Australia have ordered an urgent review into their failed Asian Cup campaign amid fears their plan to find an easier route to the World Cup could backfire. The Australians ditched Oceania for Asia last year for the promise of stiffer competition and a direct qualifying path to the World Cup, but now admit Asia is harder than they thought.
The Socceroos had been critical of FIFA's insistence that the Oceania winners had to play off against South American opposition to qualify for the last two World Cups instead of receiving an automatic berth.
Australia managed to beat Uruguay on penalties to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and end a 32-year absence from the sport's biggest event, but went ahead with their plan to join Asia because it offers four automatic berths.
That decision was initially vindicated when Australia became the only Asian team to make it to the second round of the World Cup but the Socceroos efforts at the Asian Cup have forced them to re-think their stratethe tournament at their first appearance, Australia flopped. They drew with Oman, lost to Iraq then beat Thailand to sneak into the second stage as Group A runners-up.
They produced their best performance in the quarter-final against defending champions Japan, only to bow out on penalties after they finished extra time locked at 1-1.
HEAT ISSUES:
"This experience has shown us all that the road ahead is going to be very, very difficult," said Australia coach Graham Arnold, who is likely to be the first major casualty of the failed campaign.
"The conditions here are very tough. It's going to be very difficult to come here and play World Cup qualifiers in this sort of heat when all our players are based in Europe."
Football Federation of Australia (FFA) chief executive Ben Buckley said the Socceroos would have to learn from their mistakes and find a way to cope with the extreme heat and humidity in Asia if they were to succeed. "What's important is that you do a really thorough assessment and review of what worked and could have worked better and what you learn," Buckley said. "We've seen what the conditions are going to be like and if we need to adjust our planning then we'll do that."
Despite the disappointment of an early exit, Buckley said Australia remained excited about their future and were exploring the option of hosting the Asian Cup in 2015 and capitalising on their rivalry with Japan by scheduling regular matches. "The good thing is that this is our first Asian Cup and we've all seen the potential scale of it and that augers well for the future both off the field and on the field," he said.