I hope Arnie stays on as Socceroo coach.

Very few coaches in world football coach teams to the last 16 of the World Cup.

Think of this. There are 7 big leagues in world football - England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy (could not even qualify for the 2018 and 2022 WCs), Brazil and Argentina. They each have about 20 teams per league. This equates to 140 current head coaches of the 140 teams in total.

Many of those coaches never get to coach at a World Cup at all, let alone qualify for the last 16 of the WC. They don't get the opportunity to coach on the world's biggest stage in football. To get to the last 16 means that arguments that it is easy to qualify through a weak continental football federation are refuted. Any team in a WC group of 4 has to play at least 2, even 3 teams, outside their own continental football federation.

Arnie, and his assistants,  Rene Meulensteen and Tony Vidmar, will have been appraised by the big leagues' technical departments, as superb coaches at coaching cohesive and effective defences.

To take our weakest ever 11 (most likely) to our greatest ever result is no small feat. 

Ill eat my words, well done Arnie, amazing achievement! 

Would still hate to watch GA-ball for the next four years but nonetheless well done Arnie on achieving the improbable.

I am glad you mentioned Meulensteen and Vidmar.Meulensteen from all accounts did a lot of scouting and player assessments in Europe for Arnie and obviously is a good judge of player strengths and weaknesses and also how a player fits into Arnie's style of coaching. 

I am glad Vidmar is so intimately involved in the coaching team.It was a great tragedy for him that he missed playing in the 2006 team because of a heart problem as he had been a stalwart player for the Socceroos for many years before that.

Also Andrew Clarke the fitness coordinator always does a tremendous job with the NT and is highly appreciated by Arnie. John Crawley received heaps of criticism and not without some justification for the non selection of  Mitch Langerak but he knew Ryan would come through when needed and with the unbelievable efforts of the defenders in front of him has had a relatively easy time in the last two games and has been able to more authoritative as the captain.


 

  

Meulensteen is very much being what Arnie was to Hiddink

Love eating this humble pie :)

I have to agree with that, I will confess that when Australia's World Cup qualification campaign started to fall apart, and Australia was then forced into two sudden death playoffs (against the UAE and Peru), I seriously began to question Graham Arnold's coaching, but he's made me eat humble pie, he has really turned the Socceroos around.

And when we lost the first game against France 4-1, I thought we were finished, but the Socceroos have shown incredible character, courage and maturity beating two very decent teams in Tunisia and Denmark, to qualify for the second round. It's great that the Socceroos are scoring from open play (and not just penalties), it's even better they have won two consecutive World Cup matches in a row against quality opposition, and we kept clean sheets in both matches.

Arnie was an outstanding A-League coach, and he was really improved as an international coach, well done Arnie and the Socceroos.

Forget the NC.  Scottish Australians and the SPL is the key to our future.

Yoogali Soccer Club the pioneers 

He might stay on, I'd be getting his agent to open up negotiations very soon as he now has some serious leverage. 

:D

I love that thought. 

Would love arnie to win the asian cup and go deep in the confederation cup

Is the confederation cup still happening? I thought it was being shut down for good. 

https://twitter.com/OptusSport/status/1598195690491895808

Great little bit on Arnie's origins at Sydney Croatia.  How anyone can hate this man is beyond me. 

Nice, thanks for posting........ reminds me a little of some of our past conversations eh" hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

As far as I'm aware it's gone, and is being replaced by the repecharge (IDGAF how it's spelt) or whatever it is tournament being planned to replace intercontinental playoffs.

Irrelevant note, but I tried to put together a World Cup finals draw (plus this little extra tournament) if it did indeed get changed to 48 teams (next WC qualification numbers).

Italy still miss out.

EDIT:
Extra qualifiers this world cup would have been:
UEFA: Ukraine, North Macedonia, Sweden
OFC: New Zealand
CONMEBOL: Peru, Colombia
CONCACAF: Panama, Jamaica
AFC: UAE, Iraq/Oman (the other to intercontinentals)
CAF: 4 of Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, DR Congo (the fifth goes to intercontinentals)

Intercontinental Playoffs (2 of these qualify)
Solomon Islands
Chile
Honduras
5th extra CAF qualifier (above)
Iraq/Oman
Syria/China

Arnie is an old fashioned Aussie bloke .Looking at him and hearing him talk you would think he would be a Rugby League or Aussie Rules person( too working class for Union).He came from a football family in the Sutherland area-still the most Anglo part of Sydney but through his involvement with the world game he has embraced the other cultures and ethnic groups who play football.He played in the Netherlands and Japan and has worked with great coaches such as Hiddink.

He is passionate about football,especially Australian football and about youth development.The long,arduous and at times underwhelming WC qualification process was a learning experience for him as a coach and this showed in the UAE and Peru games.Even the French game showed that this team had some ability with that great goal by Goodwin and the lead up by Leckie and Souttar.That he and his staff were able to motivate the boys for Tunisia and Denmark demonstrated his man management skills plus his tactical nous ( and input from Meulensteen and Vidmar would have contributed).

With Maltese parents dude :)

Got a lot right and some stuff wrong. I think he should stay for the next Asian Cup at least.

Yep, he’s earned that right. Things I might have changed today is Irvine off at half time and Leckie off earlier for Kuol. Possibly Cummings instead of Maclaren. We needed players who can fight and possibly do the unexpected, not a tap in merchant.

I never expected this team could look so comfortable against a top side as we did in the first half. That is down to Arnold.

Irvine reminds me of myself. So passionate yet can't get fundamentals right. He was distraught tonight. Seeing the video after the Denmark game of the players' families, it's much bigger than what we just see on the pitch. Behich was being consoled by Devlin post game. Their body and mind has been through a lot the last 4 ears to get here. Arnold needs a holiday in the sun too. It's nearly killed him

It is actually great that they are distraught. It means they truly believed that they could beat one of the best teams in the world. 

We went from almost going out to UAE to pushing argies. Fair play. 

I have absolutely no doubt that if Arnie was blessed with technically gifted players that we wouldn’t be a low defensive-block counter attacking team. 

Better than Guus

Arnold has aged 15 years in the last 4. You can really see it in his face. I'm really hoping he can go and chill for a couple of weeks and just relax somewhere.

arnieball should be studied documented and made natiional curriculum. 

Sadly, I think there is an inherent inferiority complex about our own domestic  Aussie coaches.

They are now trained very well inner Football lAus coach education. Ange, ikon, pOpa, Muscat, Kisnotrbo ( coaching in a big UEFA five league),  are coaching overseas. There are also a number of assistant Aussie coaches coaching overseas.

Arnie is a master coach who cares passionately about Aussie football. Recently he stated he had too few players of sufficient calibre for international football at the end of Bert's short tenure at the end of 2018.  So to his credit, he took on coaching the Olympic team, for no remuneration, to develop the next generation of talent for the Socceroos.

And something Arnie has discovered is that the younger players in the Aus Under 16s, under 17s and under 20s, have technical skills no previous  generation of Aussie footballers have.

The reason we got so far in Qatar, is because Arnie fast-tracked  Rowles, Souttar, McGree?, Tilio, Baccus, Genreau, Kuol, Metcalfe, Devlin, et al, from the youngsters, to step up to international football. No  foreign  coach would have done this. They would have walked away from the Socceroo job.

Arnie is also partially the Technical Director of Aussie football, with Trevor Morgan  focusing on youth development and coach education,

Arnie  deserves  great credit.

We are very lucky to have him. He is one of the best coaches in world football. And the best coach the Socceoros have ever had, including Bert ( World Cup  finalist with Holland in 2010) and Guus (UEFA Champ league semi-finalist with PSV).