He’d rather it doesn’t come to it but Socceroos coach Graham Arnold is confident his team will be ready should their World Cup play-off with Peru have to be decided by a dreaded penalty shootout.
Australia will discover in 24 hours whether they will qualify for a fifth straight World Cup or miss out on this year’s tournament in a winner-takes-all clash against their South American opponents in Qatar on Monday (Tuesday 04:00am AEST).
Arnold was part of Guus Hiddink’s coaching staff for the famous 2005 World Cup play-off shootout win over Uruguay in Sydney.
Australia also tasted success in a shootout during Arnold’s reign, defeating Uzbekistan in a round of 16 tie at the 2019 Asian Cup.
“I’ve been involved in every penalty shootout in Socceroo history,” Arnold told AAP.
(Francois Nel/Getty Images)
“That’s crazy and I don’t want to go to another one, but I do know how to prepare for penalty shootouts.
“It’s been there in the past – 2005, Asian Cup 2019 against Uzbekistan.
“I clearly remember how Guus Hiddink did it to get the boys prepared and will do the same.”
Adding to Arnold’s shootout know-how is assistant Tony Vidmar, who was one of those to score in that win over Uruguay.
Captain Maty Ryan was in the stands at Stadium Australia that night and played a key role in the shootout win over the Uzbeks in 2019.
Ryan made two saves in that shootout while Mathew Leckie scored the winner.
“You always try and get yourself across takers and all those types of stuff,” Ryan told AAP.
“Educate yourself on if you can find something within certain players within their team to gain an advantage, but if it comes to that, I’ll use all that I’ve learnt in my career until now to try and do my best to come out on top in that scenario.
“It’d be nice to deliver World Cup qualification, if it was to play out that way, but preferably I’d like to do it within the 90 minutes and do it collectively with the team.”
© AAP
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