Arnold confident his experience can qualify Iraq
The three teams will play each other in Jeddah in October, with the winner of the group advancing directly to the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Former Australia boss Arnold, who replaced Jesus Casas in May, will be attempting to steer Iraq to the World Cup for the second time after they made their debut at Mexico 1986.
"I have extensive experience working against both the Saudi and Indonesian national teams. I know their strengths, but I also know their weaknesses," Arnold said.
"But we are Iraq, an extremely proud nation with a higher FIFA ranking than both Saudi and Indonesia and we need to prove that."
Arnold's finest coaching achievement to date came at the 2022 World Cup when he led Australia to the last 16, with the Socceroos eliminated by eventual champions Argentina.
He resigned as Australia coach in September last year following a 0-0 draw with Indonesia in Jakarta.
The 61-year-old last faced Saudi Arabia in March 2022, when his Australia team lost 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier at the same King Abdullah Sports City Stadium where his Iraq team will face the Green Falcons on October 14.
"Having the belief in the players as I do, when we reach the crucial playoff matches in October, they will be in peak form, both physically and mentally ready to win," he said.
"I firmly believe this is our time and we will fight with everything we have to make the dream of millions of Iraqis come true."
The group runners-up will progress to a playoff for a berth in a series of intercontinental match-ups in March.
Australia overcame a poor start under Arnold to book their spot at the expanded 48-team World Cup with Tony Popovic in charge.
Regional heavyweights Japan, South Korea and Iran also secured berths in North America, along with first-time qualifiers Uzbekistan and Jordan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
4 hours ago
- Perth Now
'Hell of a team': Lions' gushing praise for Wallabies
Joe Schmidt has ruled out extending his Wallabies coaching tenure, despite presiding over one of Australia's headiest Test wins since the glory days of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Schmidt must have been tempted to ask Rugby Australia about staying on until the 2027 global showpiece on Australian shores after gracious British and Irish coach Andy Farrell heaped stunning praise on the Wallabies after falling 22-12 to the inspired hosts on Saturday night. But the committed family man insists he won't entertain any such idea, saying his priority after this year's Rugby Championship will be caring for his ailing son Luke, who has severe epilepsy. Queensland Reds mentor Les Kiss will take over from Schmidt after the 2026 Super Rugby season - and the New Zealander remains comfortable with that. "I'm looking forward to Les Kiss coming in and taking over," Schmidt said. "I actually apologised to the players a little while ago. I bit one of their heads off. My son had had a bad day, and I can normally separate the two things, but it does impact me when he's had a bad day. "And so I know that I have a short enough shelf life and need to be more present at home. "I haven't been home for two months, so as much as I just think they're a great group of young men, there's other things that I need to make sure I tick off." While it hasn't all been smooth sailing since taking over from Eddie Jones last year, the Wallabies' progression under Schmidt has been obvious, and Farrell reckons Australian fans have every right to dream big two years out from the next World Cup down under. If not for a controversial no-penalty in the last-minute 29-26 second-Test loss to the Lions in Melbourne, the Wallabies would have won the series instead of losing it 2-1. And Farrell knows his side was given more than a run for their money, despite critics claiming the sixth-ranked Wallabies didn't even deserve to host the Lions in 2025. "I went on record last week saying I thought it was insulting about people asking the question about the Wallabies and Lions touring here etc," Farrell said. "I mean, everyone has their ups and downs. Have a look at the progress over the last 18 months. It's been through the roof, and you look at that side that's been out there over the last three weeks. "They're a hell of a team. I said to Joe before the game on the pitch that I think special things are going to happen for this team over the next 18 months, and by the time the World Cup comes around, they'll be a force to be reckoned with, like everyone's seen in the past. "They've got some special athletes and some special players, and it's no surprise to us how they've performed over the last couple of weeks." The Wallabies' stirring victory at Accor Stadium was the perfect precursor for a gruelling start to the Rugby Championship. Schmidt's side heads to South Africa for back-to-back Tests against the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg and Cape Town on August 17 and 24. "Hopefully we're on the way and now we go to South Africa to verse the best team in the world," said Wallabies captain Harry Wilson. "So we've got another epic battle ahead of us, and the one thing we will take from tonight is a lot of confidence, and probably from last week too."
West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
'Hell of a team': Lions' gushing praise for Wallabies
Joe Schmidt has ruled out extending his Wallabies coaching tenure, despite presiding over one of Australia's headiest Test wins since the glory days of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Schmidt must have been tempted to ask Rugby Australia about staying on until the 2027 global showpiece on Australian shores after gracious British and Irish coach Andy Farrell heaped stunning praise on the Wallabies after falling 22-12 to the inspired hosts on Saturday night. But the committed family man insists he won't entertain any such idea, saying his priority after this year's Rugby Championship will be caring for his ailing son Luke, who has severe epilepsy. Queensland Reds mentor Les Kiss will take over from Schmidt after the 2026 Super Rugby season - and the New Zealander remains comfortable with that. "I'm looking forward to Les Kiss coming in and taking over," Schmidt said. "I actually apologised to the players a little while ago. I bit one of their heads off. My son had had a bad day, and I can normally separate the two things, but it does impact me when he's had a bad day. "And so I know that I have a short enough shelf life and need to be more present at home. "I haven't been home for two months, so as much as I just think they're a great group of young men, there's other things that I need to make sure I tick off." While it hasn't all been smooth sailing since taking over from Eddie Jones last year, the Wallabies' progression under Schmidt has been obvious, and Farrell reckons Australian fans have every right to dream big two years out from the next World Cup down under. If not for a controversial no-penalty in the last-minute 29-26 second-Test loss to the Lions in Melbourne, the Wallabies would have won the series instead of losing it 2-1. And Farrell knows his side was given more than a run for their money, despite critics claiming the sixth-ranked Wallabies didn't even deserve to host the Lions in 2025. "I went on record last week saying I thought it was insulting about people asking the question about the Wallabies and Lions touring here etc," Farrell said. "I mean, everyone has their ups and downs. Have a look at the progress over the last 18 months. It's been through the roof, and you look at that side that's been out there over the last three weeks. "They're a hell of a team. I said to Joe before the game on the pitch that I think special things are going to happen for this team over the next 18 months, and by the time the World Cup comes around, they'll be a force to be reckoned with, like everyone's seen in the past. "They've got some special athletes and some special players, and it's no surprise to us how they've performed over the last couple of weeks." The Wallabies' stirring victory at Accor Stadium was the perfect precursor for a gruelling start to the Rugby Championship. Schmidt's side heads to South Africa for back-to-back Tests against the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg and Cape Town on August 17 and 24. "Hopefully we're on the way and now we go to South Africa to verse the best team in the world," said Wallabies captain Harry Wilson. "So we've got another epic battle ahead of us, and the one thing we will take from tonight is a lot of confidence, and probably from last week too."
The Age
15 hours ago
- The Age
‘Special things ahead': Lions coach says Wallabies will be a force at 2027 World Cup
'I said to Joe (Schmidt) before the game there on the pitch that I think special things are going to happen for this team over the next 18 months, and by the time the World Cup comes around they'll be a force to be reckoned with, like everyone's seen in the past. 'They've got some special athletes and some special players and that's no surprise to us of how they've performed over the last couple of weeks.' When informed of Farrell's comments, Schmidt joked he agrees 'with everything Faz tells me'. 'Faz and I would be good friends, go back a long way, have worked together a lot and we would also be quite like minded around probably studying other teams,' Schmidt said. 'I'd like to think that he's right.' The Wallabies' victory in Sydney opened the door for the series win by the Lions to carry an asterisk - given the contentious nature of the end of the second Test at the MCG, where the Wallabies argued Jac Morgan's cleanout on Carlo Tizzano, prior to Hugo Keenan's matchwinning try, was illegal. But Schmidt didn't want to go down that road after the game on Saturday night, which had crept into early Sunday morning by the time the teams finished their media duties. 'We can't get those points back,' Schmidt said. 'We can only try to win the points that are ahead of us. I think I've said before I'm very boring and pragmatic and all we can do is try to affect what happens to us in the future and try to control as much of that as possible by trying to grow. 'The one thing I would say is I felt we grew through the series. We lost the first half of the series poorly, we won the second half, we played well in the first half of the second test, didn't succeed eventually in that test but I felt we deserved to win both halves today. 'We fought our way through very difficult conditions and got destabilised a couple of times but fought our way through that as well.' Schmidt and Wallabies captain Harry Wilson both revealed the power of Alaalatoa's address to the team on Friday, after the side had struggled to bounce back from the disappointment of losing a thriller in Melbourne. Schmidt said Alaalatoa had badly injured his shoulder in the 14th minute of the MCG Test but played out the first half in pain and 'with one wing'. 'It was a little bit of the inspiration the players needed yesterday,' Schmidt said. 'We were flat early in the week and we got a little bit of an upswing, but I really think Alan helped.' Wilson said Alaalatoa had spoken to the team about having to be prepared to suffer to win. 'The thing with Allan, what he says he delivers - and he's spoken to us quite a bit about willing to put your body on the line for the team, whatever it takes to win,' Wilson said. 'In that game in Melbourne he tore his shoulder pretty early and he put his body on the line for the next 25 minutes. 'When he came in and spoke to us the day before a game about what we need to be willing to do for each other to win a game, it really did hit home.' The Wallabies now turn their attention to two games in South Africa for the Rugby Championship, and Schmidt said he will name a squad on Wednesday. He confirmed Jake Gordon was in doubt after injuring a hamstring at training, which could see Nic White push out his international retirement for a few more weeks. White was outstanding against the Lions and received a standing ovation when he came off, but Schmidt joked: 'Whitey will rival me maybe in terms of being kind of like Johnny Farnham, one more tour.'
