Tim Cahill was not MOTM in Australia's clash with Holland

Simon - Obviously my "word of caution" has fallen on deaf ears, Why do you cut our squad down to three people when there is eleven on the field. To maintain some logic in your argument you cite "when Taggart came on", but I wonder if you noticed that when Holland made an essential substitution for their centreback the replacement was only 20,so to use your point that also reduced the average age of the Dutch team,or backline, the 4 men averaging 22 y.o.a.The forward line you chose to mention,Leckie,Taggart,and Oar also average 22 y.o,a. So what are we discussing here.The heavy weights that you mention here,Chile and Holland actually have more "youthful" players in their starting line-ups than we have so why try to sell a story that Ange has thrown a bunch of kids into the fray. Ange, in the short time he has had, has done a remarkable job in boosting the confidence and belief in a squad of players 13 of whom were in the squad that France and Brazil thrashed only 9 months ago.That's where to heap praise on him forget about the "young angle", that's just so much hogwash,just as the HAL content,7 out of 23, can be twisted around to prove what????. As I said,with our league now nearly 10 years old it becomes a fact of life that many of our squad will have played in the HAL at some time of their career. The fact remains that only 2 of the team against Holland play their football in our top league. That is not meant as a slight on our HAL it is simply a matter of where our top players play their football,ok?. Nothing would please me more than to see the day when all of our national team is playing in the HAL Cheers jb

Credit has to be given to Ange for entrusting our youth against world heavyweights...

Mathew Leckie and Tommy Oar are the youngest (attacking) midfielders Australia has fielded in their last three World Cup campaigns. When Adam Taggart came on, he made that average even younger. And if he starts against Spain that will complete our 'young' forward lineup, which is ultimately more the face and protagonist of the national team than our back line.

Simon - Just a word of caution.The HAL is now 10 years old and as the "normal" average age for international players is around 27 it stands to reason thet many of our "squad" have played in the competition.That is what many contributors like to point out.The squad of 23 contains 7 players who actually are playing in the league just now and of those 7 only 2,SpIranovic and Mackay, took the field against Holland with another 2 HAL players Franjic and Milligan ruled out by in by injury but in fact Milligan was replaced with one of the aforementioned HAL players,Mackay. The other thing to beware of is the oft used description of our "young" squad,in fact the Dutch team has a younger average age than our team.Our "inexperienced" back four are aged 27,26,30 and 23 while the Dutch back four are aged 22,29,22 and 24. While agreeing with the sentiments you are trying to put over in your article don't always believe what you read when appraising the writings of people just too lazy to do their investigative work but prefer to quote others. Actually Ange is still using about 13 players that were in the squad that lost so badly to France/Brazil so what he has done is not so much "blooded" a "new" generation rather he has made the players believe in themselves a lot more than his predecessor who was obviously motivated by the mandate set for him by the FFA rather than be concerned about the long term future of the game as a whole at international level.Keep up the good work. jb

Agree about the FIFA ranking system. Closer to home, would you say that the 2014 Socceroos should be ranked higher than our 2006 golden generation?

And the fact that the Socceroos squad consists of so many A-League players is testament to how far football has come in this country, and the future we can look forward to.

Ange has blooded a new generation and taught football the way it is supposed to be played. Although it has always been a pleasure to watch the Socceroos, nevertheless their overly-physical and defensive-minded approach to every game was indicative of a belief that we simply were not good enough to take the game to the opposition, something that was hard for fans to swallow. But Ange has changed that. His young Socceroos not only took the game to the Netherlands, they did it playing beautiful football, of which even the most ardent purists would be proud. We proved to the world that we belong in the World Cup and are not simply making up the numbers. But most importantly, the players proved to themselves that they are good enough to perform on the world stage. Cheers Ange for a successful campaign thus far!

The rankings are fallible but then they have to be. Remember players spend most of their time playing club football with about 10-12 internationals a year and of them maybe 7-8 aren't friendlies where the teams are trying. There's 200 teams so if you compare it to tennis imagine having the players play 1 tournament a year and then ranking them.

This world cup, like all the ones before it, show how poor the FIFA ranking system is. Australia, are well and truly better than the ranking they carried into this WC, and not being able to turn these performances into wins and thus getting knocked out in the group phase will likely mean that won't rise after this WC despite proving that to be the case with the performances. Likewise, Holland should be a lot higher than #14. How can anyone suggest they should be ranked 10 places below Portugal and 9 places below Switzerland is baffling. One thing is certain though, the Socceroos under Ange are definitely on the up. They'll have to go into the Asian cup in 6 months time with great expectations to have a real shot at winning. The big important thing that Ange has done in make the Aussie team play like an Aussie team should. The Italians can play a patient defensive game, holding out the opposition and looking for that chance to get the one goal they need to win. That's pretty much their way and the Italian public seem happy with that. The Australian mentality is always to attack and go after the win. We require our teams to play exciting, attacking style. It's why the Australian cricket team will always play out less draws than South Africa. We'd rather risk losing to go for the win, and only try to hold out for a draw when the win is totally out of the equation. Playing not to lose, and then going for the win if the chance comes up simply isn't the Australian way. Foreign coaches brought in here simply haven't understood that the way a local Australian coach does, and even if they are given those instructions, if they really believe that playing attacking football is a recipe for disaster, and they believe their job security is more based around results than playing style, then they'll likely scrap those instructions and play the defensive way they think is more likely to produce results from what they see as inferior personnel. Unfortunately, in general, the Australian coaches, while possibly understanding the Australian mentality to attack, haven't had the quality about them to be able to get a team doing that and doing it well. Ange seems to have that quality in a way that none of his Australian predecessors have had. He showed this at club level for the last few years, and has shown that he can carry that into the international arena. Add to that the fact that we finally have a good crop of young players coming through and the future looks very bright for the Socceroos. So many of the quality young players coming through at the moment are the age that means in 4 years time they'll be right in the prime of their careers and ready to cause some damage in Russia.

Glad to read something sensible about this team.We either read comments like a few "experts"said prior to the Chilean game that the Croatians took their foot off the pedal in the 1-0 game or we get opinions like that buffoon Dwayne Russell that we shouldn't be lauding the team after the Holland game.They've put in a great effort against two world class sides and the future looks better than it did before Ange took over -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

Enjoyed & agreed with all your sentiments, James. I'd secretly been hoping this would be how Australia's WC2014 would evolve. But, was prepared for the worst if things went pear-shaped. Credit to Ange. And, credit to the 23 lads who have bought-in to Ange's philosophy & are following his instructions perfectly.

The Aus player of the match for me was Leckie, not Cahill, and the MotM was between them and Robben. But yes. Credit to Ange for the way the boys have played As Da Silva and a few youngsters recognise their potential we could have a great side come Russia

Seal team 6? What you're comparing them to an assasination squad. On motm, if awarded at all it goes to the match WINNING performance so not an Australian.

Australian football arrived in 2006. The current group are just proving that legacy doesn't end with any player or coach but continues on.

Man on the match is an Australian concept? wow that's awesome. I follow Man United and they give out MOTM after every game. To think they've been inspired by Australian rugby is really cool.

There is no "man of the match" in Football. What are you talking about??? Man of the match is an Aussie eggball idea. It doesn't exist in football. It never did. It's a team sport and and a team performance. Stop trying to bring immature Aussie eggball ideas into the World Game. We don't need that.

Yep. Give Ange a large pay rise now, FFA. We want him there for the next decade.