The last – and only – time Australia played Peru was at the 2018 World Cup. Bert van Marwijk was the stop-gap Socceroos coach, a 38-year-old Tim Cahill came off the bench for the final competitive match of his international career, and Australia as a country was collectively trying to figure out where to find goals from open play.
In reality that unenviable task actually belonged to Graham Arnold, who was in the stands in Sochi and due to take over from Van Marwijk as soon as the team boarded the plane home from Russia. Peru came away 2-0 victors to mark their first World Cup win in 40 years. Their Argentine manager, Ricardo Gareca, had captured hearts and minds by qualifying the unfancied country for their first finals since 1982.
The game was the last of the Group C fixtures and actually held no tangible ramifications for either side – France and Denmark had already sealed their progression as the top two nations. But when they meet again for a sudden-death playoff in Doha this coming Monday night (Tuesday, 4am AEST), the outcome will matter very much.
The very fact Peru are again so close is wild given Peruvian domestic football is not in a good place and the national team has no names playing for any top-flight European clubs. Sound familiar? Gareca, in managing to squeeze his team into Conmebol’s fifth-placed playoff ahead of Colombia and Chile, is punching above his weight.
Australia’s position as of Wednesday morning is also exceeding expectations, mainly because they were lowered in line with recent poor results. Many outside the team camp did not predict they would overcome the United Arab Emirates. There was a sense this stop-start qualifying campaign might have run its course.
Except that it hasn’t, and for at least six days more there is a very real possibility that it might not – that in November the Socceroos might yet play France, Denmark and Tunisia, in an uncannily similar group to 2018.
That does not discount previous concerns regarding this side’s ability to do so, which remain. While more compact at the back against the UAE there were still defensive issues, most notably regarding the space repeatedly exposed behind full-back Nathaniel Atkinson, who endured a trying second international appearance against the frankly outstanding 19-year-old winger, Harib Abdalla.
That small matter of scoring from open play remains a problem four years on from that last meeting with Peru and, staying true to form, one of Australia’s two goals came from a set piece. But Jackson Irvine’s opener was fair and square off the back of an attacking phase, and it is very difficult to watch Ajdin Hrustic’s winner – a volley from a corner – and feel displeased. Playing for Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt has clearly been a revelation for the 25-year-old, who has cemented himself as the bright spark of this qualifying cycle and could be the key to unlocking Peru.
And it is not unfeasible. On paper, and based on recent performances, a Socceroos win is unlikely. But just about anything can happen in one-off games, especially those staged in neutral territory and with so much to play for.
Arnold has been tapping into this nugget of possibility with his squad by emphasising the advantages of possessing “Aussie DNA”. It sounds trite, and also floats rather close to the vexed ‘Australian values’ discourse. The sentiment, though, has a purpose. And if it works, well hey.
“That is what I have been driving to the boys ... about the Aussie DNA,” Arnold said after the game. “And that is fight, scratch and do whatever you have got to do to win the game. However we win it, who cares? Just win it.”
Jagging a win may depend partly on the fitness of his squad members. Forward Adam Taggart is racing the clock as he deals with another injury – this time to his thigh – which ruled him out of this match and at this stage appears likely to keep him off the pitch next week as well. Trent Sainsbury, however, may yet be fit to return to his regular central defensive spot, with Arnold indicating his knee was close to better.
High-performance boss Andrew Clark appears to have worked a miracle on Aaron Mooy, who lasted the full 90 minutes in his first competitive match all year and is exhibiting more signs of his old self with each incremental gain in fitness.
This might all mean very little to Peru, ranked 22nd in the world to Australia’s 42nd. “But we like people saying that we have no chance or we cannot achieve anything,” Arnold said. “That’s what I’ve been driving into these boys and sometimes you don’t play well, but you can still win by fighting and running and chasing and being aggressive. That also can be a success.”
