‘Everything is possible’: Socceroos World Cup playoff with UAE shapes as too close to call

The road to Qatar will end in Qatar for either Australia or the United Arab Emirates this week. One team will return home and start preparations for the 2023 Asian Cup; the other will stay in Doha to take on Peru in an intercontinental play-off seven days later, with the winner of that game returning in November for games against France, Denmark and Tunisia.

Roel Coumans will be watching Tuesday’s game (early Wednesday AEST) with more interest than most neutrals and has had a foot in both camps. The Dutchman joined the Socceroos set-up in January 2018 as Bert van Marwijk’s No 2 and the pair left the UAE national team in February this year following disappointing results in World Cup qualification.

The Socceroos have been here before – they secured a 2018 berth with play-off victories over Syria and then Honduras – but Coumans believes things are different this time.

“Compared to the past, Australia just don’t have any players at the top level of Europe,” he says. “Look at Mat Ryan. He was at Brighton, went to Arsenal, then Spain where he does not play many matches at the top level any more. Four years ago, when we were preparing for the World Cup, we didn’t have that many at a high level. Now there are even fewer and that is a bit worrying.”

The UAE, 180 minutes away from a first World Cup appearance since their 1990 debut, have an entirely domestic-based squad and while this causes concerns at home, there are benefits. “At least in the UAE, the players play all through the season and the biggest advantage is that they can pause the league to create extra training time with the team,” Coumans says. By kick-off, the Whites will have been together, first in Dubai and then in Doha, for two weeks.

Another major difference