♔ ♕ ♚ ♛ Australia U17/U20/U23 National Team Tournaments & Discussion Thread ♔ ♕ ♚ ♛

[Decentric]

The signs are promising.

Bearing in mind the absences of some of this group's mainstays (Nestory, Youlley, Younis, Di Pizio etc), Japan still looked technically superior to us. In particular, Schmidt and Ozeki really stood out to me.

That said, our advantage has always been our athleticism. When adopting the new curriculum, (IMO) the key was always to strike a balance between prioritising the focus on technical development without sacrificing the physical and athletic style we are famous for.

It appears to me that Japan is in the opposite phase now. They’ve always produced great technical players, but they’re beginning to develop elite athletes as well (see the steady rise of Japanese players in Europe over the past decade). However, I believe we are still superior in this area, particularly at u20 level, and it impacted last night's result.

Five years from now, I expect many of the Japanese players from last night to be making successful careers in Europe. The J-League does an excellent job of nurturing its talent. This is something Australian football has yet to figure out, often to the ruination of many promising careers.

At last I can comment after having seen the entire Japanese game.

On technique -

First touch, handling speed, passing and moving in tight spaces, passing over range, running with the ball, dribbling 1v1, striking the ball, overall Japan was better. Having said this, as you've mentioned, Irankunda, Youlley, and Zane Schreiber weren't playing, who have high level technique. Neither did Leonard, De Jesus and Kane Vidmar, plus Clayton Taylor.

Okon and Deli were as good as any of th e Japanese with handling speed and first touch, whilst Toure dribbled, ran with the ball better tha n most Japanese players.

Tackling, jockeying, heading, body on body duels, shielding - Australia was probably better.

Defensive organisation, structure, holding team shape, distance between and within the lines, Aus were better, but it might have been from more Aussies playing regular senior pro football, making them more match ready at this age. However, it might not be indicative of when a player peaks in his mid to late 20s.

Both teams played Half Presses, with moderate Squeezing, which is easier to maintain shape, but less likely to cause turnovers.

I didn't see possession stats, but they seemed pretty even, with Aus possibly being territorially disadvantaged.

Shots at goal - Aus only had 6 to Japan's 12.

Congrats to Aus for winning, but it wasn't a decisive victory apart from the scoreboard.

 

[Decentric]

Team shape was good in Ball Possession Opposition.

Esposito and Kikianis kept the defensive shape compact in BPO. It was impressive.

Both these CBs have good defensive technique and are good distributors on the ball. At least as good as the Japan CBs.

Thought Badolato, Yull, Jovanovic, had mediocre games. The Aus LB was okay. Bennie was quite effective at RB.

Thought Toure was the outstanding attacking outlet. His strength, pace, ball carrying and 1v1 dribbling caused the J defence a lot of problems.

 

[grazorblade]

At last I can comment after having seen the entire Japanese game.

On technique -

First touch, handling speed, passing and moving in tight spaces, passing over range, running with the ball, dribbling 1v1, striking the ball, overall Japan was better. Having said this, as you've mentioned, Irankunda, Youlley, and Zane Schreiber weren't playing, who have high level technique. Neither did Leonard, De Jesus and Kane Vidmar, plus Clayton Taylor.

Okon and Deli were as good as any of th e Japanese with handling speed and first touch, whilst Toure dribbled, ran with the ball better tha n most Japanese players.

Tackling, jockeying, heading, body on body duels, shielding - Australia was probably better.

Defensive organisation, structure, holding team shape, distance between and within the lines, Aus were better, but it might have been from more Aussies playing regular senior pro football, making them more match ready at this age. However, it might not be indicative of when a player peaks in his mid to late 20s.

Both teams played Half Presses, with moderate Squeezing, which is easier to maintain shape, but less likely to cause turnovers.

I didn't see possession stats, but they seemed pretty even, with Aus possibly being territorially disadvantaged.

Shots at goal - Aus only had 6 to Japan's 12.

Congrats to Aus for winning, but it wasn't a decisive victory apart from the scoreboard.

glad you got 10play working, all four games should be there!

slight correction - vidmar and taylor are 2004 and ineligible. There are of course many other players missing including euroroos younis (psv 2), lino (viking) and waddingham (portsmouth).

I agree about passing over range being better for japan this was also true of iraq. However, I thought our technical ability was similar or maybe even better and their shape of the ball was more organized than us. I'll take some screen shots from this game and the iran v japan game to demonstrate what I mean when I get time. I also thought throughout that our opponents were better at heading the ball than us, particularly china and qatar, opposition headers went out when we clearing the ball. A lot of our clearance headers weren't convincing and didn't result in a change in posession or a proper clearance. We probably won more than half our aerial duels though, so in that sense I agree we were better

 

[grazorblade]

Team shape was good in Ball Possession Opposition.

Esposito and Kikianis kept the defensive shape compact in BPO. It was impressive.

Both these CBs have good defensive technique and are good distributors on the ball. At least as good as the Japan CBs.

Thought Badolato, Yull, Jovanovic, had mediocre games. The Aus LB was okay. Bennie was quite effective at RB.

Thought Toure was the outstanding attacking outlet. His strength, pace, ball carrying and 1v1 dribbling caused the J defence a lot of problems.

our left back was probably an unsung hero imo. They really seem to target him and the majority of Japan's attack was down his side but Japan didn't seem to create anything of note apart from a header from 6 yards at a wide angle

 

[Quicky]

Shots at goal - Aus only had 6 to Japan's 12.

Congrats to Aus for winning, but it wasn't a decisive victory apart from the scoreboard.

This is a very misleading stat as most of those shots came panicked in low risk areas as they pushed for an equaliser late. Not really that threatening.

I recall you critised that none of our goals v Iraq came from open play. Both goals against Japan were open play. The first was very slick.

 

[Quicky]

our left back was probably an unsung hero imo. They really seem to target him and the majority of Japan's attack was down his side but Japan didn't seem to create anything of note apart from a header from 6 yards at a wide angle

Iraq targeted Talladira too and had no joy. He's been very good this tournament. I think teams are avoiding Bennies side.

 

[WhatAmIWatching]

Iraq targeted Talladira too and had no joy. He's been very good this tournament. I think teams are avoiding Bennies side.

They see what we are seeing in Bennie. BUT our LB is no pushover either.

 

[grazorblade]

They see what we are seeing in Bennie. BUT our LB is no pushover either.

yep good defensively. I saw some times where bennie could be in trouble at a higher level - namely a couple of times he had indecision over wether to close on the ball carrier or concede ground

 

[grazorblade]

watched the first half again

Japan's defensive shape wasn't as perfect as it was on first viewing, I still think it was better than ours.
Their main problem is their backline wasn't straight. Often one of the cbs was lingering a yard behind the others for some reason which would give us an extra yard advantage when trying to get in behind. Our defense had the same issue but for some reason we were better at exploiting this

Japan were very good at forming a compact shape really quickly around the ball carrier, they were almost never caught in a situation where there were too much space between the lines but sometimes I thought we were. Part of that was probably tactical - it looked like jovanovic and musa were given license to press higher and the next line wouldn't follow whereas if the japanese front line pressed, the next line would follow to keep a compact shape. Neither side were willing to press too high

Australia's main problem off the ball was tracking back. If there was a counter attack the back four would get back quickly for us, which is good, but the second line of defense takes a bit of time to get there. In particular if the counter attack came down bennie's side it would take ages for players on the opposite side (tallidira's side) to track back which meant we were vulnerable if Japan worked the ball back in. It nearly caught us out at the end of the half but the Japanese player tried to shoot with his back to goal when there were japanese players free on our left hand side and no cover. Japan didn't seem to have this problem

So I'm not convinced we were better off the ball but I could be missing something

 

[grazorblade]

Our first goal had 7 passes in the lead up through tight spaces. It was partly allowed by a defensive mistake by Japan

Jovanovic makes a run which pulls the Japanese cb (#4) out of position while bennie pulls their left back wide. For an instant, the space between the Japanese cb and their left back is massive and they just take a moment too long to adjust and put a player in that zone - the number 22 for Japan is just a fraction too slow to plug that gap. Bennie releases a winger who exploits the space with a cross to musa toure

 

[grazorblade]

That long pass from Japan at 49:54....wow

in the last 2 games a real skill gap between us and our opponents has been our opponents have had much better passing range. It is a skill that is really coveted by euro clubs and an area we need to improve

Not sure what needs to change for us to grow in that area.

 

[grazorblade]

55:56 our offside line isn't straight with bennie and esposito just plodding on the other side of the pitch about 2 yards behind tallidira and kikianis. This allows a dangerous situation with a through ball into the channel. Fortunately, the run isn't well timed (he goes a fraction late, not exploiting the extra yards of space) and he has to reach to get any cross in at all at the by line

 

[grazorblade]

We had a really bad period after scoring the goal and nearly concede from distance at 58 minutes

a lovely ball is recieved on the half turn behind our two defensive midfielders. Esposito is 2-3 yards behind the rest of the back line which means the rest of the backline has to retreat back more urgently to cover the runs of 3 Japanese players. This creates space between the lines and allows time for a shot from distance which hits the post

 

[melbcityguy]

Can I ask a silly question?

You look at Bennie he has such a engine his fast physical probably our best player. Is he wasted at right back?

Why wouldn't he be a good midfielder with all his attributes.

 

[Bowden]

Can I ask a silly question?

You look at Bennie he has such a engine his fast physical probably our best player. Is he wasted at right back?

Why wouldn't he be a good midfielder with all his attributes.

Modern fullbacks require the greatest engine of any position.

 

[Decentric]

This is a very misleading stat as most of those shots came panicked in low risk areas as they pushed for an equaliser late. Not really that threatening.

I recall you critised that none of our goals v Iraq came from open play. Both goals against Japan were open play. The first was very slick.

Good point, Quicky, many Japan shots were often panicked, or low percentage shots.

I've now just finished the Iraq game. Thought Badolato's superb winning goal came from a wonderful sequence of attacking interplay?

If not, just before and after the Badolato goal , Aus played some superb attacking football in the final third.

Iraq had a real go at Aus, playing an intensive Squeeze and Full Pressed. Apparently they beat our opponent in the final, Saudi, in the group games. Was impressed with the attacking intent, technique and athleticism of Iraq. Where Aus beat them is defensive organisation.

When Iraq swarmed our players in possession in midfield and attack, if they caused the turnover, it was worthwhile. But if the Aussie maintained possession, Iraq were often slow to assume effective defensive shape as the Aus build up continued.

Players who've impressed me over the two games.

Okon, Deli, Bennie, Kikanis, the keeper, Toure. These guys excelled!

Badolata - patchy.

Quintal - always struggle to differentiate him from other players physically. Did a few good things.

Jovanovic - defends and scraps well from the front.

Esposito - patchy. No doubt Leonard is currently better.

Yull - patchy.

Aus u20s would have been a lot better if they are all young enough - Waddingham, Schreiber, Leonard, Irankunda, Eames, Youlley, De Jesus. Most of them play major roles for their senior pro teams.

Although Morgan has preferred to play Badolata to Memeti from Melb City.

 

[Decentric]

Can I ask a silly question?

You look at Bennie he has such a engine his fast physical probably our best player. Is he wasted at right back?

Why wouldn't he be a good midfielder with all his attributes.

Over the two games, I think Okon is just as good. Ditto Kikanis and Toure. Maybe Deli too?

Bennie's defensive capabilities were really tested against Iraq. He did well. Was not put under the same defensive pressure against Japan, and Bennie had more scope to attack. His engine is needed at RB, because it is such a physically demanding position, as Bowden says.

Bennie and Toure really tested our opponents with their pace over the turf.

 

[Decentric]

We had a really bad period after scoring the goal and nearly concede from distance at 58 minutes

a lovely ball is recieved on the half turn behind our two defensive midfielders. Esposito is 2-3 yards behind the rest of the back line which means the rest of the backline has to retreat back more urgently to cover the runs of 3 Japanese players. This creates space between the lines and allows time for a shot from distance which hits the post

Esposito was still at fault for the goal. He fluffed his defensive body shape.

 

[Decentric]

We had a really bad period after scoring the goal and nearly concede from distance at 58 minutes

a lovely ball is recieved on the half turn behind our two defensive midfielders. Esposito is 2-3 yards behind the rest of the back line which means the rest of the backline has to retreat back more urgently to cover the runs of 3 Japanese players. This creates space between the lines and allows time for a shot from distance which hits the post

Aus had a bit of luck.

 

[jas88]

Thought Toure was the outstanding attacking outlet. His strength, pace, ball carrying and 1v1 dribbling caused the J defence a lot of problems.

I think its probably been 20 years since we had an actual striker who scared his defenders. It made a huge difference in helping us stay up the field in that mid block. I think at one point even Bennie got in behind too.

Modern fullbacks require the greatest engine of any position.

Bennie is straight up a Emerton regen lol