He’s guided Australia through a perfect 11 wins from as many World Cup qualifiers but Socceroos coach Graham Arnold cannot wait to return home.
Arnold hasn’t been in Australia since departing in May before the national team resumed their road to Qatar with four matches in June in Kuwait.
After those games, Arnold led the Olyroos at the 2022 Tokyo Olympics and kept the Socceroos’ perfect campaign going – playing “home” matches in Qatar against China and Oman as well as a hard-fought 1-0 win over Vietnam in Hanoi.
In between, the 58-year-old has stayed in the Middle East and the United Kingdom rather than face Australia’s strict quarantine regulations.
On the eve of Tuesday’s clash with Japan in Saitama, Arnold admits he is as hopeful as anyone the easing of restrictions in NSW will allow Australia’s November 11 qualifier against Saudi Arabia to be played on home soil.
“I’ve been away since early May and I haven’t seen my kids since and my grand kids,” Arnold said.
“With everything that was going on I had to try and change personally my own strategy to get through this for the boys, for the players and the staff.
“Everything’s crazy at the moment, it’s one step at a time.”
Arnold cited Australia’s travel schedule to Japan as indicative of the challenges of he’s faced coaching an international team during the COVID pandemic.
“There’s minimum flights, not only to Australia, but even here in Japan,” he said.
“We had to wait for a flight until 2.30 in the morning to fly out of Doha to get here to Tokyo because there was only one flight or two flights in the whole day.”
Arnold will return to the UK to be with wife Sarah after Tuesday’s match but said he expects the game against the Saudis to be played in Australia.
“I’ve been in charge now for 21 games, I’ve played 19 away from home,” he said.
“We’ve had one World Cup qualifier, out of 11, at home.
“It’s a privilege to coach the nation. It does get tiring at times but it’s what it is.”
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Pass on my regards to Beatrix!
AGO74
Guest
Unless europe is now part of Asia, it is not possible to play Asian World Cup qualifiers in Europe.
Johan
Guest
Be careful what you wish for peeps! The refusal of the governments, both state and federal, to permit the Socceroos to play games in this sunburnt land has helped the Socceroos immensely. When peeps who live in Europe and have no experience of travelling to Oz numerous times start to have to do that, they will probably feign injury to avoid these games. As a Dutch Australian aristocrat who loves the wallabies and Australian cricket, I must admit I would like to see Japan win tomorrow as I don’t want the Socceroos to become too successful and damage the major sports in this sunburnt land. Good Luck Japan!
Aiden
Guest
More comedy gold. Everyone needs a hobby I suppose.
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Making excuses already before the ball has been kick against Japan. After Japan smash us tomorrow i expect more excuses to cum. Like i said he will get us to the 3rd place play off but that's it just look at how well the Olympics turned out.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
The lack of home games have been something of a bonus for us. If we do qualify there will be no-one in our group as familiar with the environs of Doha. The Saudi home game is the only match remaining I'd prefer to host in Australia. I dare say the CFO at Football Australia has a different opinion.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Australia are better off playing in Europe, the next best thing is the air conditioned stadium in Qatar relatively close to Europe. Players are in the worst location to play in Australia opposite corner of the globe. A lot of players are advised not by their clubs not to play for Australia because takes them away from their club teams. For the future Australia should push for consecutive away or consecutive home games in windows. Playing home and away makes it even worse.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Noone can ever doubt his commitment and passion for Australian football. When Covid hit and he couldn't work with The Socceroos, he spent a great deal of time looking at how we can improve pathways and playing time for our young players. He coached our Olyroos to The Olympics for the first time in a long time. He now has The Socceroos sitting on 11 wins in a row with 10 of them away from home. I hope The Socceroos qualify because I would love to see them at a World Cup again, but I'd also love to see it happen to reward Graham Arnold's efforts. We are lucky to have people luke him involved in our sport.