2019 Asian Cup: Mind battle just part of Graham Arnold’s Socceroos armour as Jordan comes into view

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold says his side ‘has the utmost belief and confidence in what we do’ as their first match at the 2019 Asian Cup against Jordan looms large. But his choice of words is not to everyone’s taste.

Graham Arnold is wary of the Jordanian threat in their Asian Cup opener.

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He cracked an unsuccessful joke, but Graham Arnold also used his first Asian Cup pre-match press conference to clear up a linguistic elephant in the room.

The positive messaging Arnold has transferred from the dressing room of Sydney FC to that of the Socceroos is a key element of the coach’s recently employed motivation methods, courtesy of ‘coach whisperer’ Bradley Charles Stubbs and mental expert Mike Conway – the latter who is camp with the team.

Those familiar with his last two Sky Blues seasons know well the word “hope” was permanently deleted from both his and his players’ vernacular as a way to build belief.

Graham Arnold is wary of the Jordanian threat in their Asian Cup opener.

But peppering his speech with phrases like “expect to win” always had the potential to come off looking aggressively confident in a region more used to a more deferential turn of phrase, even more so when you’re the reigning Asian champions.

It was only a matter of time before international media asked the question.

And when one journalist attempted but couldn’t land on the right word with the language barrier, Arnold spotted what he was getting at and offered it up himself.

“It’s not arrogance, it’s belief,” Arnold said.

“We build belief within the group, and build belief that it’s one game at a time. We’re not focused on any other game other than Jordan, and we believe we can win the game.”

And the pressure of defending the continent’s most prestigious international trophy?

“Pressure is just a word,” Arnold said.

“We have the utmost belief and confidence in what we’re doing. Four years is a long long time and yes, Mile Jedinak and Timmy Cahill and ex-players have retired and moved on. This is football.

The Socceroos put the finishing touches on their preparations for Jordan.

“We have great depth in our squad, new players come in, young players. Young players have energy and enthusiasm.

“I believe the game of football is becoming a young man’s game, I think that showed at the World Cup just passed.

“We have young players with that type of energy who can play at a very high level for 90 minutes, and that’s what I expect tomorrow.”

But Arnold acknowledged Australia “have to earn” Asian Cup results again with a starkly different team and set-up.

It’s been so long since Australia’s 2015 triumph, in fact, that he quipped “four years ago, believe it or not, I had black hair”.

And then, when no one laughed: “Translate that one kindly”.

A crowd of up to 10,000 – most firmly against the Socceroos – are expected to turn out at Al Ain’s Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday night (EDT), a force he expected to have no impact on the Socceroos.

“I think it’s fantastic that the Jordanians are coming in numbers,” Arnold said.

“One thing we need to remember is that all of our players play in countries around Europe and they play away from home in front of big away crowds. They’re used to it.

“It’s a beautiful stadium, it’s a big stadium, a fantastic pitch. Yes, the Jordanian fans can scream and roar but they can’t affect the result.”

It came hours after Jordan coach Vital Borkelmans upped the ante on Arnold’s tendency to talk percentages.

“I believe like 1000 per cent in my team,” the Belgian said in his press conference.

“And I think also the spectators who are coming, they are 500 per cent behind my players.”

Originally published as 2019 Asian Cup: Mind battle just part of Graham Arnold’s Socceroos armour as Jordan comes into view