2019 Asian Cup: Socceroos bow out after underwhelming campaign as recriminations start

Awer Mabil’s personal tragedy adds cripplingly sharp perspective to Australia’s Asian Cup defence. Particularly since the striker provided many of the high points of an overall underwhelming campaign.

Socceroos star Awer Mabil enjoyed an excellent tournament.

It was the darkest end for one of the shining lights of an overall underwhelming campaign.

On a less terrible day, Awer Mabil might have left the United Arab Emirates disappointed with the Socceroos’ results but “excited again for the future for Australian football”.

That’s what he said straight after the quarter-final loss to the host nation, about an hour before he learnt his little sister, Bor, had been killed in a car accident in Adelaide.

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Socceroos star Awer Mabil enjoyed an excellent tournament.

The personal tragedy adds cripplingly sharp perspective to Australia’s Asian Cup defence.

Particularly since Mabil had provided many of the high points throughout an overall collective display that, while not an epic failure, was below what this current Socceroos crop is capable of.

Key injuries shoved major tournament first-timers Mabil and Chris Ikonomidis into Graham Arnold’s starting line-up, and the pair headlined numerous encouraging signs among the post-Tim Cahill and Mile Jedinak cohort.

Yet despite the promise – including Mabil’s viral goal celebration in support of mental health issues – the same old exasperating profligacy in front of goal continues to shackle the national team.

They drew blanks in three of their five games and could put their round-of-16 penalty shootout victory against Uzbekistan solely down to the gargantuan might of Mat Ryan.

In many ways the trophy defence was cursed from the outset given the injuries to integral players Aaron Mooy, Daniel Arzani and Martin Boyle.

Throw in Mathew Leckie’s absence from the group stage and untimely groin strains of Andrew Nabbout and Josh Risdon, and half the World Cup starting XI were missing.

“I’m not using excuses at all because the boys did fantastic, but you pretty much missed Arzani and Boyle that make the difference when you play against teams with a packed defence,” Arnold said.

Graham Arnold ultimately couldn’t lead the Socceroos beyond the final eight.

“If I say in the normal way, Barcelona, when they do it, they’ve got Lionel Messi - give him the key and he opens the door.”

That justification is valid but only to a certain extent.

Australia did not face any of the continent’s powerhouses like Iran, South Korea or Japan, yet still stumbled less than convincingly into the last eight.

“We failed to score in two games in knockout stages of the tournament, that’s not going to get you through,” midfielder Jackson Irvine said.

“I did think today the only people who were going to lose the game was us - I don’t think they had enough to beat us.

“It’s probably the most comfortable I’ve felt at the tournament in a game. It’s hard to wrap your head around just how it happened - lack of creativity.”

It’s an issue that, unless rectified, will continue to haunt the Socceroos come the start of World Cup qualifiers later this year.

The sheer number of upsets this tournament is proof Asia’s overall quality is rising.

UAE players celebrate as the Socceroos contemplate their early departure.

And it’s all very well to say the region’s minnows stack their defence, play pragmatic and try to win on the counter, but France lifted the World Cup on a lethally smart delivery of that very philosophy.

And yet, at times, there appeared a lack of Australian preparedness to deal with such an approach.

Arnold will no doubt cop criticism over this – a quarter-final exit is, after all, Australia’s worst Asian Cup result since the ill-fated 2007 instalment when he was in charge the first time.

Some of it will be warranted – the ‘nullify their strengths, expose their weaknesses’ mantra became somewhat more ironic with every opponent that executed a similar strategy against the Socceroos with varying degrees of success.

Other elements, he says, are offset by mitigating factors.

“I’ve only been in the job since September with the players,” Arnold said.

“If there’s anything I don’t understand a little bit, is why we have to play an Asian Cup six months after a World Cup.

“The pressure that the players get put under by clubs to be released and those type of things is a different story. At the end of the day I took the job on when I did take it on.

Apostolos Giannou had a frustrating time in front of goal against the UAE.

“After Bert van Marwijk left after the World Cup I had to deal with a couple of things.”

In Arnold’s favour is the unqualified dressing-room support.

There’s early proof he may finally get the best out of talents like Tom Rogic at international level, and the trust he’s developed with Mabil and the others is palpable.

If anything, he’s now more acutely aware of the challenges that come with this job, and wryly remarked that his post-match press conference did not provide enough time to plough through all the hurdles currently facing the national set-up.

For the players, the roughest part will be the months of waiting for redemption.

“That’s probably the hardest thing about it,” midfielder Jackson Irvine said.

“Now we’re going to leave on this and sit and dwell on it for a while, but that’s the nature of the game.”

Originally published as 2019 Asian Cup: Socceroos bow out after underwhelming campaign as recriminations start