While the Socceroos have dominated the headlines in the past week with friendlies against Belgium and Saudi Arabia, those with an eye beyond the Asian Cup have also been looking at our national youth teams.
While the Young Socceroos have been anything but impressive at the AFF U-19 Youth Championships in Vietnam, go three or four years down the chain to the Joeys, currently playing in the AFC U-16 Championship in Thailand, and the signs look very encouraging.
Indeed, the work of these 15 and 16-year-olds so far at this tournament, which double as qualifiers for next year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, has been among the most eye-opening from any of our youth teams in a very long time.
What they have demonstrated in the three wins so far against China, Hong Kong and Japan is that they are playing to a default template that they all know and understand.
There is a chemistry and understanding that almost appears automatic.
Yes, some of the decisions and connections in the final third may have been better at times, but the broader picture is that these kids have a confidence and ability in their work, borne from years of mastering their technique through hard work.
What we are seeing are players that have come through playing the “curriculum” way, that being a proactive possession-based game built around tactical control.
The understanding appears to come from the work being put into the squad this year via the FFA Centre of Excellence based at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. These kids that have spent the past decade moving through a cycle, starting with a 3-3 formation in the Under-9s to the 4-3-3 they’re playing in Thailand.
They are in touch with the tactical requirements, from playing a high defensive line, to pressuring high to win the ball back, to getting the fullbacks integrating, to encouraging the wide players to take their man on and create.
While Tony Vidmar and the technical team at the FFA Centre of Excellence have clearly played a significant role in the development process this year, the team’s work here points to a broader system that is starting to produce kids comfortable with their game and on the ball.
By virtue of the fact I’ve been involved in coaching youngsters the past few years, I’ve seen first hand how those that are doing it well across the Skills Acquisition Programs (SAP) and various institute programs and private academies, are doing it really really well.
While, as I wrote a fortnight ago, there is still some way to go to get this ideology embedded more broadly, there are a mountain of good kids being produced, as we are starting to see.
Having watched Australian youth football for the past few decades, and seen the ups and downs, I don’t want to get too carried away with what we’ve seen from this Joeys squad so far.
Indeed, with a quarter-final still to win to qualify for the World Cup, it would be a big let-down if this talented team didn’t get the opportunity to test its technical blueprint on the world stage next year.
But it’s hard not to be excited by the work we’ve seen in the three games. What has impressed me the most is their ability to control opponents through a tactical understanding of the way to control a game.
It appears inbred, as if they only know the one way. That way is to be proactive, get on the front and have a go.
Right from the opening whistle against China the ball was at the feet of the diminutive wide right attacker Daniel Aranzi and he demonstrated not only a wonderful technical make-up, but an ability to link-up with the likes of midfielders Joe Caletti, Jamie Dimitroff, Charlie Devereux and attackers Cameron Joice and Kosta Petratos.
Drifting infield to link or getting on the outside to create, the work of the wide kids in Aranzi, Petratos and flyer Daniel Maskin has been a real feature of the technical and tactical output of this team.
Elsewhere, Caletti and Dimitroff keep things ticking simply and efficiently from the deeper midfielder spots, almost going unnoticed. Ahead of them there has been a mountain of fun produced from attacking midfielder Jake Brimmer in the past two games.
The player scouted in Melbourne when Liverpool FC were out here last year looks to have a very bright future, and is also very handy at the set piece.
Behind them I’ve also been impressed by the integration from left back Jackson Bandiera. His is a fascinating insight into the development work taking place.
When I first saw him three years ago at the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) in Parklea, the then 12-year-old was playing in the number nine role under Ian Crook. His older teammates at the time included Aaron Calver and Alex Gersbach (now at Sydney FC), Tom Slater and Liam Rose (Central Coast Mariners) and Martin Lo (Western Sydney Wanderers).
Due to his age Bandiera hung around at NSWIS and was used mainly as a left attacker by Crook’s successor Ante Juric. Now he is playing as a left back for the Joeys, showing the potential for an interchangeability of positions under the modern structure.
Importantly, what these kids have demonstrated in the three games so far is that proactive football can also lead to winning football.
While there has been much impatience over the past few years as the results haven’t been coming at youth level, there has been the odd ray of sunshine from the likes of Danny de Silva and Awer Mabil.
But the current batch of Joeys provide hope that the seeds planted over the past decade are starting to bear fruit, and the exciting bit is what might follow over the next decade and beyond.
cookyjar
Guest
This thread from the FFT AUS forum highlights exactly the entrenched resistance there's been/is to facilitating the National Curriculum by encouraging/developing skillful players from the earliest possible age: http://au.fourfourtwo.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=95484
Bondy
Guest
Fox should broadcast that Australia match, what if the Australian Joey's reach the Final and win it ...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Australia will play North Korea in the Semi Final of the u16 AFC Championships on Wednesday night. Nth Korea beat Iran on penalties. In the other Semi Final, Korea Republic will play Syria, after KOR beat JPN 2-0 and Syria smashed UZB 5-1 in their Quarter finals.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Joeys are into the World Cup :D :D They beat Malaysia 2-1 and will now play the winner of Iran and North Korea, being played now. Will probably be Iran.
Bondy
Guest
Midfielder AFL amatuer brawl ( http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/halftime-brawl-halts-a-southern-football-league-grand-final-at-heatherton/story-fni0fit3-1227057617195?sv=59d248d31d500d20f1781d73ec0a8681&nk=8043c572df9aac93f60f78b26a7404b3#itm=newscomau%7Chome%7Cnca-homepage-network-most-popular-masthead%7C1%7Cbrawl-halts-footy-grand-final%7Chomepage%7Chomepage&itmt=1410690156003 ) ..
Leonardo
Roar Guru
I must confess Mick that sometimes we play 5-5-0, especially when we were up 2-1 with 10 minutes to go in the grand final. You need to be flexible, but the guys know the basic plan and can revert to it whenever we need to and they are developing a good sense of shape and positions. The biggest bad habit from earlier is ball watching; in defence and attack. We try and teach them that your position on the field in defence or in attack to receive the ball and score a goal is more important than following the ball. You can't have an effective passing game, unless you have players in position to receive the ball, so off the ball running and field position are a high priority. Also need to be aware where the goals are, sounds like a basic requirement but you'd be surprised how they follow the ball and forget where they are. You need to be aware of position, team shape and opponents movement around your own goal as well as the opponents goal, within the overall 4-3-3 or whatever formation.
aladdin sane
Guest
seems to be pretty cut and dry fast striker. absolute grease lightning, and handy finisher too. Still very raw, but can absolutely finish which is a great start.
Mick
Guest
Great post. My experience trying to implement this at park level is that it relies very heavily on the mobility & bravery of the back four, to enable the rest to play in an attacking manner. If your back line is timid or slow, its 4-5-1 all day & the opposition will be comfortable in their defensive third for the entire match. The next thing you know they're looking to hoof and it's back to kick & chase. Get the fullbacks forward, press high (within reason) & sort the no.6 out & it all of sudden starts to work. Much more to it than that as you've shown, though.
Tonus
Guest
Rad. More details http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/09/10/10/06/140910-u17mnt-nike-friendlies
Lee
Guest
What about Cameron Joice? What do we know about him... Is he a out and out Striker or is he more of a wideman?
Leonardo
Roar Guru
As outlined in the curriculum, indeed the 4-3-3 is a great learning formation for training ball possession in triangles and link play in triangles, however this assumes the opposition's formation is static. One major drawback with the 4-3-3 is that when the ball is switched to the opponents wide players, the central player(s) will become isolated in and around the penalty area where the cross is delivered. In this case you need to, in the first instance revert to the 4-5-1 formation and your wide attackers drop back to mark the attacking wingers of the opposition. Otherwise you allow your opponents to take advantage of space either out wide or near the edges of the penalty area. In this scenario it is imperative that the opposite winger joins the central striker in the danger areas as does at least 1 of the two attacking midfielders, whilst the other attacking central midfielder will look for pull backs and knock downs a little deeper than the attacking runs which are higher up into the penalty area. If the opposition back four hold their defensive line high up the pitch and do not allow the central striker to create depth then a combination of the striker coming short to draw a centre back further up field, the two wingers keeping wide to stretch the back line and forward runs form the 2 attacking midfielders beyond the defensive line can be used to open the defence. If in this scenario the centre back does not follow the striker then the striker can turn on the ball and play through to either attacking centre midfielder or behind the full backs for the wingers to attack. With increased numbers of players who can become involved in the attacking third this system of play can become a very attacking formation. The back four essentially play a traditional role when not in possession denying space and pressing in key areas but with the defensive central midfielder on hand to help with 2nd balls and compacting the oppositions midfield play. When in possession and the ball has switched wide to a winger, the opposite full back should push forward to fill the space left by his own winger who will make attacking runs inside to support the central striker in a pseudo 4-2-4 or 3-3-4 formation. As this happens the defence should slide across to maintain balance and shape. But when not in possession the 4–3–3 formation becomes a 4–5–1 system as the 2 wingers should drop back in to the middle third to compact the opposition’s midfielders. But if the opposition is playing a 4–4–2 system there is also opportunity to press for the ball higher up the pitch in the attacking third. This can force the opposition to play more directly through to their forwards and allow more chances to regain possession. The key to a successful 4–3–3 formation occurs in the moment of transition in play between the opponents possession and regaining the ball. Immediately possession is gained the team must be prepared to create width, depth and support at pace. This is also a great counter attacking tactic and an easy alternative to the 4-3-3 against strong teams who are dominating you for possession.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
You would hope so midfielder. This generation coming through have had the most attention, most coaching and most money ever spent on them of any Aussie youth teams, so you would hope to see some improvement. In my days we didn't have TV and had to wait for the boat to bring out the newspapers from old England and hope for a little caption or a few photos . . . and it was all legal too.
Justin Mahon
Guest
People continue to misunderstand the National Curriculum"s adoption of the 433. The 433 is a developmental formation for reason of its tactical flexibility. It's all about how it produces triangles more efficiently than the 422 and develops passing football more quickly. National Teams will be developed with a 433 with a view to increasing their tactical flexibility and capacity for shifting between formations in game. The fear of football "robots" fundamentally misunderstand the role of the 433 in development and how teams will set up on match day, or even within a match context.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
Is this the dawn of the new age of Golden Socceroos or just a good result against a below par Japanese team playing in very wet conditions? But the results are good and promising and the highlights look impressive, so I, like others, are hoping its the former and not the latter . . . and about time too. But I tell you one thing, we are the team with the worst haircuts in this tournament.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Also Ben NYL sides playing year round is good for re-enforcing development and learning...
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
I only saw the highlights however what was noticable was the way the Japanese' goals were crafted, picking their way through our defence whereas we relied much more on space behind defenders (and a truly woeful goalkeeping error).
aladdin sane
Guest
It's on odd one isn't it? Could it be because genetically, they don't seem to produce powerful, athletic types (which the majority of strikers tend to be - quick or strong or both) ? Or could it be a cultural thing? Individualism is not really part of their culture, and I think you need a bit of that to be a great striker. Whatever the reasons, it bodes very well for us in another 10 or so years when we are much closer to matching them technically, we certainly have the mental and physical edge now (both cameron joyce goals last night were largely the result of pace)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Glad you put that up. I read it & thought exactly the same - refreshing to have a coach give a realistic & honest analysis of the match, notwithstanding the result. JPN's decision-making & positioning in transition is a joy to watch - a replica of the senior team. Alas, just like the senior JPN team ... the foreplay is fantastic, but they find it tough to deliver "the money shot". ;-)
aladdin sane
Guest
Just thought I would post this, which are Vidmar's post match comments. For me, this is great to hear, would have been easy to focus on what was a great result. It is this kind of mentality that will have us producing truly world class players in the not too distant future. "We had a win, but I think we probably learnt a lot more from Japan as they are a very good footballing side," Aussie coach Vidmar told the AFC website. "They keep possession well and their decision making and game awareness is very good and that is somewhere we would like to get to. For us, credit to the boys as they worked hard, but we would like to start to produce good football. "We played a very good team and I think we were outplayed. There is no hiding behind that. We are still a long way off from where we can be and we will work with the players to get the best possible results. "Japan have come a long way in 20 years and we are still in our infancy in our youth development and where it should be, so we should look and see what we can do better."
Griffo
Roar Guru
Mark the calendars in November - all games live streamed from ussoccer.com website when Joeys take on England, Brazil and USA.