In the end, it really should have surprised no one that Graham Arnold constructed his own reality in the build-up to the Socceroos 1-0 loss to Saudi Arabia. “I’ve been around the national team now for 40 years and I’ve never known a game to be a dead rubber,” he declared. “It’s more about going out against this team that’s qualified for a World Cup and showing our worth, and giving an opportunity for these players to step up and for them to push for a position in the playoff squad.”
Yet despite any contortions in logic to argue otherwise, a dead rubber is exactly what this match was. A 2-0 defeat against Japan the previous week meant that, no matter the result in Jeddah, the Socceroos knew the fate of their qualification campaign now lay in the playoff path. Meanwhile, the Green Falcons were safe in the knowledge that their ticket to Qatar 2022 – as symbolised by the large jumbo jet tifo erected in the stands – was already punched.
And while the Socceroos had their moments – able to play as the reactive team to fashion threatening chances in transition, including an incredibly tight offside call that disallowed a Martin Boyle goal – Salem Al-Dawsari’s 65th-minute penalty ensured that it would be the hosts who took a comfortable win and first place in Group B. Australia has now won just one of their last seven World Cup qualifiers; a tailspin in form that both probably should have been seen coming and will now force them to secure a fifth-straight World Cup apparence the hard way.
Ostensibly, dead rubbers such as Wednesday remove the risks associated with what would otherwise be a competitive fixture. They are an opportunity, as Arnold said, to blood younger or more inexperienced talent against a higher quality opposition, experiment with new tactics and strategies, or, perhaps, salvage some kind of pride for when a collective campaign is consigned to the annals of history.
And Arnold, good as his word, demonstrated the first quality in both his starting XI on Wednesday and the in-game substitutions that were made. 22-year-old Hearts defender Nathaniel Atkinson was handed an international debut at right back, 23-year-old Gianni Stensness started his second international cap at centre back after previously starting as a six against Japan, 22-year-old Denis Genreau, after mystifyingly failing to see a single minute in the third-phase of AFC World Cup qualification, lined up in the Australian midfield. 24-year-old striker Nicholas D’Agostino and 20-year-old attacker Marco Tilio were also introduced as second-half substitutes.
With the likes of Tom Rogic, Aaron Mooy, Jackson Irvine, and more all likely to be available, if this youth brigade will see any kind of scope in a coming playoff against the United Arab Emirates and, if the Australia triumphs in that, a do-or-die clash with either Peru, Chile, or Colombia is unknown, but they likely will, or should, represent part of the core of the national team as it begins to prepare for the 2026 World Cup cycle (as low stakes as that now will be with the tournament extended to 48 teams).
Of course, in the high-stakes world of international football, the future is never guaranteed. If one was to put much stock in speculative reports and innuendo back in Australia, Wednesday’s game was not only a dead rubber in a qualification capacity, but also for Arnold’s own tenure as Socceroos boss; the axe supposedly set to fall on the 58-year-old’s second tenure as national team boss regardless of the result in the Gulf.
In the fine tradition of coaches under the cosh, Arnold had played down the speculation in the lead into the game and, with the post-game press conferences only open to those at the ground, was spared questioning by a local press pack that has grabbed its brushes and begun to place the writing on the wall of his tenure. Nonetheless, in the wake of the defeat, the eyes of Australian football will now inevitably turn to Football Australia in coming days, speculating on the moment if/when black smoke will emerge from the federation’s metaphorical chimney at its Barangaroo office.