Arnie: 'I'm Proud Of My Boys...'

[johnydep]

Sounds like he benched Archie for not finishing off his chances. Fair enough - in junior league! At this level you don't bench a player that's fighting for the teams survival just because he can't score - give him more support.

Arnie: 'I'm Proud Of My Boys...'

OLYROOS coach Graham Arnold admits the lack of quality finishing upfront cost them a win against tournament favourites, Argentina.

Australia went down 1-0 against the fomrer gold medallists but squandered chances to level the score and even take the lead.

“I’m extremely proud of the performance of my team and frustrated that we lost,” Arnold said after the game.

“When you have four or five gilt edged chances against that type of opposition you need to score them and unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

Arnold said it was difficult to see anyone taking the title from the defending champion.

“It’s going to take some team to stop them. Their movement off the ball is unbelievable, their technique is incredible and that’s why I’m so proud of my boys.

"We made it hard to play their one-twos around the box. I thought we did a very good job on Messi today.”

Skipper Mark Milligan echoed his coach: "I am very proud of my team-mates and I will tell them how well we played.

"We still created chances and we will bring that spirit into the next game."

Argetina were happy with the win even if they failed to trouble the scorekeepers much during the 90 minutes.

“We have three goals from two games, that might not sound enough but you can score 10 goals but still not qualify for the next round,” said Argentina coach Sergio Batista. “So I’m happy with three goals and qualifying for the next round.”

“I am very confident in my team. We knew our goal and we are marching towards our goal. We still need a few improvements to keep mistakes to a minimum.”

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[Googes]

who fault is that

[johnydep]

Such a cowering shame
Les Murray

Said one report, in reference to Australia's loss to Argentina in the Beijing Games: 'Australia were brave and hard working and strong. They came with a plan and they executed it almost perfectly in wet and heavy conditions. It was a big ask but the Olyroos gave it their all, and but for a little more luck might have emerged with a draw that would have felt like a victory.'

Boy, have I heard that before. Like about for the past 40 years.

We went with a plan alright, the same plan we deployed when our semi-pro Socceroos would meet some glamour touring side on holiday back in the 1960s, a plan rooted in cowering insecurity and self-flagellating respect for the opposition.

Is this how far we’ve come in four decades and more?

Yes yes yes, I know. We were playing Argentina, the most royal of opponents, full of supermen and the rest of it. What else were we expected to do but back off, circle the wagons and whimper and snivel in hope?

But that's not the point. The point is, when will we reach the stage, if we ever will, when we take the game to someone other than American Samoa, New Zealand or Chinese Taipei? When will this all stop, this dreary mentality of wanting not to be disgraced, as opposed to actually wanting to win?

It was clear to me that against Argentina the team, or at least its governor, had no plan or even intention of winning. The only plan was about avoiding a slaughter and minimising the embarrassment, for a coach clutching his last ticket for the last tram.

On 81 minutes, with Argentina leading, he brought on defender McLenahan for attacker Celeski. What does that say, if not that he had given up, if indeed he ever had anything in mind other than giving up in the first place?

Pre-game Graham Arnold was quoted saying something about us having nothing to lose and therefore we had no fear.

No fear? This was a capitulation right up there with Darius III turning his horse and making a run for it when faced by Alexander in 331BC.

Australia were brave? This was sheer cowardice, a wimp's plan to rally impressionable young men to his personal cause of self-preservation. Johnny Warren, who used to say it was un-Australian not to want to win, must be spinning in his grave.

I feel for Graham Arnold, a man whose playing career embodied courage, bravery and winning ambition. But as a coach he has succumbed to an instinct for job survival above all else, abandoning beliefs in the team imperative and now he pokes about, lurching from game to game, seeking momentary solace in a passing chance at vindication.

But the problem is broader than just the coach, for if Arnold actually believed in the players maybe his tactics would have been something other than stacking the midfield and instructing the players to harry, frustrate, hustle and bustle, and think not about conjuring a goal.

It was clear, however, that he doesn't believe and then the question arises, why doesn't he?

We all know the answer to that, for it has been written in this space, and been said on SBS, for years. I did this four years ago, writing in my hotel room in mid-Olympics, that our next tier of players is a worry and doesn't hold much promise.

I was right then and I believe I'm right now. The seed of the malady is an archaic development and technical culture which produces gritty athletes not footballers, in whom no coach could possibly believe when facing Argentina. That goes from the way tiny tots are still being told to 'get rid of it' out in the suburbs up to the A-League coaches under whose tutelage players are sent out to fight rather than to play.

Let's return to the familiar theme of what exactly this Olympic football tournament is meant to achieve for Australia.

One has to ask what did we learn, what did the players learn, from the 'brave' experience of putting up the shutters against Argentina? What purpose exactly did it serve not to have a go or, worse, not to want to have a go?

What this says is that there should never have been any argument over whether this should have been a learning curve with the World Cup in mind or an all things aside attempt to win a medal, for it was neither.

The way Beijing is shaping up, we won't win a sausage and we will have learnt nothing.

[Dr.D]

Great article

[flyingfancy]

Well said Les! GA's approach is a throwback to the 70's, all guts and very little glory! It's once again about trying to minimise our losses, stymying the oppositions strengths and ignoring ours.

It does make you wonder if he's learnt anything in his time under Gus and Pim, it seems not. Looking at our formation did he really think we we're going to challenge the Argie's who's back four looked suspect under the little pressure they faced, especially when we defended in our half even when Argentina had the ball on the edge of there penalty box!

But the problem goes deeper than just our shallow pool of talent, the pool of technically proficient adventurous Australian coaches is non existent, so regardless of how little talent we have implementing a structure and game plan that challenges oppositions is largely beyond our home grown coaches, witness our poor showings in the Asian Champions League.

It's time the FFA start to address the coaching scenario or what little talent we have on the pitch will wither and die without fanfare, few guts and absolutely no glory.

Cheers
Flying fancy

[got balls]

Hey maybe the start of the improvement is the roll out of SSG's and try to get Australia more and more aware of football.

[Russia2O18]

interesting to note the Joeys just won a tournament in Europe against decent opposition and apparently played some entertaining football. (they have a Dutch coach)

so much for the excuse always used by Arnold's defenders that Australia's players arent as talented as their opponents so they have to resort to defensive counter attack play to remain in the contest.

[REDS]

Hey maybe the start of the improvement is the roll out of SSG's and try to get Australia more and more aware of football.

my sentiments exactly - instead of continual hoof ball

[Rodney]

Hey maybe the start of the improvement is the roll out of SSG's and try to get Australia more and more aware of football.

my sentiments exactly - instead of continual hoof ball

Thats where Im going, along with the rest of the Australia - so hopefully in 10/15 years time things will be different

[Russia2O18]

Hey maybe the start of the improvement is the roll out of SSG's and try to get Australia more and more aware of football.

my sentiments exactly - instead of continual hoof ball

Thats where Im going, along with the rest of the Australia - so hopefully in 10/15 years time things will be different

i hope it doesnt take that long. it should be fast tracked and introduced as a training technique for current teenagers, so by the time the next Olympics come around, we have some players that are comfortable on the ball.

however we already have some players like that but for some reason they dont get selected by our U23 coach.

[Rodney]

to right onion bag

[ford prefect]

excellent article by Les.
Given the combined creative coaching talent of Arnold and Ron Smith and their choice of the player pool, it was never going to be a beautiful game.
With Archie and Zadhead injured there should be an opportunity for some improvement in talent to play tonight.

Fink also, but not so scathing....

When will we write our own football symphony?

By Half Time Orange - Jesse Fink | 11 August 2008 | 12:47

No one expected Argentina to lose their match last night to the Olyroos, so to hold the Olympic champions to 1-0 when it could have been many more in the red is a credit to Graham Arnold's side. The talk this morning is about the defensive performance of the team, how they held their own against arguably the finest attacking under-23 side in the world.

Held their own, no. Contained, yes.

When terms like 'backs to the wall' and 'Olympic effort' get bandied about, it's illuminating to think how far we have come since Australia last played a full-strength Argentina side in international competition, the 1993 World Cup qualifiers in Sydney and Buenos Aires.

Those matches were 15 years ago and back then we extolled the grit and determination of men such as Paul Wade and Robbie Slater against Abel Balbo and Diego Maradona. That in two matches against the 1990 World Cup runners-up only two goals were scored by the Albicelestes to our one.

Back then, it was probably right to celebrate such 'containment'-style football, or as Fatboi-V- nicely puts it in my blog from Friday, 'parking the Olyroos bus inside Argentina's penalty box'.

But should we be celebrating it 15 years on? In near 20 years, is that really our far we have come that a 1-0 loss is regarded as a good result?

Reminds me of the old Eddie Thomson days, when grinding out 0-0 draws against the likes of Scotland were regarded as managerial masterstrokes.

There would probably be more cause for celebration if Arnold were able to unleash wave after wave of counter-attacking football in response to each Argie sortie, but he couldn't. Or wouldn't.

Archie Thompson and Nikita Rukavytsya have so far been major disappointments for Arnold, and only make his decision to leave Nathan Burns and Bruce Djite back in Europe even more baffling.

Arnold was clearly trying to make his own mark on the team with an out-there coaching decision a la Guus Hiddink dropping Harry Kewell, but it's backfired horribly on the Olyroos coach. Less genius and more Gump.

His own comment after the match is particularly ironic.

"When you have four or five gilt-edged chances against that type of opposition," he said, "you need to score them and unfortunately that didn't happen."

Thompson and Rukavytsya were selected ahead of the ex-Adelaide United pair precisely to put away those kind of opportunities.

Arnold gambled like Hiddink, but the cards haven't fallen his way.

What a lovely goal from the Argies, though. Just superlative. Not quite the pedigree of the Cambiasso-capped symphony at the World Cup but close.

To see a goal like that is what all Australian fans want to see our country be able to produce but we are probably, again, 15 years away, at the very least, from seeing that happen.

The best thing Australian football can take away from this Olympics is not satisfaction at the job done but determination to do it better. To do it, dare I say it, beautifully.

half time orange - Jesse Fink

[got balls]

Great article, the only thing we didn't have much improvement last night.

[ozzie owl]

Burnsie and Didgit should have gone.

[ADEL.GOONERS]

great article by Les, seems to sum up most peoples opinion,and thats great news about the lads in europe

[ford prefect]

Apologise, Arnie - And Then Go
14 August 2008 12:21
By Kevin Airs
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/blogs.aspx?CIaBID=21

Not that I’m one to say I told you so... but, I told you so.

Graham Arnold’s Beijing campaign is over and so should be his career as head coach of a national team.

He thought he knew better than everyone else. He may have proved himself wrong in the end – but in the process, he destroyed the once in a lifetime Olympic dreams of a talented generation of Aussie stars.

That is unforgivable – and those youngsters deserve an apology from him.

He arrogantly dismissed Djite and Burns – who helped take the Olyroos to Beijing – and brought in token overage players and raw recruits without a thought for how they would fit in the team.

From the very day the squad was announced, the fate of the Olyroos was sealed. It’s not a reflection on the players he did take to Beijing with him – or those left behind. He had a surfeit of good players to choose from. And Ruben Zadkovich.

You can assemble great players in one team, but getting them to play well together takes time and good leadership. It takes time to build up partnerships. Once you have that, the last thing you want to do is upset it by chopping and changing.

Arnold had inherited an excellent squad from Rob Baan that had built up understandings in attack, midfield and defence. So much so that when they took on the Socceroos in an 11v11, 90 minute training match at Marconi Stadium, the Olyroos wiped the floor with them. As Pim and Arnie both said at the time, it was all down to the youngsters having spent so long playing together.

Instead of cashing in on that and taking an already polished final product, Arnie petulantly tried to stamp his own authority on the team and decided stars like Bruce Djite couldn’t cope with the heat.

Djite since proved that tosh to be utter bollocks at his new club. Every goal he scores in Turkey will haunt Arnie forever more.

Was taking Archie – already injured when the squad was announced and unable to train with his new team-mates – better than Bruce Djite? Would Nathan Burns really be a worse player than Nikita or Simon? Get a grip.

Did any of Arnie’s strikers even force a save during the three games? I don’t remember one.

Carney was worth his overage spot, but did we really need Jade North in a squad with seven defenders?

As it turned out, we did because Arnie’s tactical genius in the opening match was to play an 8-0-2 formation, with backs to the wall defending and, as I predicted, naive long balls to the front.

The fact that we had to rely on Ruben Zadkovich – a player who no-one I knew could remember his last good game at club or international level – for our only goal of the campaign speaks volumes.

In fairness to him, he played reasonably well. In fact, most of them did - under the circumstances. But the lack of understanding between players was toe-curlingly embarrassing.

Free kicks rebounding off the back of our own players, dummies to no-one, backheels to the opposition and one-twos that end at one- were hallmarks of a team that didn’t know each other well enough.

We did have a team that could do that sort of thing and do it properly...but Graham Arnold didn’t take that team with him. This was potentially a generation that could win us a medal – but Arnold’s poor squad choice and shocking tactics denied us that.

Arnie has no excuses this time. As Arnie’s most passionate and vociferous supporter reminded us in the Sydney Morning Herald last week, this was his squad, his tactics, his campaign.

His failure.

Arnie has a contract with the FFA until 2010. Given the publicity-conscious FFA chiefs, that won’t be terminated.

Instead the Olyroos setup will be rested until qualification looms again and the dust has settled and Arnold has faded into the background (or got a new job with a club elsewhere...if anyone will hire him now).

The Olyroos will finally re-emerge with a new head coach (and by then it might just be Gary van Egmond, warming up for Pim’s job...)

The only good thing to come out of this epic failure of a campaign is Arnold’s final farewell. By all means FFA, give him a job in the dressing room – just don’t let him have any influence any more please.

In the meantime, Arnie, do the boys a favour: Just say sorry. I’ll guarantee he doesn’t though

[johnydep]

Sad but true.

[pires7]

we need a player to break ranks and call arnold a muppet