The route to the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been made easier for the Socceroos already, with the number of available spots doubled, and it couldn’t have started in simpler style than a 7-0 thrashing of Bangladesh at AAMI Park.
A Jamie Maclaren hat-trick, two from Mitch Duke and one apiece for Harry Souttar and Brandon Borrello were more than enough to see off a comfortably outmatched Bangladesh side that barely crossed the halfway line.
Graham Arnold will judge his side on more competitive games than this, but as starts go, it’s hard to argue with what he saw today.
His three frontline strikers grabbed goals, he handed a debut to another in Kusini Yengi and escaped without any injuries.
“The boys did exceptionally well,” said the coach. “Overall I think we could have doubled the score at least and had another four or five goals, but I’m very proud of the boys.”
It was a strong return for Melbourne City striker Maclaren, who had missed the last international break due to the birth of his child.
“Not bad, in the place where I do my business,” he said.
“Seven goals and could have been more for myself as well, but we move on with three points.
“You always strive for better and we know we know we could have scored a lot more and the boys in the back were all solid.
“I’m not sure Matty (Ryan) had a save to make, but part of the team and we know the next game will be a lot harder.”
Australia’s campaign continues on Wednesday 1am AEDT against Palestine, who drew 0-0 with Lebanon overnight.
It was an auspicious day in Australian football, with both the anniversary of John Aloisi’s iconic penalty in 2005 and a tribute to the heroes of the 1974 World Cup, but suffice to say, this was never likely to challenge those two for a place in the history books.
Bangladeshis are, on average, the ninth shortest nation in the world and it looked as if the Socceroos analysts had brought their World Factbook rather than Wyscout with an barrage of crossing that ruthlessly underlined the Australian advantage in the air.
Souttar, all 1.98m of him, opened the scoring just four minutes in with an imposing header from a Craig Goodwin free kick.
Borrello, starting up front alongside Duke, tapped in a Connor Metcalfe cross and might have had another had he not planted his header directly at keeper Mitul Marma, with Goodwin again the supplier.
He then fed Keanu Bacchus, who missed the target, before Duke bodied a Bangaldesh defender out of the way to head home with comical simplicity.
The hero of Al Wakrah would get another before being withdrawn the break, turning home the rebound after Borrello’s volley had cannoned off the post.
Duke was replaced by Maclaren, never one to miss out when goals are going around, and he struck almost immediately.
Again, it was a cross, with the striker reconnecting his Melbourne City partnership with Jordy Bos to tap home from the middle of the goal.
Only Marma was keeping Bangladesh even slightly competitive, but he could do little to stop Maclaren making it six with 20 minutes to play.
The keeper was beaten again by Maclaren, but had some help from the hosts, with debutant Yengi inadvertently blocking the shot.
The hat-trick would eventually come, and again, all he had to do was hang around the six yard box and wait for the cross.
This time it was Lewis Miller from the right who got in behind, from where he picked out the hometown favourite.
Aidan O’Neill, one of the subs, outpaced the Bangladeshi defence late on to charge into the box and win a penalty – but, perhaps appropriately given his superb showing in the face of a constant barrage, Mitul saved from Massimo Luongo.
Later, Palestine played out a goalless draw with Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier played behind closed doors in the United Arab Emirates due to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The match had been scheduled to be played in the Lebanese capital of Beirut but Israel’s response to the attack by Hamas on October 7 caused officials to switch Thursday’s match to Sharjah.
The whole Palestinian team – who will next play Australia’s Socceroos on November 21 in Kuwait – wore traditional keffiyeh, chequered black and white scarves, before the national anthems and there was a minute’s silence for those killed in the conflict before kick-off.
Despite starting official training only four days ago, the Palestinians started the game well.
Yet Lebanon captain Hassan Maatouk had the first chance after 12 minutes, with his long-range shot going wide, before Atta Gaber responded for the Palestinians with a header on the half-hour mark that went over.
Karim Darwich missed a good chance for Lebanon three minutes into the second half and Palestine, ranked 94th by FIFA, had a Tamer Seyam shot saved by Lebanon goalkeeper Moustafa Matar.
Lebanon’s Ali Al Haj shot into the side netting after 87 minutes before Matar saved Oday Dabbagh’s close-range shot with his outstretched leg in the final minute.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
This is an England supporter sweating the fact that the rest of the world is getting better at football. And there is nothing that puts the fear of the Almighty into English sports fans than the unlimited flow of natural Australian sporting talent.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
i wonder if this bloke is an MCC member
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
see this reeks of fear lad. Countries like Finland made it to Euro. Italy was completely missing from the World Cup. Japan is becoming a football powerhouse and they are going to be good enough in the future to beat any team they want, both men and women. At least you're sticking to to your national strengths. And god bless the Scots, in the last six rugby outings they've beaten the Poms and multiple times at Twickenham. Things are changing lad, if you dont get comfortable with it now, life is not going to be so enjoyable. And remember, life is short.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Ahhh so you’re a Pom. I know that assumption is the mother of all errors, but there enough evidence here to say that I am close to the target. The truth is, that football is not just South America and Europe anymore. Football is growing and growing fast. Look at Iceland a few world cups back. Truth is, this country is only getting started. Kids love the game, parents want their kids to play the game and we’re going to pass the 2 million registered footballers mark next season. We have more and more kids and coaches heading offshore. The larger proportion of those domestic numbers are under the age of 16. So there’s a good chance that just like the cricket world cup, that England is going to get opposition that will become better and better as years go by. U.S, Canada, Australia, Japan, Sth Korea, Saudi, the list goes on. Whinge all you like, denegrate all you like, insult all you like, the facts cannot be changed. I have written down ten points on a page. My wife and i have a wager how many of them you hit in your response. See, the SPL is smart, they are ahead of the Poms, they are out here looking at kids, they’re totally aware of the potential talent gold mine that’s out here. Meanwhile in the EPL, clubs that are going broke are being docked 10 points, whereas clubs that are flaunting the rules and just making the competition an utterly boring one horse race are getting away with blue murder. Before you start throwing grenade, it might pay to pause and think
Grem
Roar Rookie
I know you and I weren’t – football is far more popular. Cricket is a weaker sport with so few countries playing it. A “world cup” is easy to win in cricket, that’s why Australia has 6. That’s why Sri Lanka has one. Australia won a cricket competition last night, but it was no world cup!
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
Irrelevant. Nobody is making an argument that cricket is more popular than football globally. But their WC is a better spectacle with more high quality games across the board.
Grem
Roar Rookie
No, that’s rugby. He meant league and was probably joking about holiday islands being powerhouse teams.
jamesb
Roar Guru
The above article is about the Socceroos, and your initial comment was centred around the WC. No mention of clubs like Melbourne City.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Go back to your section - whatever little sport that is.
Grem
Roar Rookie
0ne day cricket “world cups” are only shared more because of the nature of the game and because it’s a weaker sport – so few teams in the “world”. Afghanistan would never beat England in football, but cricket – yes, they can. Australia have won the cricket one day “world cup” 5 times – can’t happen in football, the West Indies (not a nation) have won it twice – can’t happen in football, England have won it once – can happen in football, Sri Lanka have won it once and that will never happen in football, etc. Cricket is a much weaker competition than football – no comparison ad tastic.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
When you put in teams that have made the final its only 7 in cricket and semi finals its 9 but Kenya only made the semi finals because of automatic victories with countries not wanting to even play there. The real reason for cricket to have so few teams, and a format where only 10 play over and over again is money and greed. FIFA makes more money off teams that have never won a world cup in USA, Mexico,Japan. There are only three nations in cricket that provide the money and even Australia you can only really get good money for a world cup if its in the Australian time zone. Having a world cup should be an opprtunity for more teams to play not less than usual.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
Cook Islands? I think you mean Fiji. Didn't they just beat us at the WC?
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
The Euros back when it was 16 teams was a higher quality tournament than the WC. All the WC contenders minus Argentina and Brazil and no teams from makeweight confederations like CONCACAF and AFC. Copa America is a higher standard across the board too.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
8 nations have won the football WC. 6 nations have won the cricket version despite only having one since the 70s. So I would say the contenders vs makeweights proportion is much higher in cricket than football. Sure the scores are closer but thats got more to do with the nature of the sport than the relative quality of the bottom teams.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
LOL! Melbourne City is literally owned by the same guys.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Should only be 4, which is 4 more than AFL and 1 more than league. Can’t be too many poor games in the most popular sport in the world competing in the biggest and most popular competition on earth.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
I'm above your infantile code wars. You don't need to be anything other than a football fan to know that there aren't 48 teams good enough to deserve a place at the WC. The least I can say about cricket is they realise this and only have 10 teams at their WC.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
LOL! It was an appalling game against an appalling team in a half empty stadium. We spent the whole game banging it into the mixer like a 3rd division Scottish team.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
Ignorant? Unlike you, I spent most of my life living in a country that lives and breathes foorball. Where football is a religion. I've watched 1000s of games of football. The fact of the matter is the WC group stage is 3 games. Australia parked the bus and fed off scraps. It's a strategy that potentially works for outclassed teams in every football league in the world. And so it did for Australia. Denmark are a better team than Australia. But they played bad and lost to us. Happens all the time. Watch the France game again. We would have lost by a cricket score if they brought their shooting boots. That's our true level. Australian football fans remind me of American football fans. Desperately looking at close results in friendly games with disinterested football super powers whos only interest is saving themselves from injury for the more important club games being played the following weekend. The reality is the Socceroos are composed of 2nd division players and guys that play in Scotland but not for the Old Firm. The players have already been relegated from the top leagues, or even worse, never ever played in a top league. So it's a dead cert that a team composed of such players would be relegated over the course of a league season. I'm sorry for the hurt feelings, but IMHO any team that would finish below the top 100 clubs in Europe over the course of a league seaon is a bad team. And you want to let 16 more of them into the WC. Like, I said. Too many garbage teams and garbage games.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Jamie Maclaren, he scores when he wants, he scores when he want :thumbup: :laughing: