By Vince Rugari
When Iraq were knocked out of the Asian Cup’s round of 16 after letting in two stoppage-time goals to lose 3-2 to Jordan earlier this week, a group of journalists accosted their coach Jesus Casas during his post-match press conference. They believed that the defeat was at least partly down to Casas’ decision to conduct some interviews with Spanish media, which they alleged distracted him from his work. They shouted him down, angrily pointing their fingers, and some had to be physically removed by officials when they approached the podium. The AFC stripped the culprits of their accreditation and banned them from all future tournaments, while the Iraqi federation described the “abhorrent behaviour” as a “black mark” on their football history.
Graham Arnold, meanwhile, has had to deal with a few articles from the other side of the world which have dared to suggest that the Socceroos might be able to improve in midfield and attack, having laboured their way to victory against some lower-ranked bus-parking opponents.
This is not to condone the above behaviour, but to put what Arnold and his players are dealing with into proper context. The views expressed by the ever-shrinking Aussie football press pack, and of fans on social media who have also correctly identified the team’s shortcomings, are incredibly mild compared to what other Asian teams are copping, and what happens in Europe on a daily basis. It’s fairly standard football chat, and comes from a belief that the Socceroos are capable of more than they’ve shown thus far - as opposed to the view that they don’t have the quality to play any better. But it seems to be getting under a few skins regardless.
Arnold has mentioned it more than a few times, even though he claims not to read what is being written. Captain Maty Ryan pointedly referred to the “outside noise” after beating Indonesia. “Football isn’t easy,” he said. “Everyone claims that it is from the outside.”
On face value, this would appear to be a classic case of a high-profile coach and his team being questioned and not liking it, which is fair enough. But those who have worked under Arnold see something different at play.
They see, in a roundabout way, a genius at work.
Are the Socceroos under siege from the outside world - or is Graham Arnold up to his old tricks?Credit: Getty
Arnold’s Socceroos are at their best with their backs to the wall - like when nobody gave them a chance of beating the UAE and Peru to reach the 2022 World Cup, or when they lost 4-1 to France in their opening match when they got there and ended up outclassing the ‘golden generation’ with wins over Tunisia and Denmark.
But at the Asian Cup, they are the ones with the target on their back - especially after the World Cup, where they did so well they naturally lifted external expectations. And expectation doesn’t really suit them, as we’ve seen here, at the 2019 edition, and in stages of World Cup qualifying.
So how can Arnold make them feel like underdogs again?
There are plenty of stories about the way Arnold motivated his players at the Central Coast Mariners and Sydney FC, pinning newspaper stories onto the walls of the dressing room and convincing them that everybody else thought they were rubbish to provoke a reaction. He did something similar at the World Cup, using the dismissive attitude of rival nations towards Australia to his advantage.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Australia (4-2-3-1): Maty Ryan; Gethin Jones, Harry Souttar, Cameron Burgess, Aziz Behich; Jackson Irvine, Keanu Baccus; Martin Boyle, Riley McGree, Craig Goodwin; Mitchell Duke.
South Korea (4-2-3-1): Cho Hyun-Woo; Kim Tae-Hwan, Kim Young-Gwon, Kim Min-Jae, Lee Ki-Jee; Hwang In-Beom, Park Yong-Woo; Lee Kang-In, Lee Jae-Sung, Son Heung-Min; Cho Gue-Sung.
“These ***** don’t know who Australian players are,” Arnold told his players before facing Argentina in the round of 16, as shown in the Netflix documentary Captains of the World Cup. “Go and show them ***** who we are. And at the end, offer them your shirt when you ***** beat them. Get out there and get into these *****.”
Alex Brosque, his old captain at Sydney FC, can sense Arnold going back to his old tricks.
“The reality is everyone does expect the squad to go close to winning it, because of how well they did at the World Cup, and how well they’ve been playing since,” Brosque said on SEN Radio’s The Global Game this week.
“He’s helped build that by using the whole siege mentality initially. Now we expect them to win, and we’re criticising, and he’s going full circle back to ‘no one thinks we can do it’ again, or ‘no one thinks we’re good enough’. I feel like he’s using that to create that bubble within the change room there - ‘that back home, this is what they’re saying, they think we can’t do it. Let’s go out and prove them wrong.’ He’s always gotten the best out of his sides, I believe, when that’s the case.”
And so with a quarter-final to come on Saturday morning (2.30am AEDT) against South Korea, the strength of that bubble is about to be put to the test. It looks like a coin flip. South Korea are, man for man, the better team. But they are ranked three spots below Australia, according to the projected FIFA rankings. And the Socceroos have the luxury of two extra days’ rest and a clean bill of health. Some judges might even consider them to be slight favourites. Reputed stats company Opta has, in fact, made them equal favourites with Japan to win the whole thing from here.
Their blunt-force football was a tough watch in the group stage but nobody will care if the Socceroos have to bludgeon their way to the semis and beyond, if that’s what it takes. At risk of shattering the illusion, we wish them well.
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