GEELONG, Australia - Football Australia chief executive James Johnson has backed Socceroos boss Graham Arnold to rebound from a winless start to the third phase of Asian qualification, saying the organisation would "put our faith" in the coach to engineer a turnaround.
Australia's men suffered a 1-0 loss to Bahrain on the Gold Coast before being held to a 0-0 stalemate with Indonesia in Jakarta across the opening slate of games of the third round of Asian qualification across the past week, results that saw them fall to second-bottom of Group C, ahead of only pointless China.
With the FIFA World Cup adopting a new, 48-team format, the top two teams from Group C will automatically qualify for the 2026 tournament, while the sides that finish third and fourth will move into a fourth round of qualification, where a further two automatic berths will be on offer as well as a playoff place.
Speaking at the announcement the Matildas would be playing two games against Chinese Taipei in Victoria this December, Johnson acknowledged that while results did need to improve -- starting with next month's clash against China in Adelaide -- the federation wasn't panicking.
"I always back my coaches in," Johnson said.
"So look, Graham, he's a great coach, and we're right behind him."
"We want to see improvements... because we're disappointed with the results in this window. We're not where we want it to be. So we need to win in the next window, that's just a reality.
"But we do need to put this first [window of] round three into context. It's two games; there are 10 games in round three.
"It's the longest qualification process in the history of the men's World Cup and for those teams that don't end up [automatically qualifying from] round three... there is a round four and a round five. So there is a long, long way to go.
"No one's panicking. What is required at the moment is cool and calm leadership.
"And we put our faith in Graham to get the team back on path when we play against China."
While maintaining their defensive resoluteness -- the loss to Bahrain coming from an unfortunate own goal from Harry Souttar -- the Socceroos' challenges in possession were again apparent across the past window; seeing a lot of the ball but failing to turn this into goals or clear-cut chances.
Bemoaning his side's lack of a lethal edge following the draw with Indonesia, Arnold said that he would need to return to Australia and have "a good think about things," ahead of games against China and then Japan in Saitama next window, with these attacking issues likely at the forefront of his mind.
After injury and club issues ruled them out of the last window, it's expected that attackers Riley McGree and Ajdin Hrustic will be back in contention for selection next month to aid in these efforts, as well as the likes of Alex Robertson and Max Balard.
"Graham's got to identify those problems, it's his job," said Johnson. "He's someone that will reflect on the performance of the team. He'll take some days off.
"It was a difficult window. It's not where we want the team to be and it's not where the team or Graham wants the team to be.
"But Graham will come back in, he'll assess some of the challenges that we saw in the first two games and then he needs to come up with the solutions to address those challenges and get the team ready to maximize our points when we play against China."