FootballNews

By Paul Williams
Jul 16 2012 23:15
Let’s get one thing clear – Asia is not supposed to be easy.

There has been a lot of debate in the last few days on the back of, what some say, was a disappointing AFC U22 Asian Cup qualifying campaign by our Young Socceroos. Debate is good, it is needed if we are to demand better and strive to improve.

But a lot of the opinion seems to be that we should “easily” qualify, as if we were back in the Glory Days of Oceania, to steal a phrase from Santo, Sam & Ed. Wasn’t the whole point of joining Asia was that it would give our national teams more regular games against tougher opposition? That qualifying campaigns for Asian Cups and World Cups would be tougher, ensuring that when, or should that be if, we got to the competition we were battle hardened and better prepared?

On paper of course we should account for the likes of Macua and Timor Leste easily, but as Young Socceroos coach Paul Okon pointed out on Twitter – the game isn’t played on paper. In fact they were played in humid conditions, as one would expect at this time of year in South East Asia. It’s fair to say they were played at stadiums where the surface didn’t exactly resemble a bowling green. And we deliberately and strategically went with a group of players two-to-three years younger than the rest of the competition.

This was an U22 competition and we went with an U20 squad, a squad out of season, many of whom have probably just started, or about to start, pre-season training with their A-League sides.

These are not excuses for the perceived poor campaign, but legitimate factors that must be taken into consideration.

Let’s look at our results.

First up, a 1-0 win over Indonesia. A good result against the home team in front of a reported 45,000 fans. It’s important to start the campaign on a winning note and we did that. Next, Macau.

Three goals inside the first 13 minutes. For all intents and purposes, game over. From reports Macau then put some numbers behind the ball to ensure they didn’t suffer another thrashing (they lost 6-0 to Japan in their opening game) and we struggled to play our way through them. That’s not a bad thing; remember the tough competition was why we joined Asia. Macau had two counter attacks and scored. A worrying sign for our defence and it created a nervy final 10 minutes we dominated possession and controlled the game. The scoreboard doesn’t do it justice.

We move on to Singapore, fancied as the team most likely to finish third behind Japan and Australia. There is plenty of talent in Singapore, so this was going to be a challenge. And it became an even bigger one when Terry Antonis was sent off after half an hour. Sixty-five minutes with 10 men against Singapore, that’s a good challenge for our kids. More tough challenges. The game ended 0-0, not a bad result all things considered.

The next game, against Timor Leste, saw a comfortable 3-0 win. Only three against Timor Leste?, some cried. Well, Japan only beat them 1-0. It meant we went into our final game needing a point off Japan to guarantee our place. That, or hope Indonesia beat Singapore.

Japan are years ahead of us in development terms. We are where they were about 20-25 years ago. Scorelines don’t always tell the full story of the game, just like the Macau game. But a scoreline of 5-0 doesn’t look good and suggests a one-sided game.

The response was almost instantaneous, talk of failing development programs, wasted generations of players.

Let’s not kid ourselves, this “technical revolution” that is underway in Australia isn’t going to happen overnight. It will produce some real quality along the way, but it will be 15-20-25 years before, we hope, it starts to produce a production line of players like Japan, or like any country. So let’s not isolate one bad result and start looking for blame and calling for change. Patience is what is needed.

In the end Indonesia did us a favour, beating Singapore 2-0 and ensuring we finished second behind Japan and that we qualified for the 2014 U22 AFC Asian Cup. Mission accomplished. Okon, Edwards, Vidmar and the rest of the youth coaches now have almost 18 months before the tournament is played in which to develop and prepare the players.

The best 16 teams are now through, and the challenge come January 2014 will only be greater. Despite what some would have you believe, the quality of Asian football is on the rise and it’s only going to get better. We now face some serious competition not only at the events, but qualifying for the events.

Bring it on, I say. A tougher challenge is what we wanted, and a tougher challenge is what we’ve got