World Cup: Reason Socceroos won’t say Argentina star Lionel Messi’s name
Graham Arnold’s Australia are preparing to face arguably the greatest footballer to lace a boot — not that you’d know about it from listening to them in the build-up to the crunch match-up.
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The Socceroos mind games are in full effect ahead of ashowdown with Argentina and their star player, in jersey No. 10.
You know him. He’s won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards and every trophy known to man, other than a World Cup.
He’s one of the most recognisable faces – and names – on the planet.
Or, as the Socceroos referred to him at the official pre-game press conference, simply: “the player”.
We’re talking about Lionel Messi, if it wasn’t clear. But if you’d listened to Australia’s 25-minute press conference, the day before the Round of 16 clash, you may be wondering if Messi was playing at all.
For as much as they were grilled on all things Argentina, coach Graham Arnold and defensive star Harry Souttar – who will get the hands-on experience of facing Messi in the flesh – mysteriously failed to utter the pint-sized superstar’s name.
“For tomorrow, for 90 minutes or however long it takes, it’ll just have to be another player we’re up against,” said Souttar in one answer, as he carefully navigated the minefield of not mentioning Messi by name while at the same time showing complete respect for one of the game’s true greats.
“I’ve got massive amounts of respect for him and what he’s done, but it’s 11 v 11 and we’re going to go out there to win and get a result.
“But certainly in my eyes he’s one of the best to ever do it.”
It is one of the most well-known strategies of the ‘Coach Whisperer’ Bradley Charles Stubbs – to effectively ban the mention of your opponent’s name, or in this case their primary star.
Stubbs has worked with coaches across various sports – and was infamously employed by Queensland State of Origin coach Kevin Walters.
Arnold has also previously used the tactic, once referring to arch rivals Melbourne Victory only as ‘Melbourne’, and also to great effect last year when in charge of the Olyroos at the Tokyo Olympics.
On that occasion he engineered a stunning 2-0 upset of Argentina – having referred to them only as ‘the opposition’ in the days prior.
After that stunning upset, Arnold explained the method behind the madness.
“Sometimes when you mention a nation like Argentina’s name, everyone just starts thinking straight away [about] players (like) Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. They’re Copa America champions,” Arnold said last year.
The message is clear: everyone is human. Even the blue-and-white No. 10. And do not play the game out in your mind before arriving at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium.
Arnold gave a further insight into his thinking when he was asked about the match-up, and pointed to the quick two-day turnaround as an advantage – rather than a disadvantage, as most would expect for a squad that has been emptied of its energy reserves in recent days.
“I do believe the short turnaround is an advantage for us because we don’t sit for five days wondering and thinking about the opposition and Argentina,” Arnold said on Friday.
“We have that respect for them but we also have to respect ourselves and what we bring to the table and, you know, we know what their strengths are and we have got to take them away from them to have a great chance to win this game.”
Expect to win? Done, done, done.
Argentina, and your nameless superstar, you’ve been warned.
MESSI’S GOOD, BUT THESE ARE THE GOAT SOCCEROOS
By Joe Barton
Three years after declaring his Australian side would become “the greatest Socceroo team ever”, Graham Arnold’s green and gold battlers can prove the doubters wrong against the greatest player of all time.
Arnold’s unheralded squad is built around players plying their trade in the A-League, Japanese second division, the Scottish Premiership and the Championship.
By all rights they should have no chance when they take the field on Sunday morning (6am AEDT) against two-time World Cup champions Argentina, who boast a star-studded squad spearheaded by the incomparable Lionel Messi.
But this is an Australian team that has already upset the World Cup apple cart by escaping the ‘Group of Death’, eliminating world No.10 Denmark and, at every turn, making critics eat their words.
Australia’s players proudly declared this week they’d been written off by all and sundry before the tournament, with those pointed words doing little more than adding more fire to the bellies of a squad that may not have been household names a month ago – but are now front and back page news.
And it comes down to Arnold’s bold claim from three years back, when he plastered the walls of the team’s dressing room in Canberra prior to a 5-0 World Cup qualifying win over Nepal with posters inscribed with a simple message: “Greatest Socceroo Team Ever”.
Thirteen members of Arnold’s match-day squad from that day are with him in Doha, a testament to the coach’s loyalty – and the players’ ability to reward his trust.
“That was my goals, my expectations and my dreams to do that - you probably can say that’s what we’ve achieved to now,” Arnold said of his message.
This is what it means 🥹ðŸ‘@jacksonirvine_ was there in Germany when the #Socceroos qualified for the knockout stages in 2006, now 16 years later he's living out a childhood dream 💚💛🇦🇺#GiveIt100#FIFAWorldCuppic.twitter.com/9WyczV1FBa
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) December 1, 2022
“But we’re not finished. If we were finished we wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t be training the boys.
“If we’d given up, we may as well go see the family and friends and lay on the beach and have fun and (then) turn up for Argentina. But it’s not about that. It’s about getting ourselves ready and making the nation even more proud.”
‘Putting smiles on faces’ has been Arnold’s catchcry throughout his team’s dream run out of the group stages, and judging by the joyous scenes shared on social media from around the country in the wake of consecutive wins over Tunisia and Denmark. They’ve ticked that off, and more.
Arnold, however, is demanding more. He wants his side to be the greatest.
Becoming the first Socceroos outfit to win two matches at a World Cup – and a best ever return of six points in the group stage – along with back-to-back clean sheets for the first time has gone a long way to making that a credible statement.
But beating Argentina, reaching the quarter-finals and bettering the efforts of the famed Golden Generation of 2006? That would be the icing on the cake.
“This is a dream come true, playing against Lionel Messi in a World Cup,” Arnold said.
“I don’t think anyone expected us to even win a game and then to win two in one World Cup, it’s amazing.
“But as I said to the boys this morning, you don’t get these opportunities often in life.
“So what are you going to do about it? Are you just going to let it ride or are you going to do something more and special?
“This is when you go home, you have got time to think about things and remember those things but now, this is real. And let’s give it our best shot.”
Stopping Argentina – who in addition to the unavoidable talents of Messi, also have the likes of Angel Di Maria, Alexis Mac Alister and Nicolas Otamendi – is an even more gigantic task than that of Denmark.
Arnold’s game plan, as it has been through the past two victories, is devastatingly simple however.
“(Get) in their faces. Don’t give them time,” he says.
“The thing is if you focus too much on Messi, then you’re forgetting about the other players. And if you watched (Argentina 2-0 win over Poland), I think Poland focused too much on Messi. Whoever is playing, pick him up, it can’t be just one, it can be five.
“But it’s not just about stopping him, it’s also they have also got some very good players.”
FATIGUED AUSSIES HAVE AN ACE UP THEIR SLEEVE
Just two days after his greatest coaching triumph, Arnold faces arguably his most agonising decisions.
The nature of this condensed World Cup – with three games in 10 days in the energy-sapping Doha heat - has left Arnold with an utterly exhausted starting XI and facing the very real prospect of making changes to his preferred line-up to face powerhouse Argentina on the basis of fatigue rather than tactics.
Craig Goodwin, perhaps Australia’s best player through the first two matches, was subbed out at halftime of the historic 1-0 win over Tunisia as he simply had nothing left in the legs.
Centre-backs Kye Rowles (ankle) and Harry Souttar (ACL) had only recently returned from injuries when they arrived in Qatar, and both have played enormous minutes for Arnold while developing into one of the World Cup’s most reliable defensive pairing.
So, too, left-back Aziz Behich – one of three outfield players, alongside Souttar and midfielder Aaron Mooy who played every minute of Australia’s matches during the group stages.
The likes of Goodwin, ironman Mathew Leckie and Jackson Irvine aren’t far behind in terms of minutes played, leaving the bulk of Arnold’s preferred starting XI facing a monumental task to lift themselves back up against two-time World Cup champions Argentina.
So low were the energy levels of ironman Mathew Leckie, the hero of the night looked a deflated figure when he appeared for his man-of-the-match media conference minutes after full time.
“After the game definitely I was exhausted, I think most of the boys were, everyone threw everything at that game to get a result,” Leckie said on Thursday.
“It wasn’t too different to the Tunisia game. We have already been to Aspetar (medical centre) and done our recovery … today, tomorrow it’s going to be obviously a major point of just getting recovery in because it’s all about getting the body ready to put in another shift.”
For the past few months Australia have espoused the virtues of their secret weapon, the world-class facilities at their $1.3 billion training centre at the Aspire Academy – with the adjacent Aspetar medical centre catering for every sports scientist’s wildest demands.
“We’re very lucky to have that, it has been a massive advantage, especially the intensity that we play,” Leckie added.
“We know as a team that we need to work harder and win our physical battles to get results, that has been the success for us, it’s massive to get our bodies right for the game.”
But every ice bath, wading pool and deep-tissue massage gun in the world can’t put fuel back in the tank, as many of the Australian players need right now.
Australia are reluctant to make excuses ahead of the knockout stages, aware that all teams – including Argentina, who started their final group game four hours after Australia on Wednesday night – are in the same boat.
But it is a relentless schedule which rankled defender Milos Degenek, among the fittest members of the Australian squad.
“It’s something that FIFA need to consider, that we’re not robots, that we are humans and that we do need to recover and we can’t just play day after day,” Degenek said.
“We need a break as well. Not just me, I think the boys, especially the boys that played three in a row and they have the short turnaround now again, but they will recover, they will get back and they will be ready.”
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Originally published as World Cup: Reason Socceroos won’t say Argentina star Lionel Messi’s name
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