Explained: How the Socceroos can still qualify for the World Cup
The Socceroos can still qualify for the World Cup finals, but their route to Qatar 2022 just got significantly more difficult.
After losing their last two Asian qualifying games - Tuesday's 1-0 loss in Saudi Arabia followed last week's controversial home defeat to Japan - the Aussies have missed out on automatic qualification.
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As a result, they will now face not one but two play-off games, needing to win both to book their spot in a fifth successive World Cup finals.
With most World Cup qualification competitions completed earlier this week, Australia's path is now clear.
First up will be United Arab Emirates, who secured third place in their Asian qualification group on Tuesday night (behind automatic qualifiers Iran and South Korea), and will line up against Australia in a one-off tie in neutral Doha on June 7.
Despite the Emirates (69) being much lower in the FIFA world rankings than the Socceroos (37), they will have the advantage of only having to travel a short distance to the game in nearby Doha, compared with the Aussies' 30-hour round trip.
The winners of that play-off game will face South American nation Peru a week later, also in Doha. Peru secured their berth in the inter-confederation play-off on Wednesday morning (AEDT), defeating Paraguay 2-0 in Lima to finish fifth in the CONNEBOL (South American) confederation qualification table.
The Peruvians are currently ranked 22nd in the world, and will provide Australia or UAE a stern test, despite having a long trip to Doha themselves for the game, which is scheduled for June 14.
Australian fans will also remember facing Peru in the last World Cup finals in Russia, when the Socceroos went down 2-0 in their final group game.
However, this challenging route to Qatar 2022 is not too dissimilar to the ones our national team had to navigate during their run to both the 2006 and 2018 finals.
In 2018, a home and away play-off with Honduras was successful, with then captain Mile Jedinak inspiring a 3-1 home win to book the Socceroos place in Russia.
And who could forget that memorable night in Sydney in 2005, when a John Aloisi penalty saw the Australians overcome Uruguay in another two-legged playoff victory, claiming their place in Germany for the 2006 finals tournament.
The difference this time around is that both ties are one-off affairs on neutral territory, with a team lacking many of the established stars such as Cahill, Schwarzer, Bresciano and Jedinak all since retired.
Craig Foster says Socceroos are ‘struggling’
Although there are still some marquee names in the current Socceroos squad, the number of players competing in club football within the major European leagues has diminished significantly. Even star player Aaron Mooy is now plying his trade in China rather than the English Premier League.
Whether Australia’s current footballing heroes are able to hold their own against the world’s best is debatable, with former Socceroo Craig Foster suggesting after the Japan defeat that the national team is ‘struggling”.
“We aren't developing the players we used to, and if we had have got to this World Cup quite comfortably, people wouldn't have asked the questions we need to," Foster told Yahoo Sport Australia this week.
Foster said although reaching the finals in Qatar in November is still the goal, failure to do so may allow the Australian game to reassess where it is at on the world stage.
“Of course, World Cup qualification is important. However, failure to qualify for Qatar would provide the necessary impetus to fully review player and coach development, pathways, investment and thinking,” he said.
It's a sobering thought that Australia may fail to qualify, a prospect that will almost certainly lead to coach Graham Arnold being relieved of his duties.
However, all is not lost yet. The upcoming games in June offer Arnold and his team a final shot at their ultimate goal of World Cup qualification.
The most important thing for Australian football fans is that when the draw is made in Qatar on Saturday morning (AEDT), the Socceroos name will still be in the hat - albeit tentatively.
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