2019 Asian Cup: Graham Arnold message gets lost in translation again as Jordan revel in victory

Triumphant Jordan coach Vital Borkelmans contends the Socceroos underestimated their lowest-ranked Asian Cup opponents and approached the match with a ‘dangerous’ confidence.

Vital Borkelmas got his tactical approach spot on against the Socceroos.

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Triumphant Jordan coach Vital Borkelmans contends the Socceroos underestimated their lowest-ranked Asian Cup opponents and approached the match with a “dangerous” confidence.

In a suggestion that hubris may have come back to haunt the defending champions in their opening 1-0 loss to the 109th-ranked country, the Belgian said the performance proved his minnows are capable of beating the big teams.

“It’s also dangerous when you are the famous country … it’s very, very dangerous to talk like this,” Borkelmans said.

Vital Borkelmas got his tactical approach spot on against the Socceroos.

“I say many times to my players, guys, no country is small. When you see the World Cup, big teams lose to small countries. It changed everything.

“When you put this (thought) in your players, they get so mentally strong that the performance is going up every minute in the game.”

Jordan finished the match with a staggeringly small 22.9 per cent possession, but their tactical read of the Socceroos came off to a tee, and they were helped by their opponents’ apprehension and sloppiness.

Borkelmans said it was the result of much study.

“For many days I was training on the players who most make the actions on the Australian team. It was the No.5 (Milligan) and No.8 (Luongo) and also when No.22 (Irvine) come inside and No.17 (Amini), they make always the same movements,” Borkelmans said.

“I say to my players when these three guys have the ball, make pressure on these guys. And the other two defenders leave, leave this going. When they’re coming inside, we have a lot of space behind the back.

“I must say, all my team made a big, big, big tactical performance. We had a lot of chances also but they were not nervous.”

A persistent sentiment that the Socceroos are arrogant and ignorant of the strengths of their Asian rivals seems to be developing among international media, and Arnold was again asked about it in his post-match press conference.

Graham Arnold tries to get his point across to his under-pressure team.

“That’s a translation difference,” Arnold said.

“It’s not arrogance, it’s belief. Belief is when you believe in something so strong then you believe in winning. It’s not arrogance at all.

“Those words are used a lot in Australia and in Australia it’s not considered as arrogant.”

Arnold credited Jordan’s energy and fight and for allowing the Socceroos no space going forward, vowing to “learn from our mistakes” before facing Palestine on Friday.

Andrew Nabbout is in doubt to play after picking up a groin strain late in Australia’s final training session on Saturday evening, while Arnold said Josh Risdon also had a groin issue set to be assessed after subbing the right-back for Rhyan Grant at halftime.

“When you lose you learn,” Arnold said.

“We’ll go home and we’ll have a look at the footage of it but if you’re gonna lose a game it’s better to lose the first game.

“It’s a wake-up call at the same time because you get three games in the group and when you get to the knockout stage when you lose you go home.

“It’s more about where we can improve. We’ve got to get over that very quickly. We will get over it very quickly and move forward.”