The Bazeley post match interview pretty much summed up the general feeling.
Despite excitable Paladin's efforts ('I really enjoyed the game'), straight bat Baze was fairly apathetic, thoughts already elsewhere.
His comments along the lines of - "Did what we had to do. Didn't learn much of use apart from how we need to be better against weaker teams when we have all the ball, faster movement etc. They parked the bus, their keeper made some good saves. We quickly move to focussing on March. We won't judge the players much on these games, we will more be carefully watching now how they go at their clubs"
Crowd 5,327
This game didn't need to be in Auckland, that much is clear
To give European/US based players enough time to arrive in NZ, and enough time to return to their clubs for games this weekend - the AWs matches have to be Friday & Monday nights.
Playing the Monday night anywhere but Auckland would add an additional layer of complexity re flights out of NZ tomorrow (or tonight) for the players. There would be few places on earth a greater flying time from Minnesota, London, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Vienna, Amsterdam, Oslo, Rome and Athens - than Aotearoa.
Anyway would you really get more than 5K on Monday night against such a minnow as Samoa, elsewhere in NZ?
he can dribble but haven’t yet seen an end product - if I was corica I would literally do the drill where you get the players to dribble then stop on a whistle and tell you how many finger’s you are holding up- same one you use for kids to get their head up. Reminds me of champness in that respect
Eli Just stop scoring bangers impossible challenge
Eli Just performances this year have forced his way into the starting XI.
I think Sarpreet has a LOT to do to get back to where he needs to be- he looks fit but like a fish out of water.
Just now has an end product and has always had a great passing game. Would love to see him bulk up but maybe he simply has one of those frames that doesn’t add muscle - he’s just a lean and mean excitement machine
I genuinely think we are a stronger team than Australia now. I know it's 'only' Samoa we faced, but we have some serious talent.
Yeah this is going overboard
I would employ you to watch their recent Asian Qualifier matches, and also do an 'on paper' player-by-player comparison. Would say we are ahead of Australia right now.
I genuinely think we are a stronger team than Australia now. I know it's 'only' Samoa we faced, but we have some serious talent.
Rubbish. On paper they are yes, a shadow of their Golden Generation culminating at the 2006 WC. That team chokka full of EPL players, and really quality ones like Viduka, Kewell & Cahill.
But they still a level above us. In the 3 matches we have played the Socceroos since 2022 we have barely troubled them (zero goals, and barely a shot on target), and our team hasn't changed or improved that much since then.
The Aussies have a depth in players we can only dream of. As they should with 11 ALM clubs to our 2, and a far greater number of players spread over Europe. We have players struggling to get mins at their European/MLS/ALM clubs (Surman, Garbett, Waine, Smith), or players in lower leagues (Crocombe, Bell, Just, Singh, Rogerson, FDV, Sail) that Poppa just wouldn't have to pick.
Poppa can set the bench mark higher, just because of the greater depth at his disposal. Not performing at your club, sorry I'll pick the guy who is.
A prime example is Max Balard who has only just broke into the Socceroos, and is playing every minute for NAC Breda in Holland this season. He sat on the pine the other night against Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile his club team mate Garbett, is struggling to get mins at Breda, yet Garbs has played 27 games for the AWs now.
Gauci considered good enough to week in, week out sit on the bench for Villa. Paulsen has been loaned back to the ALM.
Stamenic is one that would be good enough for Australia I'm guessing even if he's not starting much in Greece. The Socceroos have struggled to replace Mooy and a lesser extent Rogic. Mooy is the biggest absentee from their Qatar WC team that nearly took Messi's Argentina to ET. But otherwise the core of that team is still around, another pointer they are still for sure better than us. Libby similarily might get into their squad as well. Wood a given. Old maybe.
On the other hand Payne or Roux wouldn't be near a Socceroos squad. Gillion would need 2 standout years in the ALM, before being close to an Australian callup.
Us at full strength, playing well, them understrength and not playing well, we could sneak a result. Might even score a goal. But overall they are currently still a level above. Playing in AFC is much harder than we think. Just because we know zero about the Saudi players, doesn't mean they ain't good. The Qatar WC drove that home.
I genuinely think we are a stronger team than Australia now. I know it's 'only' Samoa we faced, but we have some serious talent.
Yeah this is going overboard
I would employ you to watch their recent Asian Qualifier matches, and also do an 'on paper' player-by-player comparison. Would say we are ahead of Australia right now.
I suppose you mean implore, but if you really want to employ me to do that then sure 😆 😆
We had 4-5 players starting in top European leagues and two weeks later it was only Wood. Old, Cacace, Garbett, Bell and Thomas. And Stamenic winning his league and playing Champions League. And Paulsen competing for a start at Bournemouth. And we assumed Singh headed somewhere good soon. And Just was headed to a top league and got gazumped by someone with paper work. Was looking good then.
Bell is the only one of that group starting. And some of you here think he’s not AWs first team anyway or don’t rate the league. Stamenic must have his confidence a bit sapped. Maybe shoulda gone to Coventry. Singh also might need a few fish in a barrel and some familiar faces. Two pro-teams here who’d take him for sure.
We look good, but at the moment that’s quite brittle as the above shows.
De Vries and Roux give us some good looking depth at FB huh?
Was also impressed with Waine’s header across the goal for Wood’s 3rd. Turned a low ish percentage situation into a much more likely goal. Also the little triangle for Stamenic to score.
Also wasn’t so impressed with the bombing of crosses into Wood, especially when they weren’t accurate and he hasn’t scored a lot from early crosses of late anyway.
I think international football depends on coaching and tactics. And finding a Smeltzy. By which I mean a guy your opposition has never heard of who plays like he’d be fine in a Champion’s league final. At the WC Smeltz crosses for Reid’s goal and tucks away our one against Italy.
Reckon Duke can be that for Aussie sometimes.
Think Garbett could be that for us and nearly was until the VAR intervention. But he perhaps lacks a bit of Smeltzy’s charisma.
It’s weird that Ange and Jared Gillet are only Aussies consistently involved in top league play.
Sure they’ve got plenty of depth, and not calling up Cammy Devlin is cocky.
But on the other hand I think a lack of strategy or style to get the best out of our players is part of the problem.
2010 - we had no midfield (okay apart from Wee Mac) and Simon Elliot bombed long to our strikers. It suited our best players.
I think we definitely can get more out of our team and be more threatening. We need a bit more form and perhaps decide that some of our top players won’t be starting. Create the strongest possible base and go from there?
On paper we definitely should be giving Aussie a run for their money. I think we have potentially better players, but Aussie have a lot more players starting, even if like Behich they have to come back to the A league. Their last squad had 7 A league players. They’ve got bench goal keepers at Roma and Villa and Burgess at Ipswich.
Outside that no one in the top 5 and Balard at Breda. Couple of reasonable Championship players.
It feels like an Aussie squad that’s not significantly better, but simply plays together more and is more cohesive.
The other thing is that Aussie can be call on a bunch of Aussie coaches with international experience, several at the top levels. Ange, Arnold and Popovic are very good managers. I think the difference is there more than anything.
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
As others have echoed, hard to argue against Just having really muscled his way into the starting XI this year. I don't think anyone in the squad can side foot it into the corners like he can.
I genuinely think we are a stronger team than Australia now. I know it's 'only' Samoa we faced, but we have some serious talent.
Yeah this is going overboard
I would employ you to watch their recent Asian Qualifier matches, and also do an 'on paper' player-by-player comparison. Would say we are ahead of Australia right now.
I suppose you mean implore, but if you really want to employ me to do that then sure 😆 😆
Employ can be used in this context too. The English language is great :)
Have Samoa been a lot more resilient defensively than we thought? Absolutely. Has that had anything to do with us massively over hitting a dozen crosses? Nope
And that was evidenced with some Wood frustration at times today. Not enough quality crosses for him to finish off. If we can't do it with utter dominance against Samoa, you just fear we won't make use of our red hot EPL striker when we go back to playing half decent sides.
Yip this was a side we should have put to the sword and yet we struggled. Why TF did we keep aimlessly trying to lob the ball in the air when a nice flat pass on the deck would have been better. For me Singh and Bell were both poor today against a side they should have dominated. Rufer easily better then Bell atm.
My biggest fear is No2 striker. Just has been putting them away of late but no other forward aside from Wood has (I'm unsure where Garbett is best but he's better in Singh right now).
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
As others have echoed, hard to argue against Just having really muscled his way into the starting XI this year. I don't think anyone in the squad can side foot it into the corners like he can.
Not sure that Paulsen is better then Crocs atm and I think Payne is the weak link in that side. He's in the position we've been useless at for ages. Not sure about Old either. That's the other position up for grabs I think. The rest as you rightly say are dead cert starters.
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites
The learnings from the games however is there is a prime place in Hamilton that AFC can take their game for a once off, next season and they know they will get a crowd north of 10k, even in atrocious weather.
It’s certainly good to see Roux in the mix. Payne…man he can look like sharke and then in the same breath deliver a long ball or make a run, either down the wing or cutting inside to contribute to a goal. And he’s rarely caught out in defense.
But the depth at RB is greatly improved and will only get better if Elliot is working hard behind the scenes to get some fitness and minutes.
It’ll mean that we can sub tiring players earlier. That in turn means that they feel like they can expend more energy on either closing down the opposition winger or in getting forward more often to support and create attacks.
In terms of the squad debuting earlier I think it’s two things.
One is what is being said about Australia having better depth. Heh, didn’t know St Pauli were in the Bundesliga. Certainly remember and rate Metcalfe. There’s a lot more hard nosed competition for spots and for many players who get selected it’s a hard earned cap.
But the other is that I think the Nix have had one of the best academy set ups in Australasia. We’re seeing Paulsens, Surmans and Olds come in off the back 6 or 7 years in a professional set up. Compare Old as a player to Kuol and imo there’s a difference in maturity and readiness. You look at the minutes given to Velupilay or Borrello for Australia. We also have some guys who have been demanding selection through their contribution to the top team in the A league for a significant part of last season, but they happen to be a bit younger.
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
But again, this is just personal opinion.
Sorry I love our team but Aussie is miles ahead.
We have maybe 4 players theyd really want (wood, Paulsen, Cacacae, stam) While they have 50 guys who'd get into our squads.
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
But again, this is just personal opinion.
Sorry I love our team but Aussie is miles ahead.
We have maybe 4 players theyd really want (wood, Paulsen, Cacacae, stam) While they have 50 guys who'd get into our squads.
Job done, onto the semi against Fiji. I thought Samoa did more than well throughout the 90. Their keeper, Fatu, was worth the price of admission alone! Took us a while to figure out how to get passed their 5-4 defensive setup. But once we did that the goals were well taken. Bell did ok in patches, but against that opposition he should have been dominant and he wasnt. Garbett, Stamenic, Singh all imposed their will on their defenders. Bell not so much, he made a couple of decent passes, but missed his man multiple times and lost the ball in transition more than I'd expect against this opposition. Would have been good to see Rufer on at some point to compare the two. But I think Rufer would have made a massive difference with his distribution skills.
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
But again, this is just personal opinion.
Sorry I love our team but Aussie is miles ahead.
We have maybe 4 players theyd really want (wood, Paulsen, Cacacae, stam) While they have 50 guys who'd get into our squads.
Name them.
I'm talking 50 odd would make our squad, not our starting 11...
i think the Chris wood factor shouldn't be discounted, him being effectively a son of Waikato and doing so well in the PL right now would have brought in a lot of casuals that wouldn't have otherwise gone, I know that for a fact as some people I know who I never would have dreamed would go to an All Whites game went, just because of him.
That said, I've also been somewhat surprised that the vast majority of people in Hamilton I know who are inclined to support an A-League team have immediately jumped ship to AFC, not a lot of residual loyalty for the Nix around in the WaikatoAucklandPhoenix
The learnings from the games however is there is a prime place in Hamilton that AFC can take their game for a once off, next season and they know they will get a crowd north of 10k, even in atrocious weather.
For me Wood, Stamenic, Cacace all start for Australia easily.
Old, Paulsen, Garbett would be shouts to make the bench.
But we are well and truly behind them in terms of the football pyramid. Every time we play we lay down for them and it’s a easy victory when in fact it probably shouldn’t be.
The coaching mis match is obvious, but we are also in two different phases of our NT setups.
We have a young team full of promising players still trying to establish themselves around the world.
Whilst they’ve already got these 23-30 year olds very well established in high level leagues all around the world and much more experience.
I genuinely believe if the likes of Stamenic, Cacace, Garbett, Old and Paulsen can maximise their potentials, then we can be looking at players that can be regular top 5 league players players for the next 7-8 plus years.
We’ve already seen it with Stamenic in the UCL that he’s someone that’s rated really highly over in Europe at massive clubs.
Similar to the Aussie crop of Irankunda, Robertson, Circati and Bos.
As one of the 5327 I wouldn't get too down on the crowd number. Auckland on a Monday night ? In some ways not too bad a crowd. Bought my ticket a few weeks back and on game day was vacillating a bit as to whether to go. Live to the north of Auckland and was not confident in Auckland Transport getting me home so had to drive to a place where parking on a week day can be interesting. Went early and thankfully found a park but journey home was a nightmare with closures on parts of the motorway..There might be a few tired kids at school today. Auckland can be a challenging place to attend sport particularly during the week. In the early game vanuatu were perhaps a little unlucky but lacked a bit up front. Kaltak was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch. Tahiti really annoying to watch - lots of niggle and historonics. Their club teams always the same. Crowd was late arriving for All Whites game and the Ticketek problem wouldn't have helped. Lots of family groups and the wood factor obvious. Saw as many Nix shirts as Auckland Fc shirts but the Auckland shirts were dominant in the 5-12 year old age group. Lots of Nottingham Forest shirts too ! As for the game in the words of an All Blacks coach "Flush the Dunny and Move on " Hard to play against 9 and even 10 (plus the keeper) behind the ball. From high up in the east stand it was obvious how congested the penalty box was all the time. The main failing was the number of under and overhit crosses . Thought Bell and Singh were ordinary . Garbett has ability to beat players .Roux and De Vries were good going forward.McCowatt was lively. Defence under employed and paulsen should have put up a deck chair. Wood was obviously heavily marked but finished well Samoa had a plan and stuck to it well. Keeper was entertaining. Do wonder about the final being at Eden park on a weeknight. 20 K will probably be good going. Hope to be proved wrong.
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
But again, this is just personal opinion.
Sorry I love our team but Aussie is miles ahead.
We have maybe 4 players theyd really want (wood, Paulsen, Cacacae, stam) While they have 50 guys who'd get into our squads.
Name them.
I'm talking 50 odd would make our squad, not our starting 11...
Socceroos Irvine and Metcalfe (currently injured) are starting with St Pauli in the Bundesliga. Hrustić is now in Serie B but has played Bundesliga and Serie A. Circati was playing with Parma in Serie A, before recently sadly doing his ACL. Souttar has played a bit of EPL. Burgess is in there now with Ipswich. Boyle should really have played somewhere better than Hibs.
They definitely have alot of guys age 25 plus who are very experienced with solid if not spectacular European careers. Unless you are super talented like an Irankunda or Circati, you definitely get capped later than with the AWs. Balard again an example. Garang Kuol would be an AWs regular.
Their Qatar WC team that overachieved really was a sum of the parts type operation, that bought into what Arnie wanted.
Fair point. I just look at the talent in our squad and think we have a higher ceiling IMO.
Garbett and stamenic could easily play Premier League in the future, Old is showing promising signs in French top flight (at least pre injury). We have lots of creative, young, high potential players, that look more dangerous than the current Australian squad from what I’ve seen.
But again, this is just personal opinion.
Sorry I love our team but Aussie is miles ahead.
We have maybe 4 players theyd really want (wood, Paulsen, Cacacae, stam) While they have 50 guys who'd get into our squads.
Name them.
I'm talking 50 odd would make our squad, not our starting 11...
Have a look at the list of players rather than the ratings. Most of those 100 would make it into our squad. That's all I'm saying - they have a lot more options than we do.
For me Wood, Stamenic, Cacace all start for Australia easily.
Old, Paulsen, Garbett would be shouts to make the bench.
But we are well and truly behind them in terms of the football pyramid. Every time we play we lay down for them and it’s a easy victory when in fact it probably shouldn’t be.
The coaching mis match is obvious, but we are also in two different phases of our NT setups.
We have a young team full of promising players still trying to establish themselves around the world.
Whilst they’ve already got these 23-30 year olds very well established in high level leagues all around the world and much more experience.
I genuinely believe if the likes of Stamenic, Cacace, Garbett, Old and Paulsen can maximise their potentials, then we can be looking at players that can be regular top 5 league players players for the next 7-8 plus years.
We’ve already seen it with Stamenic in the UCL that he’s someone that’s rated really highly over in Europe at massive clubs.
Similar to the Aussie crop of Irankunda, Robertson, Circati and Bos.
Wood & Libby start for the Socceroos. Stamenic makes their squad, but I'd agrue Irvine, Metcalfe and Luongo are all starting ahead of him currently. Balard has claims.
Garbett ain't in a Socceroos squad. Not at the moment. Old, Bindon & Paulsen maybe, maybe not. Izzo perhaps stronger claims than Alex P to be the 3rd GK.
Their squad is older than the AWs, the core of their successful 2022 WC team is still there. Lots of grizzled tough guys in their late 20s and older. Helps make them hard to beat, if yes mostly already near 'their ceiling' career wise.
But they also have plenty of exciting younger players coming through with high upside. Alot of these guys would already be in regular AWs squads
GK - 18 yr old Anthony Pavlesic playing for Bayern's 2nd team, 19 yr old Steven Hall at Brighton. Gauci is still only 24 - young for a keeper Defenders - 20 yr Giuseppe Bovalina in the MLS, 20 yr old Jake Girdwood-Reich in the MLS, 21 yr old Triantis at Sunderland/Hibs, 20 yr old Circati at Parma, 22 yr old Bos at Westerloo, 20 yr old Hayden Matthews at Sydney Midfield - 22 yr old Cameron Peupion at Brighton, 20 yr old Segecic at Sydney/Dordrecht, 23 yr old Balard at Breda, 22 yr old Yazbek in the MLS, 25 yr old Denis Genreau at Toulouse, 21 yr old Alex Robertson at Cardiff City, 23 yr old Calem Nieuwenhof at Hearts Forwards - 18 yr old Irankunda at Bayern, 20 yr old Garang Kuol at Newcastle United, 23 yr old Tilio at Melb City, 24 yr old Silvera at Middlesbrough/Pompey, 20 yr old Mohamed Toure at Randers, 21 yr old Raphael Borges Rodrigues at Coventry, 23 yr old Velupillay & 25 yr old Arzani
You also have 21 yr old midfielder Cristian Volpato who has played in Serie A with Sassuolo (now Serie B). Volpato was born in Sydney and debuted for Roma in 2021. He's in a tug of war between Italy and Australia over his international allegiance.
No doubt I've missed out a number of others.
Around 8.5 million Australians were born overseas (about 31%) a few million will have useful European passports. So plenty of highly talented young footballers like a Circati, Roberston etc with that handy little book will head off to Europe/USA very young not playing in the ALM, and so be completely unknown to Kiwi football fans. We have our Henry Grays, Tyler Bindons, but Australia will have dozens of young guys on youth deals up in Europe we have no idea about.
It's just purely a numbers game. They will always have a greater output of young players coming through, and so the Socceroos a much greater depth of talent to choose from.
Basically any Aussie starting regularly in the ALM would be in AWs contention, just as any Kiwi starting regularly for the Nix or Auckland is. Jamie Maclaren would be 2nd only to Wood in the AWs, and Jamie Mac's Socceroos days are well over.
But the emergence of Auckland FC (and then hopefully a 3rd ALM club), is going strongly increase the NZ football talent pool. Just as the Nix developing their Academy has. Watch out for Gillion, Randall, McKenlay, Toomey etc to push the AW incumbents. In the not too distant future if a guy like Eli Just drops to the Austrian 2nd tier, he likely loses his national team spot.
They also have a massive population advantage on us too.
Just means we need better pathways.. we are actually getting there. Teams like Switzerland are top 20 and not that much bigger than us from a population point of view.
They also have a massive population advantage on us too.
Just means we need better pathways.. we are actually getting there. Teams like Switzerland are top 20 and not that much bigger than us from a population point of view.
They also have a massive population advantage on us too.
Just means we need better pathways.. we are actually getting there. Teams like Switzerland are top 20 and not that much bigger than us from a population point of view.
By pathways do you mean money? Switzerland may have a similar population but they have a tonne more money to splash around for sporting developments.
