The start of the third Asian qualifying round for the North and Central American World Cup has seen coaches packing their bags.
Graeme Arnold, 61, stepped down as head coach of the Socceroos on Tuesday after a 1-1 draw in Group C of the third qualifying round. “Coach Arnold tendered his resignation earlier this week, which was accepted by the Football Association of Australia’s board of directors,” the organization said. “After the Indonesia game, it was felt that new leadership was now required,” Arnold said in a statement.
Arnold’s Socceroos (25th in the FIFA rankings) have drawn 1-1 against Bahrain (76th) and Indonesia (129th) in Group C of the World Cup Asia 2018 qualifiers. After falling 1-0 to Bahrain in their first match at home on Sept. 5, the Socceroos drew 0-0 away to Indonesia on Sept. 10.
The Socceroos are in fifth place in Group C behind Japan (two wins), Saudi Arabia (one win, one draw), Bahrain (one loss) and Indonesia (two draws). The Socceroos are in danger of having their streak of consecutive World Cup appearances, dating back to 2006, snapped at the ‘5’ as the top two teams in each group advance directly to the knockout stages.
The Socceroos will play China at home in the third round next month on June 10 and Japan away in the fourth round on June 15.
Arnold is the longest-serving Australian coach in history.
He took over in August 2018 and led the Socceroos to the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, becoming only the second coach in history to do so after Gus Hiddink at the 2006 tournament in Germany. After two wins in the group stage, beating Tunisia and Denmark, 토토사이트 the Socceroos were eliminated in the round of 16 by eventual champions Argentina, 1-2, but finished the tournament in 11th place, their highest-ever ranking. The Korea Football Association’s National Strength and Conditioning Committee had at one point considered Arnold as a candidate for the job.
Oman, which lost to Hong Myung-bok in the second leg of its third qualifying round on Oct. 10, was forced to change its coach. The Oman Football Association announced that day that it had parted ways with Czech coach Jaroslav Silhavi and appointed homegrown Rashid Jaber.
Silhavi, who led the Czech Republic to the quarterfinals at Euro 2020, took over the Omani job in February. His contract runs until 2026.
Oman, who were on the brink of elimination in the second round of World Cup qualifying at the time, have since rebounded with three wins and a draw to qualify for the third round. However, a 0-1 loss to Iraq in the first leg of the third qualifier and a 1-3 defeat to South Korea in the second left them bottom of the six-team Group B table.
Oman will play their third World Cup qualifier at home against Kuwait on Nov. 10 before traveling to Jordan on Nov. 15 for their fourth match.
