Socceroos coach Graham Arnold says Australian football needs more investment
Asian Cup upsets show the gap between nations is closing and Socceroos coach Graham Arnold warns the right investment is needed if Australia is to maintain its standing in the region.
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If early Asian Cup results are anything to go by, the continent’s natural order is a little out of whack.
And Socceroos coach Graham Arnold believes the rise of smaller nations is largely down to resources and facilities, warning Australia’s funding shortages and lack of teams puts its standing as an Asian giant in jeopardy.
Arnold has been waxing lyrical about the boutique stadiums and faultless surfaces in the United Arab Emirates.
All domestic clubs have purpose-built venues that A-League counterparts navigating the hazards of multi-purpose grounds would give their right arm for.
Al Ain, for instance, has three home grounds.
The 25,000-capacity Hazza bin Zayed Stadium and 16,000-capacity Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium are both playing host to Asian Cup games.
Even its third, the 15,000-capacity Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium where Australia have trained before two of their three group games, impressed Arnold.
“Asian football is getting stronger and stronger and we look at the countries like the UAE, Vietnam and Thailand,” Arnold said.
“These countries are putting a lot of money into the development of players and putting a lot of money into training facilities.
“That’s one thing in Australia that we are lacking. We are lacking funds, we lack money, we lack great training facilities.
“We’ve only got a 10-team league. The Asian teams are definitely catching up and making the gap smaller and smaller.”
That was no clearer than in the first round than when India belted Thailand 4-1, Palestine held Syria, and the Philippines very nearly stopped heavy tournament fancies South Korea in their tracks.
The biggest upset was the Socceroos’ 1-0 loss to world No.109 Jordan that put the defending champions on notice.
On Sunday, disgustingly rich World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar steamrolled North Korea and are top of Group E ahead of a final match against Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
And, as it stands, China sit at the summit of Group C and can finish ahead of South Korea if they can hold them to a draw on Wednesday night.
“If you’re not up to your level as a team, then they have the ability punish you,” said Mat Ryan.
“It doesn’t surprise me that the tournament is as close as it is and in sport there’s always upsets that happen, that’s the beauty of it.
“When I look at the World Cup qualification, our match against Syria, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, played away and even at home, they were difficult matches. Close matches.
“It was my first experience of going through a qualifying campaign to get to a World Cup and if you compare from the Asian Cup to those games, yeah, the margin had minimised even more because they were such tight contests … it was no easy feat.”
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