I think we do once you get up to the ages where kids start taking sport seriously. The number of pro or high level amateur-league/union players that once played football is pretty high from my admittedly anecdotal experience.
I think we do once you get up to the ages where kids start taking sport seriously. The number of pro or high level amateur-league/union players that once played football is pretty high from my admittedly anecdotal experience.
The reality is that our kids don’t play enough football. One hour of training and one game a week is not enough.
The last few seasons they didn’t even get that with Covid and weather.
During that time kids from all over the world have spent hours and hours in the street, free forming, loving the game and solving their own football problems.
When we were young we did the same. We played football and cricket every day after school until our Mums called us home. Our kids now spend their spare time in front of a screen pretending to be footballers playing FIFA.
You look at our current crop of Socceroos and a chunk of them didn’t grow up in Australia.
And then those that miraculously kick on with ability have to pay thousands to be part of a proper system to progress.
The Australian demographic is also changing. Traditional occupations like teaching and being a professional athlete don’t seem to have the same pull that they once did. The number of kids who have told me they want to be a professional YouTuber when they grow up is staggering.
Except that is happening everywhere to a greater or lesser extent. Do you not think that’s the case in the US, or Canada, or through Europe? Or in other sports for that matter.
I have a son in Year 1 and was shocked to hear that they’re not actually allowed to play ball games in their breaks because “it’s too dangerous.”
I live in the Inner West and can’t wrap my head around the number of tennis courts around… Surely some of these would be better served by turning them into futsal cages. I know my boy and his mates have an appetite to play soccer casually but they have nowhere to do it, especially this year with the rain turning the grounds to mush. Rather than max 4 people on a tennis court you could have 10 or so playing small sided games. It just seems like a far better use of space.
USA and Canada are shit at football and the richer European countries are churning and burning players from Africa and Eastern Europe.
Id say your biggest difference is you’d have less parents and people with a huge passion for football in comparison to overseas. You need the parents in most cases to push the kids and pro-actively identify and progress their development. Most parents here, will send their kids to soccer as it’s easy, but they’d barely pay as much attention. Overseas, especially in the poorer nations, football is seen as an out and a way to give their kids a chance, over hear, parents will more likely push their kids to the office
Im sorry but soccer in the rain/mud is > all other forms of the sport!
They both have better teams than us - and have top talent coming through.
Re the richer Euro countries - it’s just not the case.
The big 5 euros - latest squads.
Germany - Every player in their current squad born in Germany.
France - Every player in their current squad born in France.
Italy - All bar 1 player born in Italy. The other got a passport through his great-grand father.
Spain - All bar 1 player born in Spain. The other moved to Spain at 6.
England - All but 3 players born in England. The other three all moved there before starting school.
Thats interesting to read. As a Uruguayan/Australian, I am very interested in South American qualifiers and watched a few of Perus games the past few years.
Everytime I’ve watched them has been a huge step down from that exciting 2018 team. They move the ball very slowly, mostly sideways and seem to cop at least 1 goal most matches. Much like Australia.
Maybe, but the number of pro or high level amateur-football/soccer players is much much higher because the reality is that after the early teen years, the rugby sports just shrink enormously. If you look at the number of levels of semi-pro and upper level amateur below the A League, it is just spectacular.
Tell you’ve never played Rugby in the mud without telling me you’ve never played Rugby in the mud.
Yeah but that doesn’t really matter if the majority of the top tier talent is skimmed by AFL, League, Union before that point.
That might be the case, but when talking about the top of the pyramid, there’s plenty of kids that could’ve gone on to play A-league, but instead play AFL or League (or cricket) because they get more money and recognition here. Every day, you hear about League or AFL players on $million dollar contracts,… not many of those in A-league.
Yes, soccer has a higher ceiling for a very few select players (like Mooy, and the golden generation), but not many get there…more chance of getting a decent pay packet playing league/AFL, plus they are treated like gods here in Australia, whereas A-league barely gets a mention in the news.
We are achieving as well as we can, being in a non-football country where we don’t have dedicated stadiums, little sponsorship, little mainstream media, very expensive development academies, and kids play every sport under the sun… compare that to countries where football is #1, with daylight second and third….
It’s an older article but it checks out.
Score predictions?
1-1 at full time then a loss to a jammy goal in the 117th minute
Up 3-0 after 25. Goals in the 84, 87, 90+1 and 90+5 seal 4-3 win for UAE.
UAE 2-1 Australia.
I want Australia to qualify, although I don’t want to sit through us getting our arses handed to us in the middle of the night, yet again.
We will be up 2 nil with all the momentum but then some dickhead pitch invader will climb up on to the goals causing the match to stop: We will lose all our momentum and even Bozza won’t be able to save us
Still too soon.