Quote Originally Posted by Hunter403 View Post
9 and 10 year olds should be learning how to take a good first touch and pass/strike the ball with accuracy. Most of our A League players can't manage it so maybe we should start there. Let's master the basic skills, as our Asian neighbours are doing. Bigger, stronger, faster doesn't work anymore. Look at our National Youth teams and their results.
You want your 9 and 1o year old to be fit: put away the screen and get them on their bikes etc. Join a swim club in the off season: best exercise building upper body and lung capacity.
Ice baths, gym sessions....what BS.
Why is it always about the ball mastery though

Watching the Socceroos game last night it was evident that some little things the Koreans were doing that we dont do

Anticipation - There were times there were the Koreans would just flood areas of the park and get numbers arounnd the ball knowing they were odds on to pickup possession

These guys were actually doing it instinctively before the ball was played there

Contrast this with our guys who wait to the ball is there then react

Urgency- The amount of times a Korean woulkd come from the clouds to sace his team was phenomenal. When we looked like we had them in trouble someone jumped im to save their arse

Contrast that with Sainsburys effort for the goal and the complete lkack of assistance from his teammates

These aint skills with ball skills but these are football smarts

And it is high time we started teaching them


It blows my mind that we focus on trying to create The Aussie Messi yet we could easily get ourselves 6 Aussie Maldinis as defending doesnt require ball mastery but different skill sets and abes a result of oyr Aussie Maldinis be a much better side as we can actually ****ing defend fpr a change

We have played 10 games in the last 4 World Cups and we havent once kept a ****ing clean sheet nor have we ever looked capable of doing so