Australia fans still missing Oceania after 10 years in Asia should take a look at New Zealand. While the Socceroos prepare for Iraq on Thursday, the first of 10 intense games in the final round of qualification for the 2018 World Cup, the All Whites have no competitive action until back-to-back games with New Caledonia in November.
The past two Asian campaigns under Pim Verbeek and Holger Osieck have been free from stress – but also excitement. Under Ange Postecoglou, the football should be easier on the eye but whether they will be as easy on the heart remains to be seen.
The format is pretty much the same. The top two teams go through automatically while the third-placed enters the play-offs. Japan and Australia are the favourites but in contrast to the past, this time there are other teams with genuine hopes of going to the World Cup.
The United Arab Emirates, where Australia will appear five days after Perth, is one. The Whites showed their talent at the 2015 Asian Cup, finishing third and are desperate to make hay while the so-called “golden generation” shines. Most of their stars – Omar Abdulrahman, Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Khalil – were not even born in 1990, the last and only time the country featured at the World Cup. They have come through the ranks together, and most recently met up at a month-long training camp in Spain. The UAE are better prepared than anyone.
October brings Saudi Arabia. Coach Bert Van Marwijk has introduced a certain level of organisation and pragmatism to the Green Falcons who have lost their way and Asian powerhouse status in recent years. There will be danger in Jeddah. Striker Mohammad Al-Sahlawi scores a goal a game for his country and there will also be a strong desire, in some parts, for revenge on Australia after Al Hilal lost to Western Sydney Wanderers in a bitter final of the 2o14 Asian Champions League.
Five days after that is a game in Melbourne and the usual 1-1 draw with Japan. The Samurai Blue are looking to forget disappointing performances at the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 Asian Cup – and to a lesser extent the Rio Olympics. These games will be the biggest test so far for coach Vahid Halilhodzic after 18 months in the job but the talent is there to reach a sixth successive World Cup.
The first half of the final round of qualification is completed in Bangkok in November. Officially the weakest of the six on paper, Thailand are much-improved from the team that pushed Osieck’s side all the way in two qualifiers four years ago.
Coach Kiatisuk Senamuang is close to his players and has introduced a pass and move groove inevitably labelled “Thai tiki-taka”. The whole set-up is more professional, organised and co-ordinated than in the past with players that are better, fitter and familiar with each other. In the past there was perhaps too much respect shown to Australia but that will no longer be the case.
But first up is Iraq, that most mercurial of Middle Eastern teams. In terms of raw talent, few in Asia come close but there is also an impressive ability to put bullets in their own twinkle toes.
Younis Mahmoud has retired and this time it could be permanent. Despite his ability to get a goal when it is really needed, not all will miss the Desert Fox. A succession of foreign coaches have left Iraq muttering about the oversized influence of the striker. In a recent game against Syria, was it a coincidence that he turned to the bench during the game and held up seven fingers only for number seven to be substituted moments later?
Without Younis, the team is more fluid, flexible and free. The football played at the Olympics was, at times, a delight to watch and while the team may have left Brazil unbeaten, there was frustration at missing out on the quarter-finals. The inability to score was the problem and that could well be the same with the senior team too.
There are some excellent players. You can have Dhurgham Ismael, the young left-back and stand out at the 2015 Asian Cup and Udinese’s Ali Adnan whose rampaging runs have earned the nickname of “Asia’s Gareth Bale”. Ali Husni is a talented winger who provides craft and creativity and there is England-based Yaser Kasim to offer control in the middle.
Fans in Perth could be in for a treat and whatever happens, it is just the beginning. Five days later, the Socceroos will be half a world away in Abu Dhabi. The distances in Asia are also an opponent that provides challenges to all but after 10 years as a member, Australia would surely not have it any other way.
