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Graham James Arnold (born August 3 , 1963 in Sydney, New South Wales ) is the current coach of the Australian National Football (soccer) Team . He was appointed to work as an assistant to Frank Farina in 2000 . The two replaced Raul Blanco , who was the interim coach in charge after Terry Venables decided not to renew his contract with Soccer Australia after the failed World Cup campaign in 1997 . Although Farina was sacked in 2005 , Arnold and the rest of the coaching team survived and worked with coach Guus Hiddink for the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, in which they made the second round of the finals, losing to Italy as a result of a controversial penalty. After Hiddink left, he became acting coach of the Socceroos .1 He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall Of Fame . PLAYING CAREER Clubs Arnold was a striker who started his career at Canterbury-Marrickville in the New South Wales Premier League . He then moved to Sydney Croatia in Australia 's now defunct NSL , where he was both the league's top goal scorer and player of the year in 1986 . This was followed by a move overseas, where he made a name for himself in the Netherlands , playing for Roda JC and NAC Breda . He also spent time in Belgium with R.F.C. De Liège and R. Charleroi S.C. . He went on to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan towards the end of his career, before finally returning home to play for the Northern Spirit FC . International Graham Arnold has represented Australia 's senior national team 56 times, scoring 19 goals (85 caps, 33 goals including unofficial matches and "B" internationals). He was given his full debut by Frank Arok in a World Cup Qualifier against Taiwan at Adelaide 's Hindmarsh Stadium on October 23 , 1985 . He scored on his debut as the " Socceroos " went on to record a 7-0 victory. His international playing career came to a sad end on November 29 , 1997 in a World Cup Qualifier against Iran at the MCG when the score ended 2-2 and Australia was eliminated on the Away Goals Rule after leading 2-0 for most of the match. COACHING CAREER Arnold had a cameo role as a coach very early on in his career. He was coach for 2 games whilst he was a player at Sydney Croatia during the 1989 / 90 season. However, his proper coaching career started in 1998 , when he was appointed player/manager of the Northern Spirit FC . He was the coach for 2 seasons, making the playoffs in their debut season. He was then appointed to the position of Australia n assistant coach in 2000, becoming acting coach in July 2006 , then appointed head coach in December 2006. On 6 September , 2006 Australia was defeated 2-0 in an Asian Cup qualifying game against lowly-ranked Kuwait , which lead to public criticism of Arnold. The FFA confirmed Arnold would remain Head Coach through to the end of 2007 Asian Cup campaign. Australia started their Asian Cup campaign poorly, drawing with Oman in its opening Group stage game in Bangkok. Media pressure focused on Arnold and on 13 July , 2007 Australia were beaten 3-1 by lowly-ranked Iraq in the 2007 Asian Cup , prompting calls for his dismissal. Following the match, Arnold told the assembled media (in reference to some of the team's higher profile members), "There's some players who seem like they don't want to be here. I'm extremely disappointed."2 These comments were not received well by many of the players, as well as sections of the media and public, who viewed them as unprofessional and innapropriate.3. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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