Formed under pressure, Arnie’s rough diamonds outshine Golden Generation

Doha: Strikers have to be self-assured. It’s basically in the job description – and Jamie Maclaren, one of the most prolific goal scorers in A-League history, fits the bill, toeing the fine line between confidence and arrogance like only a hungry frontman can.

You could forgive him for having his chest puffed out and ego dialled up to the max after Australia’s historic 1-0 win over Denmark that got them into the round of 16 for just the second time in the nation’s World Cup history, matching the feats in 2006 of Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell et al. At long last.

Maclaren, 29, has played out his entire career in their shadows, as have so many of his contemporaries.

Not any more.

“Look, I’ve got a huge respect for the golden generation,” Maclaren said. “They deserved all the praise; I’ll be the first person to back them and say that they were great. But we need a name.

“I don’t know if it’s the silver generation, or whatever you want to call us, but look, at end of the day, we’re just honest Aussies who love our country.

“Give us that f---ing name … DNA generation, platinum, doubted generation, I don’t know. But there’s got to be some sort of thing because, at the end of the day, we have an identity, and we believe.

“Maybe give us the ‘believe identity’. Give us that.”

Probably needs a bit of workshopping, Macca. The thought is there, and it counts, but those suggestions don’t quite roll off the tongue.

What about this from coach Graham Arnold?

“We’ve been named ‘the invincible underdogs’ around the world,” he said. “Everyone’s an underdog until you have success. Australia’s the underdogs, and we love that. We love the backs to the wall, and no one giving us a chance, and going out there and fighting the Aussie spirit way. That’s our strength.”

With all respect to Arnold, we can’t find any evidence of the Socceroos being labelled “the invincible underdogs” by anyone, and implicit within that tag is the expectation that Australia will win the World Cup – which we’d be all for, but until Maty Ryan is holding aloft that glistening trophy at Lusail Stadium on December 18, that doesn’t work either.

Mathew Leckie and his Socceroos teammates celebrate his goal against Denmark.Credit: AP

It’s a hard gig, this coming up with a name business, but as for the general idea that this current generation of Socceroos players, the unheralded battlers who have breathed new life into the sport with their campaign in Qatar, deserves broader, tailored recognition? No arguments here.

In fact, you could mount a reasonable case that what Arnold’s men have achieved thus far actually surpasses what the class of 2006 did under Guus Hiddink at the World Cup in Germany.

Before we get too deep, a disclaimer: this is the most inexact of sciences, a classic pub or coffee shop debate with no right or wrong answers. But if we’re going to do it, let’s at least look at the data.

Australia’s 2006 squad was the best collection of individual players the country has ever taken to a major tournament. Cahill, Viduka and Kewell were among 10 players from the 23 named by Hiddink that featured regularly in the English Premier League. John Aloisi was in La Liga with Alaves, Jason Culina at Holland’s top club PSV Eindhoven, Scott Chipperfield on his way to becoming a club legend at Switzerland’s perennial UEFA Champions League participants FC Basel, and Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella were Serie A regulars at Parma. Zeljko Kalac was signed to AC Milan, but as a back-up goalkeeper who rarely played.

The Socceroos were ranked No.42 in the world at the time. Their opponents in Group F: Japan (18), who they beat 3-1; Brazil (1), who beat them 2-0; and Croatia (23), who held them to a 2-2 draw – although it is worth remembering that referee Graham Poll, who had a famously shocking night in Stuttgart, blew the final whistle just as Aloisi was scoring what would have been the winning goal for Australia.

That would have made it two wins for the Socceroos, but the history books show they won one, lost one, drew one and were knocked out by that heartbreaking last-minute penalty by Francesco Totti for eventual champions Italy in the round of 16.

All up: four points.

The 2022 vintage has them beaten. Sure, they were thoroughly outclassed 4-1 by France (ranked No.4 by FIFA, and the defending champions) in their opener, but back-to-back 1-0 wins over Tunisia (No.30) and Denmark (No.10) netted a total of six points, which is the best World Cup pool stage return Australia has had.

“The universe is paying us back for all the hard work we have done. The universe is looking down on us and is repaying the support, the sacrifices that the players and staff made through all that.”

Graham Arnold

What makes it look even better is the nature of the squad. Prior to kick-off in Doha, nobody outside of the Aussie sokkah bubble could name more than a few. There are only two players within it who are signed to clubs in Europe’s top five leagues – Awer Mabil (CF Cadiz) and Ajdin Hrustic (Hellas Verona) – and not only are they not playing regularly but they’ve only had bit-part roles with the Socceroos in Qatar. Maclaren, Mathew Leckie and Craig Goodwin, who have played in all three games, are toiling away in the A-League, a competition that Arnold argues deserves a bit more respect given how important it has been for Australia.

They’re all certified icons of the sport now but, on paper, man for man, how many of our current 26-man squad would you take over their “golden generation” forebears? To pinch a line from the A-League’s inaugural marketing campaign: not many, if any. That’s not being disrespectful but, rather, underlining the magnitude of what they’ve achieved so far, and the extent to which they’ve played above and beyond their perceived station.

And that’s without talking about what they’ve had to go through to get here. Hiddink’s crew qualified through Oceania, which was a breeze until their two-leg showdown with Uruguay and Aloisi’s penalty. This lot played 20 matches through their qualifying campaign, culminating with Andrew Redmayne’s penalty shootout antics – and only four of them were on home soil due to the pandemic, which forced them into arduous spells in hotel quarantine and meant that, often, Arnold wasn’t able to pick his best players due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold celebrates with Bailey Wright after the Denmark win.Credit: Getty Images

“The best part of it is – and I’m trying to look at the positive, I do believe this has been crucial – COVID helped unite this team together and unite the culture, the family culture of brotherhood, mateship,” Arnold said.

“These boys were in lockdown. When we were in hotels, they couldn’t go off the floor they were on. They had to socialise with each other in the social room playing pool or table tennis or whatever. That really united the players as a family environment.

“The universe is paying us back for all the hard work we have done. The universe is looking down on us and is repaying the support, the sacrifices that the players and staff made through all that.”

The COVID generation, maybe?

You can go back and forth with this all day long. That, in itself, is totally refreshing. Finally, the Socceroos have a crop of players who have taken the discussion around the national team to new and exciting territory.

It’s no longer: “What happened? Why can’t we seem to win games at the World Cup any more? Who even are these blokes in green and gold?”

Now it’s: “How good are the Socceroos? And why can’t we have this feeling every four years?”

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