Australia needed to finish in the top three at the tournament to qualify directly for Paris,which deep down nobody really expected,even though Vidmar declared they were good enough to do it on the eve of their first match. In falling short,they have now made the Olympic Games only once in the last four cycles – and with Graham Arnold routinely stressing the critical link between the junior national teams and the Socceroos,that has to be a serious concern.
It was always going to be tough,but it shouldn’t have been this tough,leaving Doha without so much as laying a glove on any of their opponents. It’s true that Asian football is improving –we hear that all the time,whenever Australian teams fail in Asia – but it’s not improving so rapidly that the Olyroos should simply accept they are inferior to Qatar and Indonesia.