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Poppa Out

With Argentina 2-0 down, we were all sitting here thinking, gee Popa is actually a better coach than Scaloni …. oh no we weren’t. Of course not.
 
BA81 said:
They’re both equally-valid IMO, though there’s no understating the extenuating circumstance of still having been no National Youth League to replace the NSL-era one, on top of youth-players in general being neglected in the first 1½ seasons of the A-League(which Ange alludes to in his opening spiel here)
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We don't need a youth league now that the A-League academies are playing in the NPL against men. In the senior space in NSW, they are getting 30 games and in the youth space, they are getting 30 games & I think they have A-League academies playing the best kids every 2 weeks on Monday's at Valentine Sports Park for the TSP.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
We don't need a youth league now that the A-League academies are playing in the NPL against men. In the senior space in NSW, they are getting 30 games and in the youth space, they are getting 30 games & I think they have A-League academies playing the best kids every 2 weeks on Monday's at Valentine Sports Park for the TSP.
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Okay../s
 
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DandyCasey said:
Japan
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I will rate this pick. I watched a short doco on YouTube the other day outlining their rise in football. I was shocked that until... I think it was the 1988 Asian Cup, Japan had never qualified even for that! They then won the next one at home, failed to qualify for the following World Cup in 1994 (which was the main premise of this doco - the Tragedy of Doha), and then essentially haven't looked back since. 2006 was probably their biggest blip on the radar over the last 30 years
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
We don't need a youth league now that the A-League academies are playing in the NPL against men. In the senior space in NSW, they are getting 30 games and in the youth space, they are getting 30 games & I think they have A-League academies playing the best kids every 2 weeks on Monday's at Valentine Sports Park for the TSP.
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Hmmm... I think it would be good for the NPL offseason. Getting them playing as much as possible all year round - even if it's just a single round-robin Youth Season alongside the A-League. It will help other academies around the country get better, as rather than just performing to the local NPL, they're performing against each other on a like-for-like.
 
NicCarBel said:
Hmmm... I think it would be good for the NPL offseason. Getting them playing as much as possible all year round - even if it's just a single round-robin Youth Season alongside the A-League. It will help other academies around the country get better, as rather than just performing to the local NPL, they're performing against each other on a like-for-like.
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This is vital. Our youth need to be playing more, not less.
 
NicCarBel said:
I will rate this pick. I watched a short doco on YouTube the other day outlining their rise in football. I was shocked that until... I think it was the 1988 Asian Cup, Japan had never qualified even for that!
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If we’re talking in a strictly pre-1990s context, Japan aren’t a ‘traditional' powerhouse of Asian football. The thing is, it’s actually a reasonably-known fact so I in turn am lowkey-shocked that you were unaware of that.
 
BA81 said:
This is vital. Our youth need to be playing more, not less.
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Correct. I mean.. they're already not playing Australia Cup games. So... let's look at NPL NSW as the example - that's 33 games (assuming all 3 finals) across Feb through to early Sep. A League Youth Season can run through Oct-Nov and into early Dec with Jan as the offseason. Or better yet, do it the other way around so that the A League Youth Season builds directly into the NPL Preseason for them (Nov/Dec/Jan Youth Season, with Sep/Oct as their offseason break)
 
BA81 said:
If we’re talking in a strictly pre-1990s context, Japan aren’t a ‘traditional' powerhouse of Asian football. The thing is, it’s actually a reasonably-known fact so I in turn am lowkey-shocked that you were unaware of that.
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I think I had heard it before and forgotten it. Each jersey I buy probably pushes a fact out of my brain
 
NicCarBel said:
Hmmm... I think it would be good for the NPL offseason. Getting them playing as much as possible all year round - even if it's just a single round-robin Youth Season alongside the A-League. It will help other academies around the country get better, as rather than just performing to the local NPL, they're performing against each other on a like-for-like.
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Youth have time off overseas. If our youth are playing the same amount of games as Europe then it isn't an issue.
 
NicCarBel said:
4 and a half months off with no games though? I'm not sure how it works overseas in general.
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It depends the age group. Some have tournaments, train with the first team, play futsal, etc. This is just a general statement. Might be better to compare one player with one in Europe.
 
DandyCasey said:
Japan
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Old-mate “Lord” Rashid Mahazi(former Vuck player and now co-host of the “Suited&Booted” podcast) posted a long diatribe on his socials after we got knocked out by Egypt; in it he suggests we should stop glazing Japan as a model for 🇦🇺⚽️ to emulate because in his view, their approach to player-development is the same as to every station in life: too robotic, collectivist and scornful of individualism to result in them winning the World Cup someday. Producing footballers as if they’re cars on an assembly-line was the analogy he used..👀
 
BA81 said:
Old-mate “Lord” Rashid Mahazi(former Vuck player and now co-host of the “Suited&Booted” podcast) posted a long diatribe on his socials after we got knocked out by Egypt; in it he suggests we should stop glazing Japan as a model for 🇦🇺⚽️ to emulate because in his view, their approach to player-development is the same as to every station in life: too robotic, collectivist and scornful of individualism to result in them winning the World Cup someday. Producing footballers as if they’re cars on an assembly-line was the analogy he used..👀
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Apparently Japan's development system has a heavy Brazilian influence.
They are miles ahead of us and perhaps have it over many of the other top 20 nations in all but physical stature.
 
An overview of Poppa's 22 matches to date

Result at 90 minutes:

Win
Against top 40 team: Japan, Canada, Turkiye
Against team lower than 40: China x 2, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand x 2, Cameroon, Curacao

Draw:
Against top 40 team: Japan, Switzerland, Paraguay, Egypt
Against team lower than 40: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain

Loss:
Against top 40 team: USA x 2, Colombia, Mexico
Against team lower than 40: Venezuela

Total: 22 matches
Against top 40 team (11 matches): 3W, 4D, 4L
Against team lower than 40 (11 matches): 8W, 2D, 1L

So statistically, Poppa's best results during his 22 game tenure are his wins against Japan, Canada and Turkiye. I'd say he was pretty lucky in each based on:

* Japan: 31% possession for Australia, 6 shots to Aus versus 11 for Jpn, 1 corner to Aus versus 8 to Jpn, last minute goal in a game that I recall being dominated against their B team.

* Canada: 39% possession for Australia, 5 shots to Aus versus 17 for Can, 1 corner to Aus versus 9 to Can.

* Turkiye: 28% possession for Australia, 9 shots to Aus versus 30 for Tur, 5 corners to Aus versus 8 to Tur.

So across those 3 wins, we had 20 cumulative shots versus 58 for our opponents! I think each of Poppa's 3 best wins flatter him greatly.

In 11 matches versus top 40 sides against which we should be measuring ourselves, there's not been a single win where you could say that it was a deserved victory based on the course of the match. No dominant displays or actually being truly superior. Just 3 smash and grab results where we managed to sneak a win. The other 8 we failed to win.

It's really not good enough for where we should be reasonably expecting to be. #PoppaOut
 
Let's drill down a little further to look at goals scored/conceded in those 11 matches against top 40 teams which is the best yardstick of our success:

Japan 1-0
Canada 1-0
Turkiye 2-0
Japan 1-1
Switzerland 1-1
Paraguay 0-0
Egypt 1-1
USA 1-2
USA 0-2
Colombia 0-3
Mexico 0-1

Total:
Scored 8
Conceded 11

Those 8 goals were:
* Behich goal in open play
* Irankunda goal in open play x 2
* Metcalfe goal in open play
* Yengi goal in open play
* Bos goal in open play
* Own goal x 2

A few comments:
1. This is pretty pathetic. 8 goals scored in 11 games against opponents in the top 40, 2 of which were own goals and only 1 goal by a recognised striker (not counting Irankunda, as he wasn't playing as striker in either game that he scored those 2 goals).
2. Zero goals from set pieces which is staggering for a team that is widely considered to be strong in that area. With our height, that is particularly poor. The corners throughout the world cup were abysmal and this was a huge failing!
3. Zero goals from central midfield.
4. A slight tangent here but Metcalfe should never have been in our front 3 given how defensively we were set up. We needed to have 3 recognised goal scorers and he just isn't. Yes he scored against Turkiye but even a blind squirrel will find a nut eventually. He has 2 goals in 40 caps. How many other teams in world cup do you think had players in their front 3 with that sort of goals/game record. I have no problem with him starting and recognise that he can provide assists and stitch the team together but it should have been as a #8 or RWB. The fact that we never saw Irankunda on left, Volpato on right and Toure up front is unforgivable.
 
I saw one of our noted posters say qualifying was a feather on Popovic's cap in what he said was a much stronger Asia. Given the number of qualification spots I find that and incredibly hard to agree with especially when we saw the relative strength of Asia in the World Cup.

I always think the aim should be to at least equal and preferable pass what has gone before. We made the last 16 last time. This time it would have been an a pass+ because it would have meant winning a knockout game. Realistically it was our best chance to do that. We fell at that hurdle so I find it hard to give the actual World Cup performance a pass mark.

The main problem was that there was not a structure for the most part that supported us scoring. That worked when capitalising mistakes in a weak confederation (ahead of the OFC and on a par or slightly ahead of CONCACAF but definitely behind the other three). However, it was a recipe for simply making up the numbers in the actual tournament. People can fawn over Popovic and how easily we qualified (mostly because Saudi Arabia had a shocker) but his selections made sure that we were only there to make up the numbers, something that I suspect will be the case even at the lesser Asian Cup unless he changes the way the team is set up.

This is not a shot at the players, they performed admirably will be constrained both by selection and structure by the manager.

I know I've been criticising him even when he was winning qualification - but it was there to see
 
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