The Qatar 2022 World Cup is the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the first time in history that it has been held in Qatar and Middle Eastern countries, and the second World Cup in Asia (the first time was the Korea-Japan World Cup in 02); In addition, the Qatar World Cup is also the first time that the World Cup is held in the winter of the northern hemisphere, and it is also the first World Cup football tournament held by a country that has never reached the World Cup finals, which can be described as a historical precedent; This series of articles aims to help new fans who are preparing for this World Cup and old fans who love football but usually do not have much time to watch the World Cup quickly understand the 32 teams of this World Cup in order to get a better viewing experience.
Kangaroo Army of the World Cup Round of 32 – Australia
The Australian men's national football team was founded in 1921 and once belonged to Oceania, becoming a member of the AFC in 2006; Australia first participated in the World Cup in 1974, but returned home in the group stage, and then remained dormant for a long time, returning to the World Cup in 2006 after 32 years, and successfully broke out of the group to advance to the round of 16, achieving Australia's best result in the World Cup.
Since 2006, Australia has not been absent from every World Cup, counting the World Cup team has qualified for the World Cup for the fifth consecutive time, the competition is very experienced, but in addition to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the next 4 World Cup Australia has not been able to qualify from the group, the past two World Cup teams have not even won a game, Australia's results in the World Cup are not ideal; In the latest FIFA world rankings, Australia ranks 38th and 4th in Asia.
Current head coach – Graham Arnold
Arnold was born in Australia in August 1963, 59 years old, is a former Australian national team player, as early as 2000 was an assistant coach of the Australian national team, in 2006 as the assistant of the then head coach Hiddink with the team to the World Cup in Germany, helping the team break out of the group, after Hiddink left, Arnold served as interim manager for a period of time, leading the team to the 2007 Asian Cup; After the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Arnold coached three clubs in Central Coast Mariners, Sendai Vigalta and Sydney FC, officially became the head coach of the Australian national team in 2018, led the team to the Olympic Games last year, in this year's Asian qualifiers, although Australia did not qualify directly, in the play-off match against Peru, Alexander-Arnold led the team to defeat the opponent in a penalty shootout to make Australia enter the World Cup for the fifth consecutive time.
Lineup squad
On November 8, Australia announced the 26-man roster for the World Cup in Qatar, which is dominated by young players, 17 of whom are participating in the World Cup for the first time, 16 players who play for European clubs, and almost all the players who participated in the World Qualifiers were selected, there is no special surprise:
Goalkeepers: Matthew Ryan (Copenhagen), Redmayne (Sydney FC), Vukowic (Central Coast Mariners)
Defenders: Bijć (Dundee United), Degnek (Columbus), Bailey Wright (Sunderland), Souta (Stoke), Karacic (Brescia), Atkinson (Hartz), Joel King (Odense), Rawls (Hartz), Thomas Denge (Niigata Swans)
Midfielders: Mooy (Celtic), Jackson Owen (St. Pauli), Hrustic (Verona), McGree (Middlesbrough), Devlin (Hartz), Keanu Bacchus (St Mirren)
Forwards: Mabil (Cadiz), Matthew Leckie (Melbourne City), Boyle (Hibernian), Jamie McLaren (Melbourne City), Cummings (Central Coast Mariners), Mitchell Duke (Okayama Pheasant), Kuhl (Central Coast Mariners), Goodwin (Adelaide United)
Forecast of the main lineup
The main lineup is predicted according to the team's latest start, the value of the players and the season performance, and the specific main lineup may be somewhat different, but the difference should not be very large, you can refer to it in advance.
Note: Players are valued in GBP
In this lineup, except for center McLaren, the other players play in Europe, although most of them are not mainstream clubs, but the overall strength is still good; Midfielder Mooy is the core of this team, although he has not played many opportunities for Celtic this season, but his strength is still unchanged, Chinese Super League fans should be no stranger to him, before joining Celtic, Mooy played for Shanghai SIPG for two seasons; Centre forward McLaren actually has experience in Europe, but it is not successful, after returning to the Australian league, McLaren has maintained a very efficient goal efficiency, worthy of a starting position; Both wingers are also incredibly fast players who can use breakthroughs to create set-piece opportunities for the team, and although the centre is short of height, Owen and Hrustic in midfield have good heading ability, and aerial bombing should still be the main tactic of this Australian team.
Important Player Introduction – Jamie McLaren
McLaren was born on 29 July 1993 in Melbourne, Australia, debuted from Blackburn Rovers Academy in England, returned to the Australian league in the summer of 2013 to join Perth Glory, joined Brisbane Lions Roar after two seasons, and then moved to Darmstadt in Germany to start his second career in Europe; McLaren did not get much of a chance to play in Darmstadt, and after spending two seasons on loan at Hibernian in the Soviet Premier League, he returned to Australia and has already played for Melbourne City for three seasons, and this time he has finally stabilized; McLaren finally ushered in an explosive period after this return, and during his time at Melbourne City, McLaren was the top scorer in the Australian Premier League for three consecutive seasons, and his personal strength was finally proven; McLaren's advantages and disadvantages are very obvious, his sense of smell and shooting in front of the goal are very good, and his speed is also very fast, but his stature is relatively short and cannot be used as a fulcrum in the front court, but in counterattack tactics, McLaren's advantages can still be reflected; The picture below shows the evaluation of McLaren's ability by a well-known football game.
Note: This picture is intended to help you understand the characteristics of the player more intuitively, and cannot represent the real ability of the player, please pay attention to it.
Introduction of important players - Aaron Mooy
Mooy was born in Sydney, Australia in September 1990, debuted from the Bolton Academy in England, and basically played for English clubs in the early part of his career, once joined Manchester City in 2016, but then was loaned to Huddersfield Town, played well during the loan period, helped the team to rush to success, and then Huddersfield Town directly bought it out, and switched to Brighton after 3 seasons in Hardden; After half a season at Brighton, he moved to Shanghai SIPG in the Chinese Super League and moved to Soviet Premier League giants Celtic this summer; Mooy is a very good technical player, his creativity is unique in this Australian team, he is the core of the whole team, and can drive the attacking rhythm of the whole team; The following figure shows the evaluation of Mooy's ability by a well-known football game.
Note: This picture is intended to help you understand the characteristics of the player more intuitively, and cannot represent the real ability of the player, please pay attention to it.
Grouping and Schedule (All times below are Beijing time)
23 November, 03:00 France vs Australia
26 November, 18:00 Tunisia vs Australia
30 November, 23:00 Australia vs Denmark
Promotion prediction
Although most of Australia's players play in the European League, but the overall strength in front of Denmark and France two teams is not enough to see, Australia can only try to avoid becoming the sending boy of these two teams, the team has not been able to win the group stage in the past two World Cups, only Tunisia's strength in this group is comparable to itself, Australia wants to make a breakthrough can only hope to play Tunisia in the second round, personally I think that Australia is still likely to be unable to qualify from the group. It depends on whether you can win Tunisia and achieve a breakthrough victory.