The Young Socceroos returned to Australia on Tuesday after completing a successful AFC U19 Championships in China. They achieved their first goal of reaching the final four of the tournament thus qualifying for the World U20 Cup in Colombia kicking off next July.

And by reaching the final the team had the chance to win Australia’s first silverware at an official AFC Men’s event. They fell agonizingly close losing to a quality DPR Korea 3-2.

Young Socceroo assistant coach Edwards told au.fourfourtwo.com that the side’s performance across the tournament bodes well for the future, but there is still loads to do if Australia is to achieve its goal of one day winning a senior World Cup.

And he's concerned about the five months in-between the end of the A-League and NYL and the kick off to Colombia, as he explained.

"If you consider that quite a few of our Young Socceroo players went into this tournament with only a handful of games under their belt over the past few months and then had to play six games in 13 days then you get a further insight into the significance of this achievement at the AFC U19 Championships," he said.

"Wasn't it great to see Terry Antonis at the tender age of 16 have such an influential role in the final? The technical ability that Terry possesses has not appeared overnight, it has been developed over many, many years of deliberate practice ... the boy and the ball.

"The question now is will we be able to provide the appropriate competition environment to continue with the development of this potential?

"Tommy Oar is another example of an exciting player destined for big things. We should source out and acknowledge whoever it was, (or who they were) that guided this young man's junior development.

"Terry and Tommy are just two examples of what is possible when players are provided with the opportunity, guidance and environment that complements their desire to become great footballers.

"The same type of environment and desire that no doubt enabled the likes of Mark Viduka, Paul Okon, Ned Zelic, Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell to become the players that we have marveled over the years.

"Tommy is now in an excellent environment to assist in his development with the year round program in Holland while at this stage this is not available to Terry and all the other talented players we have in Australia.

“The ‘explosive’ players in the group, the likes of Leckie and Oar deserve a special mention … to perform at the level they did when playing games with only a day’s rest in between, was quite remarkable.

"Explosive players have more 'fast muscle' fibres which recover slower between games/training as less blood/oxygen runs through these fibres - the result being fatigue would have accumulated.

"An ideal scenario for these type of players is one game a week.  This is something we should all take into consideration when evaluating players performances in the last game of the tournament.

"Sure some may not have been as sharp as we would have preferred, but I would suspect that even the influence of the world’s best explosive player’s such as Ronaldo, Robben, Van Persie, and Tevez would be somewhat blunted by playing this number of high intensity games, with inadequate rest, over such a short period of time.

"This six games over 13 days scenario is a high workload.

“From Kerem Bulut’s tremendous seven goal haul, Ben Kantarovski’s coming of age as an international class midfield general and Mark Birighitti’s almost faultless display between the posts, we can all be enthused with the progress of our potential future Socceroos … but how much better can we be? 

 “Progress has been made and we have every right to be encouraged by this but we have a long way to go if we expect to make an impact in Colombia in nine months time and looking ahead, more importantly, if we want to win the World Cup on home soil in 2022.

“So why did this team perform so well in China? The most often asked question at the moment is whether this group of players in the next golden era of players? I will leave that to the experts to ponder. But my thoughts on our progress drifts towards two aspects: environment and opportunity.

“For the first time in this country we have a uniformed structural development platform for our players and coaches. By that I mean all the National Training Centre (NTC) coaches, State / Territory Coaches, National Junior Coaches, Institute Coaches, Technical Directors and slowly but surely, grassroots coaches are guiding the development of the players under a philosophy we call the National Curriculum - a curriculum that has been developed over many years of worldwide research. 

“Yes, we have produced successful teams and excellent players in the past, no one can argue this fact but equally no one can argue it has been rather ad-hoc, up until now! If you were fortunate enough to live near a good coach and were provided with the opportunity then you had a chance.

“The investment by FFA to ensure that we are providing similar opportunities for our players and coaches, as our worldwide competition has been doing, is a telling factor. Thankfully, no longer is it expected to assemble a team at the airport and the national coach then asked to go and try and qualify a team for a World Championship.

“We now have a development program that all elite development coaches around the country are adhering to and there is funding provided to ensure the appropriate number of games in the lead up to the major tournaments.

"It’s all about opportunity and you must wonder what Ange Postecoglou could have achieved with the current development structure and opportunities provided for the preparations of our junior national teams compared to when he was in charge.

“If you look at the way Brisbane Roar are playing then it shows that Ange developed quite nicely during his seven year tenure as the junior national team coach. 

 “The bar has been raised considerably with our move into the AFC and alongside a nationwide adherence to the player and coach development curriculum, this has provided the structural and technical platform for us to move forward and provides our coaches and players with at the very least a level playing field.

 “The performance of the Young Socceroos in China is a further indication of what potential we have in this country so it’s a mouth watering prospect to think what could actually be achieved if we could fully implement our Football Development Plan. We could then provide the players and coaches with what is the norm for our competition. 

“When we can provide the likes of Terry Antonis with a year-round competition and training environment then we are in with a real chance to see these type of achievements regularly as we move forward.

"And who knows, Terry may develop into the X factor players we are all craving."

He added: "The National Youth League which underpins the A League provides a step in the right direction but the five-six month, 23-round season plus finals is not enough.

“Come season’s end there is worrying five months of competition inactivity before the first game in Colombia.

“Previously the likes of Terry could move overseas but with FIFA Regulations dictating that players can’t transfer overseas until they are 18 you can see the dilemma, apart from the fact that we want our players to stay in Australia as long as possible, it is our duty to provide the appropriate environment for development.

“There are concrete solutions to this but implementation requires a collaborative approach between the Member Federations and FFA. Discussions are currently under way and it’s hoped that the post-Columbia review will focus on how we have all worked together in the provision of this vital year round competition.

“This is the only way we can provide our young national teams with a fighting chance to mix it with the world’s best. If for whatever reason we can’t provide this then we just simply need to lower our expectations in Columbia and I dare say 2022.

“Knowing the nation’s insatiable desire to be a ‘world leader in the world game’ I don’t believe that lowering our targets and expectations is a path we want to go down. 

"Let’s provide Terry (and co.) with the appropriate development environment to work towards emulating his idol Tim Cahill, lets provide the structure that gives the nation’s developing players a year round, best with the best, best against the best competition / training environment.                               

“The year-round competition environment is the final piece of the structural development jigsaw puzzle.”