DOHA, Qatar — Like Australia prepare for the intercontinental play-off with Peru back in June, with a position at World Cup 2022 On the line, a column appeared in the national Australian newspaper with the headline supporting the bad guys: “Go to the Socceroos. But who are these people?”
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Leaving aside the fact that its author, as a sports columnist, was ostensibly paid to know this, however, it spoke for a mainstream Australia that only values football. rock with its attention every four years. There is always a real degree of affection and enthusiasm that accompanies this opportunity to return to the group during these times, and it is always welcomed by genuine believers hoping to convert. But there is still a yearning for the days when the team had the ‘Golden Generation’ of talents like Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Tim Cahill in its ranks.
“If you’re not Australian and you don’t know, football in Australia is probably the fourth or fifth sport after AFL [Australian rules football], rugby union, rugby union and cricket. Then there’s football. They call it football, but that’s football,” said Australia coach Graham Arnold ahead of Australia’s upset 1-0 win. Denmark to set up a round of 16 clash with Lionel Messi‘S Argentina. “Leaving a legacy is huge. 2006 and what that generation did… the kids grew up [with that] Are these kids? [playing] in this generation. They’re 10 years old, see these people in 2006. Those people are their inspiration.”
This 2006 nostalgia is understandable. Sixteen years ago, it looked like football was on the verge of achieving something special in Australia. Its men are plying trades at some of the biggest teams in some of world football’s biggest leagues and its national team has just ended a 34-year hiatus from major sports competition. best of the world. For a small country (population wise) that often uses sport as a means to secure its own legitimacy on the international stage, this is a bold new frontier in the most popular sport. planet.
But this is, for now, at least the pinnacle. Over the course of the next decade and a half, the sport continued to grow and advance — especially in women’s sport, with the Matildas being one of the most beloved sports teams in the country — – but the trajectory of the Socceroos and their name recognition has steepened. The expectations surrounding their arrival in Qatar 2022 are mostly tacit.
But six months after their identities were queried, “these giants” have won more points in the group stage than Kewell & Co. did it in a tournament. Admittedly, analyzing performance and results are two completely different things, and if you can somehow find a way to face the two sides of 2006 and 2022, then you will likely choose the side. first. And the contemporary incarnation of the Socceroos cannot be said to play particularly beautiful football in Qatar or not benefit from some relative luck.
But fortune always favors the bold, and in the last 10 days in Doha, they have also shown that they are not the faceless people that many consider themselves to be. Playing endurance and fitness football based on pillars of effort, determination and neighborly play, Australia have been able to produce a result that outweighs their share in victories. front back armor Tunisia and Denmark. Arnold’s “Aussie DNA” and pragmatic tactical perspective paid off for the day. They won’t technically beat you, but they will beat you if you let them.
In Australia, a fan park showing live matches at Melbourne’s Federation Square has taken on a cultural significance in itself, and cities and towns across the country are racing to meet The next need to host their own live sites might try to recreate that cauldron of smoke, fire and fun in Socceroos matches.
In Qatar, where the scenes at home are quickly seen as a source of motivation and recognition, the team is a mix of experienced leaders — Mathew Leckie and Mathew Ryan both are set to break the record against Argentina for most Socceroo appearances – and younger players like Riley McGree and Harry Souttar was brought up from the U23s as part of what Arnold calls a “quick fix” for ‘great interest’ in Australia’s grassroots development roadmap.
Souttar in particular has been one of the breakout stars of the Australian campaign and the £20m valuation Stoke City placed on him before he picked up an ACL injury in November 2021 is almost certain. definitely back after his outstanding efforts in Cata. Now it will be up to him, as well Kye Rowles, Aziz Behich and potentially Milos Degenek to stop one of world football’s greatest attacks, with the heart of arguably the greatest player in the world.
However, Arnold can perhaps take some comfort from the fact that he has previously faced Argentina as a successful player and coach. At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, the 59-year-old trained as the Olyroos beat Argentina 2-0 in the tournament’s opening match, when Lachlan Wales and Marco Tilio delivered a high point for what soon proved to be a disappointing tournament.
As a player, Arnold was involved in a 4-1 win over Argentina at the Bicentennial Gold Cup in Sydney in July 1988. With Charlie Yankos’ 30-yard strike to put the Socceroos 2-1 up, the match ends with the dissatisfaction of the players. The Argentinians refused to shake hands with their opponents at the end of the match and their coach, Carlos Bilardo, did not attend the post-match press conference. Of course, Argentina will return to Australia 5 years later, after being held to a 5-0 draw at the hands of Colombia on the final day of the South American qualifiers, they met in a two-legged intercontinental play-off to qualify for the US ’94.
“I’m playing in Belgium at that time,” Arnold recalls in 2020, days after Diego Maradona’s death, “Colombia beat Argentina and Maradona retired from international football. I don’t think there will be Colombia and Argentina and we have to play either/or. I remember, I was watching it in Europe at the time and the television cameras showed Maradona in the stands, and he was overweight, he had been out of action for a few years, he was as heavy as anything. And they’re singing his name.
“He’s retired and I watched some of his training sessions in Argentina, he lost some weight to get here. In ’94 it was probably the thinnest Maradona you’ve ever seen. And he went to Australia, after retiring to play with us, what a big player for Argentina.”
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Maradona, come out of the wilderness to save Albiceleste, would score for Argentina in a 1-1 draw at the Sydney Football Stadium in the first leg of that play-off, and feature in their 1–0 victory in Buenos Aires two and a half weeks later, Help them get through the group stage. Sporty curls and scary mustache, he had nothing left, Arnold played the full 90 minutes in both of those games, but couldn’t get past Sergio Goycocea in Argentina’s goal.
“In Argentina, he begged and begged the Argentinian fans not to boo Australia’s national anthem,” Arnold recalls. “Because in Australia, for the first time he was able to hear the Argentine national anthem in an away game, and he begged them not to boo our anthem. And you can hear our anthem. I’m in Buenos Aires.”
Now, 29 years later, Arnold finds himself in the starting line-up, and considerably more seasoned, against another Argentine legend whose last time he stood at a World Cup. After confronting Maradona on the pitch, a man still considered a god in Argentina, he must now find a way to prevent the second from coming.
“It’s crazy that they’re the same – left-footed, same style,” Arnold said. “They are both incredible players and it’s hard to compare different generations, but I think, perhaps, they become two of the greatest players ever in my life.”
Undoubtedly, most eyes on Saturday’s game will be on Messi and his quest to add football’s biggest prize, one of the few that still eludes him, into his trophy cabinet. But the tango takes two, and even if that comes mainly from the aura of Argentina’s reflected heroism, the Socceroos will have a chance to shine. When the final whistle blows at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, some more people will know who those guys are.
