Australia national team coach Graham Arnold welcomed the World Cup 2022 draw in the second stage of the Asian qualifiers. Australia have been bad up alongside Jordan, Nepal, Kuwait, and Taiwan. The national team has had huge success at World Cups before, but the team is at a crossroad due to the retirement of several high profile players. Arnold is expected to go for a young team at this World Cup. The team assembled by Guus Hiddink at the start of the century was able to achieve five consecutive qualifications to the World Cup. Australia is one of the top teams in the five groups, which have 40 teams in total, from Asia.
Arnold was especially pleased with the opportunity to face Kuwait, who were Australia’s opponents in his first match in charge. Australia were able to claim a comprehensive 4-0 win in this game and the psychological advantage provided by this victory will be a key factor. At the same time, Australia have also played against Jordan. The big challenges for Australia will be to manage Nepal and Taiwan – two relatively unknown teams. After having worked with 80 different players, Arnold says that Australia are in a good position to qualify.
Apart from competing to play at the World Cup 2022, Australia have also agreed to take part in the Copa America 2020, which will be held in Colombia and Argentina. The tournament takes place between June 12 and July 12.“We are happy with our draw. My first game in charge was in Kuwait City, and we won 4-0, so we have been there and experienced Kuwait as a group.There are two teams that we have drawn (Kuwait and Jordan) that we have experience against and two teams that we are not as familiar with,” said Arnold.