It's a little early to be passing final judgement on Jan Versleijen's group of Young Socceroos, given that they are still in with a slim chance of progressing. But the report card is less than impressive so far.
Many have showered praise on them for how they took the game to both the Czechs and Costa Rica, but it's surely significant that Versleijen's charges only really did so when they were already chasing the game. Click to continue reading...

It's a pity that Branko Culina's undignified, self-serving comments at Sunday's press conference have served to obscure the fact that he does have a point. He developed that point somewhat truculently in his "clarification" today, pausing for a moment to offer Vitezslav Lavicka a well-deserved apology. Click to continue reading...

Inspiring A-League Coach Gary Van Egmond leaves the Newcastle Jets for the sheltered workshop down in Canberra.
Maybe after three years in Newcastle working with Con everyone should be given such a job!
I'm not happy, not because I don't think teaching our Under 17's aren't important, but because Van Egmond was one of the few coaches in the A-League who could produce great football teams, good young players. Click to continue reading...

Arnie speaks the truth

"I take all the responsibility," concluded Arnold of the Beijing Olympics. "I was the coach. I'll tell you honestly, and people might not believe it, but we got the maximum out of that playing group.

Speaking in FourFourTwo Graham Arnold discusses the Beijing Olympics and the disastrous Asian Cup campaign 2007. Click to continue reading...

Craig Foster's weekly piece in the Sun-Herald deals, naturally enough, with the new National Football Curriculum. But what is very surprising in the article is the vicious excoriation of Han Berger's predecessor as Technical Director, Rob Baan. When Baan was appointed, he was greeted with open arms by Foster (and the rest of the SBS crew). Click to continue reading...

It never works when a national coach is so openly contemptuous of the domestic league. Even as the national team does well.

Pim Verbeek's success has the FFA and the media swooning but it has left the A-League owners fuming. They point to his Eurocentric attitude in encouraging talented young players to leave the A League and at the same time discouraging Socceroos from returning home from Europe.

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It's been an emotional couple of weeks of Adelaide's Robbie Cornthwaite.
The club's foundation defender has not only found himself unwittingly dragged into a spitting storm but he's also been the target of abuse from his own supporters for scoring a horror own goal in the away leg of the AFC Champions League quarter-final against Kashima Antlers
But on Wednesday night in Adelaide, Cornthwaite banished all those demons with a tie-winning headed goal which secured a 2-1 aggregate win over the 10-time Japanese champions and a passage into the final four. Click to continue reading...

The entire A-League has been handed a weekend's recess to allow the national team to concentrate on their World Cup qualifying visit to Uzbekistan on September 10, but it turns out only one side will actually be affected by national team coach Pim Verbeek's call-ups.
After finally being convinced to elongate the regular season to allow byes over FIFA-recognised match dates, Australian football authorities must now wonder why they bothered. Click to continue reading...

But Luke Wilkshire does a Harry....oh the Aussie spirit!
Mike Cockerill wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that Harry Kewell did what?

The 29-year-old scored for his new Turkish side, Galatasaray, in an opening-round win over Denizlispor last weekend, and has suggested part of his motivation for moving to Istanbul was to cut down the travelling time when he plays for his country in Asia.

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BBC -Flowers not happy despite victory
QPR assistant manager Tim Flowers insists the team still have a lot to work on despite their 4-0 thrashing of Carlisle in the Carling Cup.
Flowers told BBC London 94.9: "Speaking as a defensive player I was not happy with us. Click to continue reading...

Nationally we have W-League Jets Coach and Under 17 Australian Women's Coach Gary Phillips, 442Editor Paul Hansford on why they want to talk to Graham Arnold.
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Locally we go in-depth with Woden Valley and ACT Rockets star Marcin Zygmunt. Click to continue reading...

Well the Olympics are over now and I for one loved watching them. We did not do well in the Football and there are many calling for the Head of Graham Arnold. I believe this is justified giving his poor record in charge of senior sides at a National level. He is rumored to be [...] Click to continue reading...

Where's Arnie? Our Olyroos supremo? Anyone heard him speak? He did an interview with Channel 7, like they'd know what to ask but nothing with our football media not even with his "very silent" media mates who have strong links to the man. Robbie Slater and the amazingly supportive SMH journo Mike Cockerill. Click to continue reading...

For Australian football's sake...go! There comes a time in everyone's career when it is time to move on...for Graham Arnold, for his own sake if no-one else's it's now.
Arnie has had two Campaigns, an Asia Cup and an Olympic campaign, where he was the Coach.
Who ever gets two Campaigns to fail in World Football? Click to continue reading...

Now I love my Yellow Fever fans but the second year in and someone has to help them out....Ricky Herbert is the
New Zealand equivalent to Graham Arnold. It's tedious, deadly to watch and I hold little hope for the season for our loud yellow fans.
Of course they'll be bottom.
Did you see how they played at home, against a Scottish midfielder Charlie Miller who looked like he'd just rocked out of a Scottish pub. Click to continue reading...

Australia went out of the Olympics tonight. They lost 1-0 in Tianjin to the Ivory Coast.
And whilst they gave perhaps their best performance of the tournament they never really looked convincing in the the final third, not tonight, or indeed in the whole tournament.
They told us they were a great group of players, battle hardened having qualified through Asia. Click to continue reading...

SEEMS like a life-time since the v3 grand-final, and now that another depressing international tournament looks like ending early for a Graham Arnold led side, the focus shifts to the start of A-League v4. Most things have been tracking beautifully for the first three seasons of the league, but with the economy biting hard and other codes struggling to attract and keep crowds, we mustn't get Click to continue reading...

Canberra A-League Ambassador Aaron Walker gives the lowdown "Who will be our Canberra A-League Coach." Great stuff, feel free to add your views.
With Canberra's A-League bid rapidly gathering momentum, I thought I'd address the big question of who are the most likely candidates for the coaching position? Click to continue reading...

Tom Sermanni expects all Matildas to line-up for the W-League opener expected to be late October.
Lisa De Vanna and Kate Gill are the only doubts at this stage but he's hopeful they wil return from Sweden in time to play.
Speaking from China where Sermanni is scouting the Japanese men's group for Olyroo's Coach Graham Arnold the Matildas Coach was delighted with the new league and delighted there would be eight teams. Click to continue reading...

Argentina defeated Australia 1-0 in Shanghai but Perth Glory's Nikita Rukavystya could have stole the show....if he'd have finished one of his three chances.
Argentina ran the show, but Aussie Coach Graham Arnold had his defence working overtime to halt the threat of the Olympic Champions. Click to continue reading...

Big game tonight. Can Arnie's defence hold out? and perhaps more importantly can we create....anything!
Australia earned a point, outplayed generally by Serbia in the opening game, but yet if the fastly improving Billy Celeski had scored rather than unluckily hit the post we would surely have won. Click to continue reading...

Beijing Games opener analysis, Olyroos 1 v Serbia 1 GIVEN the context of an average performance, Thursday night's 1-1 result with Serbia was just about as good as it could have been for the Olyroos, and at least keeps them alive. What the game demonstrated above all else was the significant gap in technical "on-the-ball" ability between the two sets of players. Click to continue reading...

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Herald Sun (Australia) - Olyroos draw 1-1 in opener against Serbia
Tom Smithies in Shanghai | August 07, 2008 08:51pm
AUSTRALIA'S Olympic odyssey started in positive fashion last night, with the Olyroos grabbing a point against Serbia in Shanghahi to keep alive their dreams of qualifying for the knockout stages. Click to continue reading...

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Dominic Shimmin Trialing at St. Mirren -St. Mirren Unofficial Site "Black and White Army" "...Dumbarton 2 Saints 2 -Tuesday, 22 July 2008 "....[St. Mirren[ handed a debut to trialist centre half Dominic Shimmin. The towering defender apparently is a Londoner who started out with Arsenal and has since played with QPR. Click to continue reading...

Pre-Olympics friendly, Olyroos 3 v New Zealand 2 Tony Tannous @ North Sydney Oval BURNS and Djite's omissions flogged to death, it's time to move on, so it was refreshing turn up for this afternoon's pre-Beijing friendly and finally have some football to sink the teeth into. Beyond that, it was also a great opportunity to gain some insight into Graham Arnold's thinking ahead of the games, and Click to continue reading...

Australia's Olympic Football squad for Beijing 2008: Coach: Graham Arnold, 45 Goalkeepers: Adam Federici (23) (Reading, England) Tando Velaphi (21) (Perth Glory) Defenders: Adrian Leijer (22) (Fulham, England) Trent McClenahan (23) (unattached) Mark Milligan (23) (unattached) Jade North (26) (Newcastle Jets) Mathew Spiranovic (20) (FC Nurnberg, Germany) Nikolai Topor-Stanley (23) (Perth Glory) Ruben Zadkovich (23) (Derby County, England) Midfielders: David Carney (24) (Sheffield United, England) Billy Celeski (22) (Melbourne Victory) Neil [. Click to continue reading...

A look at Arnold's Beijing 18 APPARENTLY Djite and Burns can't handle the heat. Now it's firmly on Graham Arnold. Their omission, and that of James Holland, are undoubtedly the most contentious of Arnold's Beijing selections, but there are numerous others. Before delving into them, a quick reflection on the Djite/Burns saga, which has got everyone talking. Click to continue reading...

Bruce Djite out, Nathan Burns out, bu Canberran Nikolai Topor-Stanley is in. The Olyroo squad has been named, and eleven A-League players are in the 18.
Australian Football's Big Chance
The announcement today of the men's football section of the Australian Olympic team was a long-awaited reward for eighteen promising athletes. Click to continue reading...

Qantas Under 23s Go Down in Seven-Goal Thriller: With the Beijing Olympic squad set to be announced on Friday interesting to see who Coach Graham Arnold is starting out of his 33 man squad in Darwin. With three overage players expected to get the call pressure is on for the eighteem places. FFA release below. Click to continue reading...

FourFourTwo have a story on Canberra's Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
GRAHAM Arnold has challenged Nikolai Topor-Stanley to prove he is the solution to Australia's left-back puzzle.
The Perth Glory defender earned his first senior Socceroos cap in the goalless draw with Singapore and was part of the squad which emerged from China with a priceless point in the pursuit of World Cup qualification. Click to continue reading...

With Dutchman Dick Advocaat seemingly rubberstamped as the next boss of the Australian national team, caretaker coach Graham Arnold has departed by biting back at critics who accuse him of steering the Socceroos ship off course since the highs of last year's World Cup.
It's been a tumultuous journey for Arnold, Guus Hiddink's former assistant, since accepting the national team senior position when Hiddink elected not to renew his short-term contract 15 months ago. Click to continue reading...

If body language is anything to go by then a picture tells a thousand words.
Whilst Australia coach Graham Arnold was subdued for most of the pre-match press conference in the build-up to his team's vital clash with Iraq, he bristled at suggestions that Australia are under any more pressure than usual.

Claiming that he had not read any of the criticism dished out by the Australian media in the wake of Australia's insipid display against Oman, Arnold suggested that he always knew that his team would be "under-done" - reminding the media that Australia had played only two matches in the past six weeks.

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