Less than four minutes into what would eventually become a 7-0 thumping against Australia, Bangladesh found themselves defending a free kick perfectly swung into their penalty area by Craig Goodwin. It didn’t seem fair really, because sure enough, the gigantic frame of Harry Souttar was rising, unchallenged, to meet it and drive home the opening goal of the game and the Socceroos’ road to the 2026 Fifa World Cup in North America.
It was the ninth goal for the Scottish-born centre back in his adopted green and gold, the seventh of which has come in the second phase of AFC World Cup qualification. Indeed, the 2-metre tall defender represents something of a microcosm of his side more broadly at this stage of qualification: they are bigger, more resourced and just better than their opponents. Winning handily is not just an expectation, but a fair and realistic one.
At 183rd in the world, Bangladesh was the lowest-ranked side that the Socceroos have played since American Samoa at 203rd over two decades prior – a team they used to defeat so easily that Hollywood is making a move about it. Themselves ranked 27 in the world, the 156 placings gap between the two teams at Melbourne’s AAMI Park was the equal largest in Australian history.
Thus, when Souttar, Brandon Borrello and Mitch Duke made it 4-0 heading into half-time, the latter grabbing a quickfire brace in the 37th and 40th minutes, there was a sense that even if it was the first time in more than a decade that Australia had scored four goals in a half, they had just about reached par for the evening. A high bar, but given their exploits a year ago in Qatar and their subsequent strong performances against the likes of Argentina, Mexico and England, resoundingly beating opponents at this stage of qualifying felt like it was meeting the expectations that coach Graham Arnold has repeatedly insisted the team has set heading into the next four years.
In games like this, where for much of the opening 45 minutes Australia were effectively playing with Souttar and fellow giant Cameron Burgess as two lone defenders when in possession, it was almost difficult to figure out if they were even playing that well. Certainly, the 2-3-5 approach they were playing won’t be something that Arnold deploys when they come up against the likes of Japan, Saudi Arabia, or South Korea in future qualifiers, or potentially at January’s Asian Cup.
Even accounting for that, though, it was apparent that the likes of Souttar, Jordy Bos, and Connor Metcalfe will shape as important figures in the coming years. At just 21 years of age, Bos already looks as if he’s going to have the left-back position of the Socceroos on lockdown for at least a decade, and he played a role in both of Jamie Maclaren’s second-half goals that made it 6-0 and made certain that it would be considered a positive Thursday night at the office.
Then Maclaren made it 7-0 in the 84th minute to secure his second international hat-trick, no doubt Melbourne City fans watching on hoping he was playing himself into form as he did.
Perhaps one of the key takeaways from the contest happened even before kickoff, when the team lineups were being read out and the announcer came to Arnold’s name. Arnold has been booed at AAMI Park quite a lot. That comes with the territory of being the coach that constructed a Sydney FC dynasty and the venue being the home of their bitter rivals Melbourne Victory. He’s previously been booed at the venue even as Socceroos coach.
But when his name was read out on Thursday, there was no Bronx cheer. In his record 59th game in charge of Australia, a resounding 7-0 triumph, the coach’s accomplishments across the past 12 months have bought him something rather rare in Australian football: respect.
