Australia beat Denmark 1-0 and earned a spot in the knockout stage of the World Cup.
Australia defeated Tunisia 1-0 thanks to a header from Mitchell Duke.
Australia kick things off against champions France a week today, and are considered unlikely to progress from Group D. This is their fifth World Cup finals in a row and they have an experienced manager, as well as some decent talent, but their squad has been hit by injuries and some of their best players have failed to get enough minutes for their clubs…
The manager
Graham Arnold’s history with the national team goes back the best part of 40 years. Now 59, he was a combative striker in the 1980s and 1990s, playing for clubs in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan, as well as winning more than 50 caps.
He then worked as an assistant on the national team’s staff, as Australia Under-23s boss and then as manager of the senior side for most of the 2000s, before a near-decade managing clubs in Australia and Japan. He returned as national team manager following Russia 2018, when they finished bottom of their group without winning a match, and has stuck around to get them to Qatar, too.
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For someone who has been around the green and gold for so long, Arnold is strangely divisive in domestic football circles.
Australia went out in the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup with a 1-0 loss to the United Arab Emirates, then limped along during World Cup qualifiers until a penalty shootout in the decisive play-off against Peru when Arnold made the biggest call of his career: substituting his captain Mat Ryan for backup goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
Andrew Redmayne's penalty shoot-out antics were planned to put "uncertainty into Peru brains," Australia coach Graham Arnold has revealed.
🎥 @BBCSport pic.twitter.com/8hWVCUsf7M
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) June 14, 2022
Redmayne’s goal-mouth dance routine went viral and saw Australia through to Qatar.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, Arnold’s legacy was secured with that audacious last roll of the dice.
Household name you haven’t heard of yet
Garang Kuol has just one senior cap, coming off the bench in a recent friendly against New Zealand. But the 18-year-old is the hottest thing in Australian football right now and has secured a move to the Premier League with Newcastle United off the back of impressive attacking contributions for A-League side Central Coast Mariners.
Born in an Egyptian refugee camp to South Sudanese parents, Kuol became the youngest player to represent Australia since Harry Kewell in 1996. He comes from a footballing family — his older brother Alou plays for Stuttgart in Germany — and looks set for a long Australia career.
He just snuck into the squad for Qatar and will be used off the bench for impact. Don’t be surprised if a spectacular late goal etches his name into World Cup folklore.
Strengths
Australia have strength in depth in the midfield.
Team stalwarts Aaron Mooy and Jackson Irvine are both flourishing at club level; Mooy under the eye of countryman and ex-national team coach Ange Postecoglou at champions Celtic in Scotland and Irvine at German second-tier side St Pauli. Riley McGree has been a regular for Middlesbrough in the English Championship, displaying his versatility in a range of roles across the middle of the park. Ajdin Hrustic of Italian Serie A side Verona was Australia’s best player during qualification and should be fit after a recent ankle scare.
The more flippant answer when asked to highlight Australia’s strengths is big-bearded backup goalkeeper Redmayne, he of the infamous dance moves.
Will we see more dancing in Doha? Unfortunately, despite his qualification heroics, it’s unlikely Redmayne will see many minutes at the World Cup, with Ryan ahead of him in the pecking order and Danny Vukovic as the other goalkeeper. But even on the bench, Redmayne should provide plenty of meme opportunities.
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Weaknesses
Injuries, and a lack of playing minutes. About half of Australia’s typical starting XI are either out or only just returning to fitness. This will be felt most in the back line, where Harry Souttar and Kye Rowles, their best centre-back pairing, are coming back from long-term absences (with knee and foot problems respectively). Even players who aren’t injured lack match fitness — attacking spark Awer Mabil has only made a handful of appearances since joining Cadiz of La Liga in the summer. Tom Rogic has been largely absent for West Bromwich Albion of the Championship, and didn’t make the final 26.
Uncertainty also swirls around the future of Arnold, which might prove disruptive in Qatar. He almost lost his job towards the end of the turbulent qualifying campaign, and his contract is up at the end of the tournament.
Australian media have reported the national federation is contemplating whether to offer a renewal post-World Cup, while several foreign clubs have expressed interest. Ultimately, Football Australia kept Arnold in the post for the pointy end of qualification due to his close bond with players — but will that bond come back to bite with his future up in the air?
Local knowledge
Australia is a multicultural nation, with 30 per cent of the 25million population born overseas and nearly half of Australians having an overseas-born parent (the highest percentage among comparable nations). This comes in handy at World Cup time, with most Australian football fans able to claim allegiance to two teams, especially after their boys inevitably go out in the group stage.
England is the backup national team of choice, with more than a million English-born residents in Australia.
Expectations back home
Australian fans are at once perennially optimistic and yet very much open-eyed about the significant limitations of the current side.
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The Australians have only once squeaked beyond a World Cup group stage — in Germany in 2006, when four points proved enough. Then, a controversial late penalty awarded to eventual champions Italy sent them home after the round of 16 (a decision which still rankles today). Australia’s Group D opponents bring a sense of deja vu from four years ago. They open against France (just like they did at the previous finals in 2018) and also face Denmark (another of their group opponents in Russia). Tunisia are the only fresh opponents, replacing Peru.
Realistically, Australia will do well to beat any of these sides. Injuries and internal disharmony within the France team might help (as will that match being the first of the group, before either side finds its rhythm having not been able to play warm-up games because of the truncated schedule).
If they can sneak something against France, the encounter with Tunisia four days later might prove pivotal. Those two nations have only faced each other twice in history, in 1997 and 2005, and have one win apiece. Any hope of a berth in the knockout round will then hinge on the final match with Denmark — their meeting at the last World Cup finished 1-1, but the Danes have improved since.
Another group-stage exit is likely, but the green and gold army will sing to the last.
Read more: See the rest of The Athletic’s World Cup 2022 squad guides
(Main graphic — photos: Getty Images/design: Sam Richardson)