Graham Arnold: joke or genius? Let's sweat on it.

At the end of July, Socceroo coach Graham Arnold will be declared a joke or genius.

It's a tough business being coach of an international football team. Not only do you have to put up with fussy, ego-driven, superstars who pick and choose their availability for games but you have to weather speculation from the public and media (often uninformed) about the simplest decisions you make.

But that's the part of the package when a nation has an emotional investment in your day job. (We don't, for example, really care that much how the local supermarket checkout chick scans groceries).

So, it's like this: Australia's almost non-existent preparation for the Asian Cup is either genius or a joke. Handing a number of our star players a holiday and giving the kids a run against Uruguay is either inspired or stupid.

So too is the idea of having just one warm-up kick around against Singapore, a city-state whose team is so poor that the local federation scouts the globe for players to "fill the gaps" in their team.

Singapore does have an unreal airport, though.

The truth is that we won't know until the group games against Oman, Iraq, and Thailand are over as to whether this preparatory masterplan was a disaster. Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer agreed as much when I spoke with him at home in England last week.

What we do know is that Japan, who are fast becoming our biggest Asian rivals, beat Montenegro (FIFA's most recent and 208th member) 2-0 last Friday and meet Colombia this week. That's the total of their warm up.

Iraq, on the other hand, will play Jordan (possibly twice) in the next week, then Iran and Palestine in the West Asian championships before possible games against Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

The boys from Baghdad then have another game against South Korea in Seoul before arriving in Bangkok. These guys will be a machine by the time they meet Australia on Friday, July 13.

"I've been to Thailand five times already so I'm not going for a holiday," Iraq's coach Jorvan Vieira told me during the week.

"Can you beat Australia?" I asked.

"Of course!" he replied. "Of course!!"

So that's one official banana skin.

The other potential slip up, and this is where jogging around a park in Singapore's humid heat might be more beneficial than actual games, is the weather.

Not so long ago, on a beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam, I was a pudgy sunburnt Aussie wheezing and puffing in an 8-a-side pick up game with locals.

My teammates called me "Viduka" before collapsing in giggles, though this may have had more to do with my extra kilos than goal scoring skills.

I played for Skins while my mate Gareth played for Shirts. After about 15 minutes, the tropical air was a heavy blanket.

This meant that waddling around the makeshift centre-circle (the pitch was defined by rocks and lines drawn in the dust) was down-graded to standing on the centre spot. Running was not an option. It was that tough.

Our team didn't concede a goal all afternoon but we Australian interlopers had to play with brains rather than industry. Admittedly, Tim Cahill is slightly fitter than me (and probably you) but similar strategy will need to apply in July for the Socceroos.

By which time, we hope, we'll have a better idea of whether Graham Arnold is a joke or genius.

This is typical of Australia when it comes to football. You'd think that they would have learned that under preparation is going to lead to failure, but old habits don't die fast.




What was Arnold meant to do??? It is not like Australians are making a profound impact in Europe, nor do we have a whole host of excellent, mature players that make up the starting 11. It was only a friendly and Australia performed reasonably well, we can;t look to the likes of Viduka and co, because they are getting on (and in the case of Viduka, is incredibly shit)



I can see how the Asian cup is going to pan out. Australia will jump on the bandwagon by the time of this friendly against Singapore. We'll advance past the group stages with ease, causing the media to wank over Lucas Neil, Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill, even if they do shit all. By the time of the knockout phase we'll reach a decent side, causing the media to not only discredit this particular Asian nation (and if we verse Japan the word 'rematch' will be tossed around every second sentence) but to build up Australia as the home of football and footballing gods. We will eventually get knocked out, due to cheating refs, Arnold not being as good as Guus Hiddink, or because we are just too good for the Asian competition. The media however will wank over the socceroos for a while, whilst the rest of Australia leaps off the bandwagon and tried to hide their shame at being beaten by Asians.

He is defianltley not a joke.

Lets wait 'til after the Cup to decide if he's a genious or not

Seriously most of the teams are so shit, even a english league 2 could beat them, like co host came to malaysia and got owned by the a-league teams. Basically all the matches before the quarter finals are basically just warm ups anyway.