“What they showed was, given the opportunity, given the chance, they can compete with anybody.”
Those words of Olyroos coach Graham Arnold don’t sound so surprising, the morning after his side had shocked the world by beating Argentina at the Tokyo Olympics.
Except those words came 18 months ago, minutes after his team had slogged their way to Olympic qualification by securing third place at the AFC U23 Championships.
Fast forward 18 months, and the thrill of beating Argentina (the reigning South American U23 champions) is a whole new level of achievement. No wonder the Olyroos are basking in a triumph executed in the heat of Sapporo but forged in the A-League.
Goals from Lachlan Wales and Marco Tilio secured only Australia’s fifth win at an Olympics, with a team in which seven of the starting XI, and five of the seven subs, played in the A-League this season.
Of the four starters who didn’t, three made their name in the A-League. After a season in which more young players than ever played in the A-League, the performances of this select group against Argentina proved that Arnold was right.
Maybe it’s the silver lining to the damage wreaked by the pandemic, but the opportunities engendered for young players in the A-League this past season have taken us to an exciting frontier.
https://twitter.com/7olympics/status/1418182195139784706
This season, more than 100 Olyroos-eligible players made at least five A-League appearances, and more than 80 played 10 games or more. To cut it another way, 107 Under-21 players have appeared this season, which is an A-League record.
We should, also, not get ahead of ourselves: beating Argentina is just one win, and the noise of a single cicada doesn’t necessarily herald the start of summer.
And yet the manner of that one win does tell a story – the way the tactical plan was carried out, the effectiveness on the break, the defensive diligence, perhaps most of all the way the final stages of the game were managed, all tell a story about players who have learnt from the intensity of first team football.
In 2008, Arnold oversaw qualification to an Olympics, and that was a minor miracle. But 13 years on he is indubitably a better coach thanks to long spells in the A-League. That experience is one of the reasons he has spent what feels like every minute since becoming Socceroos coach in 2018, arguing for the need for players to get more first-team exposure.
This year the stars have aligned. Wales would not even have been in the squad had the Olympics taken place on schedule last year. Denis Genreau was able in the last 12 months to play more first team games than he had in his entire career before, learning from the Spanish artisans of Macarthur’s midfield.
Without the delay, Marco Tilio would not have had the platform of a brilliant finals campaign to give him the confidence to shoot with his second touch and score Australia’s second against Japan.
Next up is Spain, though, an even tougher assignment. But whatever happens, the A-League gets an A-plus for the platform it has provided to this coming generation.
