Australia

Australian football must broaden its scope if Socceroos and Matildas are to exit current mire | Joey Lynch

07-Feb-2022 16:30:20 | Guardian

The national sides’ recent travails have highlighted the need for more ego in Australian football

The contrast in fortunes could hardly have been more distinct. On one side of the stage was Ange Postecoglou, basking in the adoration of 60,000 Celtic fans after an Old Firm triumph, and Alen Stajčić, brow furrowed in concentration, as his underdog Philippines advanced to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup. On the other was Graham Arnold, glumly musing on belief, hard work and goal differences as the Socceroos’ chances of automatic qualification for Qatar 2022 were all but ended, and Tony Gustavsson putting a brave face on the Matildas’ disastrous elimination from the Asian Cup and speaking of effort, learning and his belief that he could bounce back.

The dichotomy was obvious enough that it quickly became a key part of the fallout of a calamitous week; the inference being that had the former pair remained in charge of the national teams, or if Gustavsson and Arnold had not been put there, things would have been vastly different. This just might be accurate, but it could also be widely off the mark. The handy thing about hypotheticals is that they never need to be proven right or wrong. But there has certainly been some level of revisionism surrounding both national teams’ history as of late.