Socceroo Trent Sainsbury remonstrates with referee Nawaf Abdullah Shukrallah during Australia’s loss to Japan in Sydney.Credit:Getty Images
There was no sell-out crowd at Homebush on Thursday night to spur on a Socceroos side depleted of 10 players through injury and COVID. The 41,000 that were there were anything but raucous. And,on a wet,miserable night,Australia’s incredible home qualifying record came to a crumbling end,suffering their first home defeat in 14 years.
“We played against a very good team in Japan. Obviously disappointing that we didn’t get the result that we all wanted but I can’t fault the players’ effort,the effort was fantastic tonight,” Arnold said.
That the Socceroos were robbed of a first-half goal by a trigger-happy referee made it all the more frustrating. However,that decision is now just a moot point at discussions in pubs and cafes. The hard truth was the Socceroos only avoided copping a hiding due to Japan’s EPL star Takumi Minamino enduring a bad day in front of goal.
The Liverpool star hit the post twice,spurned several other clear-cut chances before his replacement,Kaoru Mitoma,scored two goals in the last two minutes to consign the Socceroos to a third-place finish in the group.
A second-string Socceroos’ squad thought they had snared the opener when Miko Yamane headed into his own net from a corner before referee Nawaf Shukralla to call a foul. Replays found no such foul. The VAR stayed silent. The crowd yelled their discontent as the Socceroos’ bench were equally cantankerous. After the match,Arnold was cooler in his criticism of the decision.
“It was probably 50-50,probably could have gone our way but at the end of the day we haven’t seemed to get many of those type of decisions in this campaign,” he said.