Abu Dhabi: Ange Postecoglou, the Australia coach, insists his side are well equipped to withstand the oppressive Abu Dhabi heat as the Socceroos prepare to take on the UAE on Tuesday night.
Australia justified their tag as favourites to win Group B in the third and final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 Fifa World Cup with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Iraq on Thursday.
And Postecoglou is unfazed by the fact that Australia will next face an exultant UAE team after their sensational 2-1 away victory in Japan in their own sweltering backyard at the Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium.
“We’ve trialled everything and we’re pretty happy with our processes for getting the players ready to play,” Postecoglou, whose team arrived in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper.
“We won’t need to adjust the way we play. It’s not something magical as we’ll find in the next few days that’s going to change anything — we know it will be hot, and we’ll be ready for it.
“We’ll see how the team recovers. I guess the beauty of playing [Iraq] in Perth is that the travel time and the time difference going into the UAE aren’t as bad. I expect all the boys to recover pretty well, and the beauty is we have some real depth on the bench.
“We have guys ready to come in if needed and we’ll pick a team to win on Tuesday. But we’ve done this before, we’ve been building towards this, playing in Perth and then going into hot conditions. We know how the players recover, we know which players are able to back up. We know what our team is capable of.
“That’s how we’ve tackled all the games so far, even the friendlies. Everything since Mile Jedinak lifted the Asian Cup [in 2015] has been to get players to play in these conditions, these challenges, the travel, all those kind of things. Every opponent, every exercise, every decision has been to create a group I’m confident can tackle what’s ahead.”
Postecoglou is unsurprised the UAE beat Japan, although their triumph has been hailed here as one of the greatest in the country’s history.
The fact that Saudi Arabia beat Thailand only 1-0 with a late goal in the other Group B game bore out his prediction of a keenly fought battle to reach the World Cup, he said.
A top-two finish when the campaign winds up in September 2017 will guarantee progression to Russia 2018.
Whoever ends up third in Group B will meet the same side from Group A in a battle to reach the inter-confederation play-off.
The Socceroos will also have to improve on an underwhelming record in games played in the Middle East since Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006. Excluding the Asian Cup in 2011, when the squad was based in Qatar for a month, Australia have registered only seven wins in 18 games, many of them played with minimal preparation and in intense heat and humidity.
Those results included a draw with the UAE and a loss to Qatar in friendlies late in 2014, but captain Mile Jedinak said he and his teammates would draw on those experiences for Tuesday’s clash.
“We’ve got the first game out of the way and already we’re preparing for the next one,” he told the Herald Sun. “It’s only four or five days away and it’s about everyone recuperating. We know they will be tough conditions because we played that double-header before the Asian Cup and that will serve its purpose. A lot of the boys will understand and will respect the conditions.”
The last time the two countries met, Australia beat the UAE 2-0 in the 2015 Asian Cup semi-finals on home soil.
The other two times they have played, they drew 0-0 with each other — in 2011 and 2014.
