Australia

Socceroos hit first bump on road to Qatar after record winning streak ended by Japan | Joey Lynch

12-Oct-2021 20:53:49 | Guardian

Defeat in Saitama added further complexity to a World Cup qualification campaign that has proven a difficult one to nail down

Economist Paul Samuelson once observed that “good questions outrank easy answers”, and though the American likely would have much preferred to spend his time interrogating matters of consumer or capital theory, his is an observation that, following their 2-1 defeat to Japan, rings true for the Socceroos.

In seeing their 11-game winning streak snapped, Graham Arnold and his side have, finally, been asked their first hard question on their road to the 2022 World Cup. And while the loss hardly comes close to constituting a fatal blow, how they respond will not only shed significant light on whether the defeat in Saitama is merely a blip on the road to Qatar, but also just where they sit in the hierarchy of Asian football.