Agreed Dwaino, structurally we were much better than we have been recently and looked a bit sharper but when Brazil put the foot down they pulled us apart like we were witches hats. Biggest issue I see (apart from the individual skill gulf) is the difference in speed and agility. The only player that looked like he could match them off the mark and in straight line speed was Leckie. I saw the after game discussions on foxsports and was disturbing to hear that we dont evaluate speed and strength conditioning for up and coming players at the AIS anymore.
As a matter of urgency we should be putting in place programs and checks through junior reps sides and camps to ensure this is trained and monitored. We may not be able to ever have the individual brilliance of Brazil but there should be no excuse for not churning out absolute elite athletes.
Im jumping around a bit here but regarding our individual skill level, our national program over the past 10-15 years is also at fault here. In the past we had no problems churning out bonafie world class players like Kewell, Viduka, Vidmar, Okon, Zelic, Bresciano, Grella, Bosnich, Schwarzer, Simunic, Seric(last 2 traitorous scum that chose to play for Croatia) these are players that played in top sides in top leagues and didnt look out of place on the field against world class sides.
Our national coaching philosophies have changed - we have bred and developed a new 'safe style' player that doesnt look for killer balls to break up defensive structures. We need to go back to the drawing board and not stifle individual creativity. Right now, the only players in our squad who genuinely and consistently look to break lines and arent afraid to go for low percentage through balls/or runs are Rogic, Kruse, and to a lesser extent Luongo. (I like the way Irving times his runs late and gets himself into goal scoring positions for a midfielder - its an art and you either have that or dont). No one else has the balls or ability to do it at international level.
Another thing that is costing us is players making terrible club decisions based on money.
-Sainsbury for mine has everything you would want in a defender - imo he could and should be world class but 2 years ago when it was time to leave the dutch league, instead of stepping up into the german, spanish, Italian or english leagues, he chose the money in China and stifled his development. Transferred to Inter Milan last season but barely got a look in, he is just entering the prime of his years and has missed 2 big years of development and mprovement.
-Spiranovic at 18 was playing 1st team football in the bundesliga, was cruelled with injury for a couple of years, but going to China after getting form back after a stint in the Aleague has ruined any chance he had of developing into a top class defender.
-Milligan has grossly underachieved for the god given talent he has, he is a big player that reads the game as well as anyone, walked out on euro football when he was younger bc he didnt like the commitment required which tarnished his reputation. Content to play within himself in the a league and some crap arab league.
-Kruse leaving the bundesliga for China? really? Understand that his time at the club may have been up due to injury etc but I have no doubt he couldve joined another decent side in a decent league. He has quality but another example of chasing the dollar.
I wont go into every player, but you get my drift - some really poor decisions have stifled the expected development and improvement in our NT over the past 3-5 years.
