When FIFA announced the expansion of the World Cup Finals to 48 teams, with eight spots for Asia, most Australians thought: “Hooray! We’ll never miss the World Cup again.”

But if the recent Asian Cup has taught us anything, the quality of Asian football is improving rapidly. Australia desperately needs to lift its game because as the tide rises around us, I’m not sure we’re doing enough to stay afloat.

Eight may not be enough.

*     *     *

The Asian Cup Final will be contested between Jordan and Qatar.

Who saw that coming?

All the heavyweights are gone – defeated by supposedly lesser teams – but those supposedly lesser teams played strong, technical football.

We may not have been beaten ourselves by the lesser teams, but we certainly made hard work of dealing with the so-called minnows. We finished on the same rank as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We were beaten by South Korea who then went out to Jordan. Qatar made the final by beating Iran.

These results can’t be regarded as flukes. (Especially when you think about some of the excellent results recorded by Asian teams against traditional world class teams at the last World Cup.)

These results proclaim that the football landscape is changing. Jordan and Qatar (who won the last Asian Cup) must now be regarded as heavyweights themselves. Add to those the traditional heavyweights: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi and Australia. Throw in the traditional middle-weights: UAE, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Oman, Vietnam and Thailand…

Add the surprisingly good Tajikistan, and we haven’t even counted China who must eventually start to realise their full potential (as will India, at some point).

All of a sudden the path to the World Cup does not look as clear cut as it did. It’s a bloody minefield, strewn with banana skins.

If you watched the football played by the likes of Jordan, Tajikistan et al, it was, at times, breathtaking. Fast, free-flowing, aggressive football, practised by players with excellent technical skills, playing a strong coherent system in which every player knew his role.

Exactly how I want us to play.

We don’t though. We set ourselves up not to lose with definitely one of the best defences in Asia, but we don’t have the players who are fast and skilful enough to prise open defences at this level. And we don’t have the lethal strikers to take advantage of the few chances we do make.

Or maybe we do, but we aren’t picking them.

I’m certainly not calling for Arnie’s head. He did a great job at the last World Cup and we were unlucky to lose to South Korea this time (despite 70/30 possession). He’s also done a reasonable job of identifying young talent to replenish the team going into the next World Cup cycle.

But going forward I want to see a lot more emphasis on scoring rather than just defending. I want us to fill the team with pace and with skill. I want all our players to be able to beat the first man and then take advantage of that to enable the whole team to ruthlessly attack a defence in disarray (as they have to be when adjusting to a man being beaten).

As I look around the players at Arnie’s disposal, not a lot of names are leaping out.

Alex Robertson must come in ASAP. He’s not yet locked in for the Socceroos so the sooner we play him in a competitive match the better. He looks a star in the making, if he’s not already. Put him together with Riley McGree and that’s the makings of a very decent midfield. Josh Nisbet must also come into calculations - brilliant tackler and never loses the ball.

Nestory Irankunda and Garang Kuol are players with pace and skill. Irankunda will certainly come into the team over the next year or so, but the jury’s out on Kuol who desperately needs to rediscover his mojo. I haven’t lost hope for him.

A player we should be looking at immediately is Daniel Arzani. He is killing the A League right now – pulling the strings for Melbourne Victory and would do even better with better players around him. I will be deeply disappointed and sharpening my quill if he doesn’t feature against Lebanon.

As for the strikers… none of the usual suspects have ever quite nailed it and Fornaroli (still a good player) is too old to make it to 2026. Same probably goes for Taggart who is in great form right now. Yengi impressed and we need to see more of Iredale. I thought Mo Toure did well against (I think) England and his younger brother Musa is supposed to be a talent.

As for Volpato, he might be a solution but I do like to pick players who actually want to play for us. I quite like the look of Lachlan Brook also – very good finisher.

At the back, Ryan is likely to hang on a bit longer but I do want Gauci to be given a chance. He will grow immensely at Aston Villa and is likely to be the main man for the next ten years.

Souttar needs a new team. His rustiness showed. Kye Rowles was excellent and Cam Burgess did nothing wrong. Circati will also be increasingly involved so we’re fine at the back.

I didn’t think much of the Gethin Jones experiment but Ryan Strain will be our Right Back going forward. Left Back will be a tussle between Jordy Bos and Jacob Farrell.

All of the younger players I’ve mentioned are fast and technically ahead of the players they’ll be replacing. They do need experience though and there’s only one way to get that – being gradually blooded among more senior players.

But, as I said at the start, it’s going to be much harder to qualify for the next World Cup than anyone might have thought a month ago. There are as many as twelve teams with realistic expectations of making the eight.

One thing in our favour is that Asian teams don’t tend to travel well. We are much stronger at home and we’ll need to take every advantage we can from that.

 

Adrian's books can be purchased at any good bookstore or through ebook alchemy. His first sci-fi novel (Asparagus Grass) was published by Hague Publishing in July 2023. The ebook can be purchased here and the paperback can be ordered here or at your local store.