- Football Australia back Arnold for sixth successive FIFA World Cup finals appearance as underdogs
- Head coach has the desire to strengthen squad with a plethora of battling Scottish-born players
Graham Arnold is determined to guide Australia to the FIFA World Cup finals for a sixth time on the spin by unearthing even more Scottish-born talent.
He was able to call upon influential duo Jason Cummings and Harry Souttar, who turned their back on their country of birth, to superbly represent the Socceroos at Qatar 2022.
Dundee-born box to box midfielder Alex Robertson was given his international debut last month. He joins Central Coast Mariners striker Cummings, also born in Dundee, as well the Aberdeen-born duo of Hibernian winger Martin Boyle and Leicester City defender Souttar in Arnold’s highly-prized ranks.
Manchester City prospect Robertson preferred Australia to playing for England (father), Scotland and Peru (mother). He represented the Socceroos at U15 level, then played for England at U17 and U18 level because he was Manchester-based before recently opting for Australia.
Graham Arnold. Photo/Nine’s Wide World of Sports
Arnold, who signed a new deal with Football Australia in January that concludes after the 2026 World Cup finals, has his eyes on other rising stars born halfway across the world from Australia. His incentive for them to pledge their allegiance to the Socceroos is that Australia are regular faces at World Cup finals.
The 59-year-old sees plenty of Scottish Premiership action as he has a plethora of squad members plying their trade there. These comprise Dundee United’s Aziz Behich, Hearts’ Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin, on-loan Newcastle United striker Garang Kuol and Kye Rowles as well as the St. Mirren pair of Keanu Baccus and Ryan Strain.
Yet Scotland manager Steve Clarke steered his side to an astonishing 2-0 shock success over Spain in last month’s UEFA Nations League contest. So a resurgence could be kicking off for the Scots, which would be timely with the 2026 World finals — set to be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States — will be the first edition of the quadrennial tournament where 48 teams will be taking part.
If Scotland have a shot at success then Arnold may find it trickier than anticipated to prise players away from their place of birth. However, FIFA recently revealed that Africa and Asia have been awarded more of these additional team places than Europe.
With the Asian Football Confederation’s quota, which includes the Socceroos, virtually doubling to eight team places for the 2026 World Cup finals then it would be near impossible for Arnold not to return to the global showpiece tournament.
At least next time they should be able to reach there by avoiding the lottery of the intercontinental play-off, having qualified by this method in 2006, 2018 and 2022.
According to experts at aussiebet.com,the Socceroos are going to be at the 2026 World Cup just to make up the numbers, because without a ball being kicked for any qualifiers across the globe they are a long shot at 500/1 to triumph.
Graham Arnold. Photo/AP News
The usual suspects are among the favourites to win with the bookmakers. France (9/2) sit in top spot ahead of Brazil (6/1), England (8/1), reigning champions Argentina (9/1), Spain (9/1), Germany (10/1), Portugal (14/1), Italy (16/1) and also-rans like Australia.
Being underdogs will excite Arnold, rewarded with a new contract for guiding the Socceroos to the last 16 at Qatar 2022 where he beat the-then world no.10 nation Denmark. Australia were only stopped in their tracks by Argentina.
He turned down coaching opportunities in both Europe and the Middle East to concentrate on Australia. However, already he’s voiced concern that the A-League Down Under needs to expand, and wants a move to at least 30 games from the current 25 matches a season in order to continue the talent production line.
Arnold has just one confirmed friendly to fine-tune his Socceroos, when they face England in mid-October at Wembley Stadium, before the World Cup qualifiers kick-off in November and the delayed 2023 Asian Cup takes place in Qatar early next year. Whether the squad will be littered with Scottish-born players remains to be seen.
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