Under-15 Western Wolves player Joel Grech looks for options against North-West Wanderers on Sunday. 77642
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
THERE are a couple of reasons why elite soccer squads could have a bevy of Western Suburbs kids over the next five to 10 years.
One is the abundance of raw talent – a natural by-product of a multi-cultural area – and the other is a commitment to enforcing Football Federation Australia’s directives on how the game should be played in this country.
The Western Wolves soccer club had several junior teams that finished the Victorian Champions League season on Sunday in first or second spot.
The under-14, under-15 and under-17 boys all had top two finishes, while the under-13s were “a bit awestruck” by the standard of the competition, according to club head coach Robert Krajacic.
But the competition is only superficially about winning. It’s more about playing to the FFA coaching curriculum – a 4-3-3 formation, passing the ball out from the back and using the full width of the pitch.
According to Krajacic, the seven Wolves teams have adhered to those guidelines where some other zones have not.
“The coaching curriculum has been a bit inconsistent at times,” Krajacic said.
“Certainly from our perspective we’ve seen a great improvement in the quality of coaches this year and what they’ve been able to deliver, but in terms of other zones, its been a bit disappointing in what they’ve been able to deliver.
“Some of the systems they’ve tried to play are not adhering to the 4-3-3 system, that means the kids unfortunately tend to miss out on being identified, so it does go against the grain sometimes, but that’s an issue for the FFV (Football Federation Victoria) to sort out for the next year.”
Krajacic said it should be the responsibility of zone coaches such as himself to enforce the 4-3-3 system.
But he said was difficult for players to adjust to a new formation when most would have been used to playing with one or two strikers.
“It’s going to be a slow process. A lot of these people who came to us at the start of the year came to us because of their skill ability, not so much on their structural or tactical ability, but trying to implement a 4-3-3 system when they’re used to playing a 4-4-2 or a 5-4-1 or whatever has been really hard to turn around,” Krajacic said.
“The main thing we battle against is that these kids will go back to their winter clubs and everything they’ve learnt with the 4-3-3 will go out the window.
“The good thing is that we’ve got a different spread of coaches this year, who will go back to their winter clubs, and I’m pretty sure that those individual coaches for whatever teams that they are looking after, will implement a 4-3-3 and hopefully spread the word that way.”
