Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

I think a lot could be the more global nature of the game now. No one would even look at the NSL. It was Australians and everyone knows they can't play.

It wasn't until the gg we made a world cup and had a decent number of guys make it in Europe.

Why would you bother trying to get talent from a country that can't even make a world cup.
 
Quicky said:
I misread you. I thought you'd meant we'd lost 3 already. I think theres a lot to play out.

I still think its likely most of those players play for us and I wouldn't start catastrophising it yet.

I do hope we smarten up and start being a bit more strategic capping these players though, as I mentioned in a post above.

I think Popovic coming in to do or die games every qualification round hasn't helped that. But I still think theres ways to win these games and to tie down our promising dual nationals.
Click to expand...
Yeah there hasnt even been room for friendlies since poppa has taken over (although australia a in europe would be a possibility but fa would need to employ someone for that)

I suspect we get volpato more worried about the other two as being first choice for the other nations looking at them looks more achievable
 
Cunningstunt said:
I think a lot could be the more global nature of the game now. No one would even look at the NSL. It was Australians and everyone knows they can't play.

It wasn't until the gg we made a world cup and had a decent number of guys make it in Europe.

Why would you bother trying to get talent from a country that can't even make a world cup.
Click to expand...
we have declined pretty significantly since, despite qualifying more often. Yet other countries seem to chase our players

It could just be the globalization of football as you say
 
grazorblade said:
we have declined pretty significantly since, despite qualifying more often. Yet other countries seem to chase our players

It could just be the globalization of football as you say
Click to expand...
We have declined a little since the gg. I don't know if you could say we have declined from the NSL.

Another thing, the Balkans, and Croatia (where we have probably lost most talent to) weren't independent countries until the 90s.
 
Cunningstunt said:
We have declined a little since the gg. I don't know if you could say we have declined from the NSL.

Another thing, the Balkans, and Croatia (where we have probably lost most talent to) weren't independent countries until the 90s.
Click to expand...
In relative terms the decline is pretty striking (aka players might have improved but not as much as global football has)

Craig moore, one of the minor figures for the gg was a regular for ranges at u20

There were 9 players born 75-80 that played at least 5 seasons getting at least 25 games for a big 5 club and there hasnt been a single player that has achieved that since

Fair point that it wouldve been harder for croatia to court our players before they existed, but croatia came about in 1991 which is before these players made their debuts
 
grazorblade said:
In relative terms the decline is pretty striking (aka players might have improved but not as much as global football has)

Craig moore, one of the minor figures for the gg was a regular for ranges at u20

There were 9 players born 75-80 that played at least 5 seasons getting at least 25 games for a big 5 club and there hasnt been a single player that has achieved that since

Fair point that it wouldve been harder for croatia to court our players before they existed, but croatia came about in 1991 which is before these players made their debuts
Click to expand...
I mean gg were the exception right? Hence why they were the gg. The 2006/10 team was actually the end of the generation, the decline was pretty sudden, hence why many of them hung around as long as they did, there wasn't the talent coming through. Gg probably went 20 years, 90s to 2010.

I think it is also fair to say a number of those guys would not have made it as far in today's game. The talent pool and scouting networks have just increased world wide. Would Craig Moore got a look in in the epl today? Seems less likely.

Croatia come in in 91 and the fuckers nab Simunic, Seric and Didiluca. Glad it didn't continue at that rate.
 
Cunningstunt said:
I mean gg were the exception right? Hence why they were the gg. The 2006/10 team was actually the end of the generation, the decline was pretty sudden, hence why many of them hung around as long as they did, there wasn't the talent coming through. Gg probably went 20 years, 90s to 2010.

I think it is also fair to say a number of those guys would not have made it as far in today's game. The talent pool and scouting networks have just increased world wide. Would Craig Moore got a look in in the epl today? Seems less likely.

Croatia come in on 91 and the fuckers nab Simunic, Seric and Didiluca. Glad it didn't continue at that rate.
Click to expand...
Its true that the game has improved, so we would have to produce much better players to get the same level of club success, but i think that is consistent with my wording that we have declined in relative terms

Outside the gg we produced similar quality players as now (again in relative terms, times have changes as you say) but a higher volume of them. I suspect that now we have a league academies the volume will improve a lot (but we still dont have a nyl to suplement b teams and still have less australian clubs....)
 
Irankunda: Silly U23 selection games timed with a Bayern move then a manager change and new regime. Not sure what to make of his socials responses but that's the modern world.

Circati: Shaky but got there and it's how it should be. Needn't have taken so long.

Robertson: A complete circus only made more difficult but rightly so by Popovic putting his foot down. His injuries didn't help but Arnold omitting just him in a friendly window is odd. Were benches limited? Take the hit and omit someone else to keep your jewel content.

Volpato: Silly kid who's skilled but not reaching the heights expected. He'd be right got Australia but maybe another 2 seasons of maturity can get his head right.

Triantis: Slightly awkward timing with capping windows but we've had plenty of games in the last 3 years and we've played the same players or deadwood which means we're less rejuvenated. He's also such a good prospect that it's dumb we didn't do it earlier.
 
grazorblade said:
Yeah there hasnt even been room for friendlies since poppa has taken over (although australia a in europe would be a possibility but fa would need to employ someone for that)

I suspect we get volpato more worried about the other two as being first choice for the other nations looking at them looks more achievable
Click to expand...
I mean friendlies won't actually tie down these players either. Although i'd like to see more friendlies too.

I just think we need to have good structures to keep in touch and assess these players. To bring them up through the youth national teams.

We also need to be proactive bringing them into the senior national team as squad depth and capping them at the end of qualifiers or other official competitive games to tie them down.

It shouldn't be that difficult or risky. I think its something we could do easily with a mindset change. If the FA/Popovic aren't fools about it.
 
Quicky said:
I mean friendlies won't actually tie down these players either. Although i'd like to see more friendlies too.

I just think we need to have good structures to keep in touch and assess these players. To bring them up through the youth national teams.

We also need to be proactive bringing them into the senior national team as squad depth and capping them at the end of qualifiers or other official competitive games to tie them down.

It shouldn't be that difficult or risky. I think its something we could do easily with a mindset change. If the FA/Popovic aren't fools about it.
Click to expand...
Yeah the role of friendlies would be more to make people feel part of the set up and get attached to the shirt

Ideally people are already pretty attached to the shirt but not sure how to get there
 
Just looking over the preliminary round. In hindsight it would have been easy to get Triantis on the pitch 3 times. It was clear in 2023 that he had good potential. While deadwood gets picked, future planning is ignored. Make it make sense.
 
JS96 said:
Triantis is on Arnold too with these constant selections of Baccus and Irvine in dead rubbers in the preliminaries. Even just putting the player on for 1min against Palestine away gets the ball rolling. It's been such an idiotic time with our most promising players.
Click to expand...
Saying that, Triantis has had a breakout season and only really demanded selection over the last 6 months. Arnold's biggest fuck up was, he brought Robertson in for that friendly against Ecuador, but didn't give him another opportunity.He should've been given a chance in the friendlies against England & the Kiwis - that's when he deleted all pictures & posts regarding the Socceroos when he wasn't selected. And obviously the Volpato disaster. Arnie did however secure Souttar, Boyle, Burgess, Circati, Irankunda, Toure & a few others, so decent "recruitment" overall
 
SocceroosFan said:
Saying that, Triantis has had a breakout season and only really demanded selection over the last 6 months. Arnold's biggest fuck up was, he brought Robertson in for that friendly against Ecuador, but didn't give him another opportunity.He should've been given a chance in the friendlies against England & the Kiwis - that's when he deleted all pictures & posts regarding the Socceroos when he wasn't selected. And obviously the Volpato disaster. Arnie did however secure Souttar, Boyle, Burgess, Circati, Irankunda, Toure & a few others, so decent "recruitment" overall
Click to expand...
I know (friendly tone) . I remember Triantis was very raw at that time. Thin and lacking confidence in his rare Sunderland games. We had Burgess doing so well and wanted to ride the Rowles wave at the time.

The Robertson friendly window totally sucked. A double pitfall was it saw Luongo not exactly cement confidence with his last game being against Bangladesh the injuries came back.
 
Crystal balls are really hard. I guess you have to cast a wide net since you never know what level a player achieves. which an aus a as well as having euro based olryoos friendlies to go with the a league based olyroos could help
 
SocceroosFan said:
Saying that, Triantis has had a breakout season and only really demanded selection over the last 6 months. Arnold's biggest fuck up was, he brought Robertson in for that friendly against Ecuador, but didn't give him another opportunity.He should've been given a chance in the friendlies against England & the Kiwis - that's when he deleted all pictures & posts regarding the Socceroos when he wasn't selected. And obviously the Volpato disaster. Arnie did however secure Souttar, Boyle, Burgess, Circati, Irankunda, Toure & a few others, so decent "recruitment" overall
Click to expand...
Is toure cap locked?
 
What I hate it how vague and how each case is shrouded in mystery. The press and commentators love it. We've seen it already that both managers get very defensive when waffled on and media members aren't going to risk their relationships by going in so hard.

Were this to get worse I wouldn't mind a well prepared Foster Ange (more credibility than Foster) grilling session. Ask straight up what's going on and why or why not and even comment back saying a lot of it simply unacceptable and poor organisation and communication.
 
JS96 said:
What I hate it how vague and how each case is shrouded in mystery. The press and commentators love it. We've seen it already that both managers get very defensive when waffled on and media members aren't going to risk their relationships by going in so hard.

Were this to get worse I wouldn't mind a well prepared Foster Ange (more credibility than Foster) grilling session. Ask straight up what's going on and why or why not and even comment back saying a lot of it simply unacceptable and poor organisation and communication.
Click to expand...
Its been really frustrating the lack of football media....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top