I hope it's just a learning thing because I'd really like to see him succeed in England.

I could have sworn I was watching the Newcastle Jets team from 2011/12 & 2012/13. Was expecting to see GVE on the bench everytime they put the camera on Okon. Like the Jets the boys knocked it around at the back waiting for some movement off the ball and would then lose it or eventually go long after their options dried up. Left and right backs too far up the park don't help. It is too predictable. The El Salvador coach got the tactics spot on, limiting our options going forward by shutting down De Silva and marking up on the wide backs. Like the Jets in the A-League, other coaches figured out how to shut down these tactics. Like the Jets there was no Plan B. Hopefully Okon will learn from this and change it up next time. Curtis Good had a bit of a shocker with his general passing and positioning for the second goal, however the misfired passes are a result of the feeling of having to do something to break down El Salvador, which we found increasingly difficult as the game went on. Taggart hardly saw the ball. Pain had a couple of good runs in the second half but apart from that, like Hoole, didn't contribute much. I thought Chapman played well in defence and was willing to get forward when we had to change it up. Would like to see him improve his finishing from set pieces. Saw plenty of misses for the jets last season but he does appear to be developing well.