At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a Socceroos squad containing the likes of Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka, and Harry Kewell made it through to the knockout stage, where they were only beaten by a 95th minute penalty against eventual winners Italy.
Now, Australia’s men’s national team is only the fourth highest ranked AFC nation in the FIFA World Rankings, and is in danger of falling behind both Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the imminent future.
So in this documentary, HITC Sevens takes a closer look at some of the reasons behind the decline in Australian soccer, the Socceroos’ struggles, and what can be done to fix it.
Todas las noticias, clasificaciones y resultados de las mejores ligas de fútbol en la sección de deportes de El Diario Vasco. Camisetas UEFA CHAMPIONS
Great video… but you’ve made me a bit depressed
At least we are going dude…we always nut it out in the end…we just need to improve how far we go in the cup itself…our league is our league and I for one am entertained by it…for $9 you can watch all of the A League games and a few more…why should we compare ourselves to anywhere else?…I do agree though that we are treated as the embarrasing sibling in the media..as they don't want anyone getting bigger than the oval ball codes..it's a shame really as football is a fantastic sport that needs more respect here than it gets…Socceroos forever!!
Because you call it soccer bro
Why do you speak with that incredibly weird and annoying intonation?
What was it on the rise?
Stopp calling the Game Soccer, cause only Suckers call Football Soccer.
See all those Englisch speaking Countries that call the Game Soccer never ever had Success in the Game.
Great analysis there, mate. Cheers.
What a stupid name: soccer.
One of the issues you haven't alluded to to at all, is the massive tactical improvement in Australian football since 2008. There has been a massive overhaul of the Football Australia coach education methodology since 2008, with the appointments of Dutch Technical Directors Baan and Berger.
I've been inculcated in both the old coaching methodology and the new – since Baan. The new amalgam of Australian coaching methodology is an amalgam of Dutch, German, French and Spanish practice – the European proactive powerhouses. I've also been lucky enough to have undertaken advanced coaching in Dutch KNVB football methodology as well as Football Australia – both at semi- pro level.
A further premise is that Australia football is supposedly failing. There are only 11 countries in the world that have qualified for the last five successive World Cups. Australia is one of them. To achieve this, amounts to unqualified success.
The problem for Australia and most 3rd tier football league nations over the world is that the local league cannot compete for followers and their $$$$ .. If you are a football fan in Australia you are far more likely to follow and EPL team and sit down to watch EPL / champions league games and never even bother to watch your local A league side play.. The A League simply does not have the money to draw players who can draw viewers.. In world football the Big leagues just get richer and the lower leagues just get poorer..
Australia should have been given the World Cup 2022 instead of Qatar. It would have been a huge boost to football in the country. Australia has always been treated like crap by FIFA. Even when they won the Oceania qualifying group they always had to take part in a play-off against a team that had failed to qualify from South America.
Yep – promotion relegation – and at least an alternative pathway for youths to be offered club spots- that don't have money or parents with money.
I disagree with some of the points though. When the old system was dismantled lots of things were also falling apart such as school competition. Work permits are a bigger issue now for Aussies. Less have second nationality- less have played for a local club with a sister club in Greece or Turkey or Italy for example.
*nationalising players. We aren't- as all other Asian clubs are renowned for – as vicious nationalising talented foreigners as we should be.
Australia could easily snap up generations worth of talented pro footballers- u19-26 and nationalise them- this pathway should be incentivised! This- and less the academies/ other investment is responsible for countries such as Jordan and Qatar "all of a sudden" becoming competitive.
Further- the tv / media landscape is a shambles in every area – this is synonymous with the "anglosphere" which has been rather resurgent in the last decade. The loss of SBS coverage (thank goodness they will show the world cup) and the loss of the "ethnic roots" of the NSL clubs – was a clear and obvious benefit to Australian football identity this has been beiged and glossed over as a response to violence (?) Etc
Perhaps the tensions between communities is a problem that runs deeper than football and requires understanding and solutions rather than simply dismantling their cultural icons and making their beloved – pain stakingly built clubs that were linked strongly with foreign equivalents irrelevant to the "professional" game.
The AIS players like Aloisi talk fondly of wanting to emulate Italian migrant footballers. This is true of Serbs, Hungarians, Croatians, Greeks, Lebanese, Turkish, polish, Irish etc and could've been true for Ethiopian, Sudanese and south Sudanese as well as Afghan and other refugee communities to- if the old model was preserved. Like Church, for these new arrivals football acted as not only a symbol of home and the familiar – but also a vital tool to help to adapt to their new nation.
So this is the major problem.
It is David gallop being recruited to steer the ship from another code.
It is the national team coach being Australian for the vast majority of the last ten years – many of the players you mentioned were helped hugely by the networks of Venables and Hiddink and many others.
The logistics of Australia makes it very difficult to stage lots of games without unreasonable expense.
The A-Leagues foreigners should be potential socceroos for the most part and they aren't right now.
BUT the precedent is now there.
As far as the national team – I think we're better now than a few years back whatever the rankings say.
Behich is great- mooy, rogic(if he plays) mabil, Matt Ryan etc.
You can see Souttar will be a top flight player- Hrustic is in the Bundesliga and has only broken into the national team six months ago.
Rowles and Atkinson are good players that have come through the olyroos team- a team that recently beat Argentina..
The.qualifying for the world cup- the rise of the women's team and the A-Leagues low average age and growing popularity is encouraging. If for tv and promotion dollar – as well as more matches- these comments will seem like they were for too early in the process.
15 years might seem like a long time but compared to the systems they're competing against- it's nothing.
Italy just missed the world cup-
You know peru has made one in 4 decades.
Australia is a minnow – it has tried to adapt its system and the country is changing. Migrants from different places ie China – the rise and funding of basketball as a developing sport and the poluarity of the Boomers as well as stars like mills who over shadow current socceroos as celebrities.
This is nothing new – outside of cahill (much more internally revered than kewell and viduka somewhat bowers of past triumphs as opposed to the symbol of the sport and heart of the nation t cahill)
and the golden generation- profile of Aussie players has been low.
It has never bothered us. Our problem has been nepotism and a lack of ambition at the top.
Clearly they're.waiting for mass investment and this will not occurr until there is a bigger swell of support in the local population and a proper football pyramid ala promotion / relegation proper pathways for youths no.lack of competitive games.
I think your "physical attributes.over valued" comments are really inappropriate. This attitude has been beaten out of development football in Australia – it is the absence of this profile (until the last two or three games perhaps) as well as the scuppered ethno-football landscape that is being felt.
Technique – (skills acquisition phase )
Tactical (match practise phase)
Competitive match lack (practice match)
Literally the 3 prongs to a certified Australian football training methods/approach.
There is no "make your players do 50 push ups and drink a dozen eggs"
Which I'm told was very very prevalent in the sport in this country from the era kewell came up in- and before.
Again- there's nothing wrong with this if you ask me. It is subjective at best to say targeting athletic potential or kids that win is a bad approach- nor does it even slightly gel with the players that are promoted. Ie Amini, Arzani, mooy – all given more chances at club / international level than Kuol or Pierias and wales who are stronger and faster respectively – but had to come through state level teams. Unlike arzani or Armini – fast tracked to snr a league team -.fast tracked to snr nat team – pressured to go overseas… failure.
The physical players however tend to do better as these skills are more transferable and improbable than flair.
You've repeated the narrative sure but a lot of your points – no offence miss the real crux of this countries reluctance to embrace people of cultural diversity (although touched on second gen migrants – missed the club link ie Sydney Croatia or South Melbourne Hellas)- the A-League, come 2040, will be over 30 years in the running (older than the NSL) and we'll have some kind of pyramid- some stars (give Hrustic/souttar a chance.tho )
Better coverage, a foreign coach and a higher Fifa ranking. If Fifa survives.
We're at the end of our decline rather than the beginning.
Another major problem not discussed was covid !
Our ranking fell hugely during covid and it's fair to say our qualification was extremely disproportionately affected – as was our abilities to get our best reps on the park. Players also left foreign clubs ie leckie left bundesliga. Mooy left shanghai because he no longer felt safe in China and the Chinese super league has collapsed in on itself.
McGowan no offence Ryan- is barely a socceroo. Irrelevant!
Oh and Ac Milan? Really? You count Spider Kalac as a player ? My theory was he was the only player that didn't threaten dida's fragile ego. But anyway- it's rude to say kalac sitting on the bench for Milan for ten years and choking against croatia is the benchmark. Kewell played about 9 great games for his country and was injured the rest of the time. Viduka went about 40 games without scoring – so did McDonald.
Our fans actively abused an 18 year old who had scored in the serie A for Roma (bit better than a 31 year old chain smoking back up keeper )
For something he posted on social media – From agreeing to represent Australia at U23 level- to being blocked by his club from joining the squad- to being selected for Italy u19s euro squad.
This is us. This is what we do. But look out because when the next coach comes in the next generation is a LOT better than people realise and further is really the first generation to be of the new system entirely.
Spot on Alfie, this is a brilliant breakdown of Australian Football, the best ive seen delivered!
Because the Australians refuse to acknowledge that they need help.
I think a huge reason is because how bloody hot Australia is! It’s hard to be interested in a sport that you can never play due to the extreme heat.
Best example of our issue is when the recent friendly between Manchester United and Melbourne Victory was being promoted is that Melbourne Victory was basically sidelined while Rashford was taking pictures with random codes like the AFL, Rugby League and nothing to do with the team they were playing. We have sooo many issues in Australia and you did well to condense it to just 30 minutes in your video
Wow I was so angry even reading the title ! But you are definitely right with with your points and opinions rang true definitely did your research mate.
When talking about Elite players being from slums and such if I recall 21 top players came from Ipswich QLD funny as top academies are mostly based in other states of Australia eg. NSW haha
I would also like to bring the attention of the sheer distance also as you where hinting at with issues similar to the MSL in the USA.Check out the distance of Perth v Wellington watch a joke as we are not even in Oceania anymore.
I think Aussie watch or spectate more.
Australia football league
National rugby league
Cricket
Swimming
Tennis
Cycling
Almost forgot Rugby even golf or UFC haha
I think to much young talent has being missed couldn't even get Christian Volpano at Roma a shot also I bet Deni Juric will play for Croatia.
I am so pissed off.. I have to have multiple streaming services to watch football also I dream of having a more professional second leauge that can watch on free TV ahh
Your triggering title got me.
We still qualified suckas… keep on hating. Your tears make my skin soft…
What needs to be mentioned is the over regulation of football development with a national development curriculum at grassroots to professional level has greatly contributed to the problem.
Previously top tier to 4th tier club had technical autonomy in developing players with their own methodology as apposed to an over regulated development system.What has compounded this issue more profoundly is that caps on financial amount a lower tier club can sell their developed player to a richer club has removed the financial motivation to invest in youth development.This has removed the financial benefit for a club to develop a player and now they have to employ a user pay system to sunstitute that reduced earning that reconciled the costs of developing a youth player
Venezuala could have a handy cricket team
Bruh literally what you said about how the teams only care about winning, and therefore picking the physically developed kids, ahead of the talented kids happened to me. I was very promising talent or skill wise, but was told often I was too small. I would dominate games in the development teams from ages 11-12, but then everyone else started hitting puberty and I didn’t hahah. From ages 13-14 I was the smallest on the team, everyone was faster, stronger and quicker, but not technically as good. But they still would get selected over me for the games. I didn’t enjoy sitting on the bench, so gave soccer up after age 14. Now I’m 6 foot tall fast and strong. Just wish I hit puberty earlier, because who knows I’ll probably be a professional hahahaha.
One of the biggest problems with Australian soccer is the ethnic tribalism that exists at the State league levels.
The NSL clubs were ethnic based which meant the players were developed by coaches with those ethnic influences such as Italian, Greek, Croatian, English, Scottish, Yugoslavian, German. Hence why we had the likes of Viduka, Nelic, Bosnich, Bresciano, Kewell, Moore, Lazaridis, Grella, Schwarzer. All of that got ironed out because of the fierce rivalry, crowd trouble and perceived lack of inclusiveness. Now the A-League has family friendly clubs and players aren't expected to fight for their place and like you said, their rich parents pay their way to get there.
????
Actually, I'm only 5'8 1/2, and I ran 100m in 11.88 seconds, but it worked at 4-4-2 long ball in the 80's and 90's. Australia went woke, so soccer got broke.
I don't think an Englishman doing a report on the state and history of AU football is the most objective person to be doing it. Who is old enough to remember that before AU qualified for WC 2006 no pom would ever give AU football credit for anything and even when we beat England in 2003 the poms took credit for developing Australian footballers which was rubbish when most of those players came out of the AIS program. Of course his language is bias eg: Au beat Uruguay in 2005 to go to the world cup but he doesn't mention that it was through extra time and penalties when he disparagingly states that Au only qualified this time against Peru on penalties.
There are lots of problems with Au Football which need to be sorted but please this kind of "story" is entirely negative and bias and does not focus on correcting these issues. I sense an undercurrent of English arrogance in this opinion as the English believe they own the game much like they used to own half the world. Any AU football fan would be advised to do their own investigation into the game to understand what is the reality and get involved to improve the game. Just quoting results alone is not any indication of the true state of football in Au. like the results of English football that fall far short of expectations look at yourself before criticizing others.
The result against Peru is exactly the same as 2005, both were 5th placed South American teams both went to extra time and penalties, so if anything we are on par with 2005.
God bless the Brits for inventing football. They then went round the world evangelizing the greatest sport on Earth to millions of people who were more than happy to adopt football as their own. Except for the countries that the Brits actually colonized. For some reason, football did not take hold in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tonga, etc. Even Ireland, a European country right next door has never fully adopted football and they even prefer to call it soccer. What the hell, English types? How did you guys screw that one up so bad? How?
0:28 It is the chilean national team playing at the France 98 World Cup. The footballer who is celebrating is Zamorano, who used to play for Real Madrid.