Japan is the template, but does our football culture allow us to follow it?

Post_hoc - I know that some teams in Australia have set up youth programmes. The difference is that . . . . beginning in YEAR 1 . . . . J.League teams have been required to operate U-12, U-15 and U-18 programmes, paid for by the team, as a REQUIREMENT of J.League membership. This qualification is strictly enforced and has to be met even by amateur teams who are applying for J.League membership. Even if they have to operate if for a half-decade before they even manage to get into the J3！ Its great that a few A-League teams have academies. But why isnt it a requirement? Is the A-League's remit "to develop the sport of football in Australia" ? or is it to make money for the teams and the League bosses, and hopefully the sport will develop on its own. ???

You mean like the Wanderers, Sydney FC, Mariners, Brisbane have? I know Wanderers amd Brisbane are Free from 12 up, I believe Sydney FC and Mariners are also Free. There would be people on here that could talk to the Melbourne based clubs. But that systems exists in Australia

How would you know what standard AFLX was if you didnt watch.

Spot on. The small game, hold the ball stuff is used in many of the top academies in Europe. My local one copies PSG’s youth system. It’s just that the Japanese should be congratulated for what they have managed on only a few decades.

He’s not suggesting that we ‘be’ Japan though is he? He’s suggesting that they have points we can take given what they have managed in only a few decades. We already know how to play a physical game, we aren’t going to forget that. And hopefully we never become as tactically rigid at the top level (although aren’t we already). Adding some technique will surely help. At the grass roots you can go on about the Dutch system all you like but the teams that dominate at junior levels all have kids in them who are spending extra time in technique schools doing the kind of training that is employed in Japan as a matter of course.

That’s awesome, the youth development. How hard would it be to get ALeague teams to do the same. We really are a backwater aren’t we.

True. Their coach lost that one for them. They got burnt the previous game parking a bus the whole 90. Against Belgium they came out firing, got the goals, and then in the last 20 when they needed to park a bus, or at least pull back a bit, they threw on more attacking players and opened right up. I saw a funny quote on Twitter when they made their last sub, ‘Japan’s Coach has just committed suicide I see.’

Hate to break it to you but other than insularity, all of those things are happening here as well.

Sarcasm dude

They played well at the most recent Cup, it was some crazy coaching decisions that did for both teams, especially Korea in their first game, and Japan in their last.

My kid, 9, plays four days a week. Two skills groups where it’s just 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 and very little instruction other than positioning, but tons of time on the ball, one day at his club’s pre season and a futsal game. That’s a fair bit, and he’s improving but he’s still average. Despite the suggestion Aussie kids aren’t doing this stuff, in fact 1000s are across Australia. Spending heaps of time on the ball. Where I agree about the difference between us, it’s cultural. Aussie kids that want to get better, they take themselves off and kick it against the wall all night. They can’t help themselves. Our sporting culture is to say, ‘they have to really want it if they are going to make it.’ My wife is Japanese. My nephew comes over here for a 2 week holiday, he’s 10. He woke up at 6.00 am each day to throw a baseball for 45 minutes at his grandfather. That ball was coming so fast ... thwak ... that it scared me. He’s in his prefectures top team, they have not lost in 30 or so games in a row. Kids on a baseball team there finish school at 5, train for 3 hours and then do their homework. It’s not about wanting it more or desiring the ‘big leagues’ one day like delusional fathers you see at football fields. They just have to do it full stop or get off the team. Despite being their best player his coach told him he was lazy and needed to train more in his spare time, hence the early mornings. He literally has no sense that he might be a pro one day, Japanese kids don’t call themselves ‘Messi’ like our kids do when they nutmeg someone. They just quietly do the work out of a sense of obligation. I’m not saying that’s better. I don’t think it makes them happy. But that attitude seems to build more depth in players with ability, learned rather than born with it (which seems closer to our approach).

with all things considered, Australia is doing well! The A-league is also ok! Comparing a much larger country with a much higher interest in football is a little unfair. There are some good points raised in the article and if you add in the numbers... as in a much larger country with no other football code

If Ange made such a mess of things and was too rigid in his thinking then what the hell would you call Graham Arnold efforts at the Asian Cup? He did the opposite of Ange yet we were luck to get out of our group. Not saying that AP didn't make mistakes just that we have been overtaken by a lot of sides in Asia in terms of youth development and it's starting to show. Also don't forget if we were in the other WCQ group we'd have qualified with games to spare and were only goal difference away from qualifying and that final game against Thailand if you play it another 100 times, 99 we score the goals needed.

Admiral - Dettmar Cramer was an itinerent coach who started of in Germany but before he retired is widely thought to be the man that began the popularisation of football in Japan. He is widely recognised for his work in Germany, Japan and America but unfortunately did nothing in Australia other than a flying visit during his travels. Probably the highlight of his efforts came when Japan won the bronze medal at the 1974 Olympics. In Japan he was instrumental in nurturing their first national team,setting up a coaching scheme to coach coaches,among other notable achievements ,all apparently with governmental backing. The man who came to Australia, Eric Worthington,obviously thought along the same lines as Kramer,but as has already been said never,ever received the backing from where it could have been most expected, inside our game itself. Cheers jb ps Attended a Kramer lecture when he visited OZ, very inspirational. jb.

It's important to note the reasons Vahid Halilhodžić were sacked were around performance and not results (as many Aussies couldn't understand why sack a coach when you qualified). Japan harbor ambitions of winning the world cup one day and weren't happy playing the reactive, overly defensive style that Halilhodžić had them playing so they acted. The lesson being they weren't just happy to qualify they wanted to go further, which is at the heart of what Ange was trying to do here but ran up against an FFA board who are happy just to qualify as they judge (correctly sadly) that that's all the majority of Australian sports fans care about.

The mistake we keep making is in saying such and such country (based on whatever the current trend is) should be the template then slavishly following that template to the letter. What we should do is look at what all countries that are having success in youth development are doing (this means not just Europe) and based on that pick a particular template as a starting point that broadly ties in with Australian culture but tweak it to suit our specific needs and challenges (e.g. the challenge of a small population dispersed over a large land mass), and also ensure it constantly evolves over time. Both Spain and Germany started off with 'the dutch template' as their basis when overhauling their youth programs but crucially didn't just blindly follow it but rather adapted it to suit their own needs and cultural mentality. Japan's youth development around time of j-league commencing started out with 'the Brazilian template' and imported a lot of Brazilian coaches but again adapted it to suit their needs/cultural mentality. Also they all showed patience as they understood it takes a long time for that to come to fruition but unfortunately patience/long term vision has rarely existed in Australian political society let alone our sporting culture. Of course lack of mature football media in Australia is also a hindrance as the only issue they seem to be able to focus on with any consistency is bashing the FFA (which is warranted at times) or bashing the coach when we struggle in a few games. But the coverage is only by mainly looking at the surface of a decision (e.g. we don't have faith in the board ergo everyone at FFA is rubbish, or sack the coach because we are struggling in qualifying, or sack the coach because we only reached 1/4 finals of Asian Cup and lost to an Asian team not called Japan, S Korea or Iran). When instead they'd do better to look underneath the reasons for a decision (e.g. no coherent approach to youth development existed for a long time both before and after the NSL disbanded and that we're being rapidly left behind by other Asian nations who have invested in their youth). Also as a community we need to stop attacking everyone who holds a different view to us and instead engage them in meaningful debate so we can learn from each other. But above all show patience and don't focus exclusively on results at youth level as a measure of whether our development programs are working as performances and skill acquisition at that level are more important.

Maybe it is easier following players from countries that use the same alphabet as us, even though their language is different.

Japan's economy has been flat for a quarter of a century, they have huge social problems where young people become hermits, very insular culture (some would call it a racist culture but I won't because the mods might not like it), declining population, people literally working themselves to death. These are things I would not want to see in Australia.

The Japanese probably don't have their best athletes picked over by Aussie Rules and League. You can only imagine how strong the Socceroos would be with the Abletts, Betts, Riolis all dedicating themselves to soccer at a young age rather than our national game. I reckon you could teach an Eddie Betts to kick a soccer ball better than a Tom Rogic or a Robbie Kruse in 6 months.

spot on with this post AGO74