Arnold believes anything is possible

Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold believes anything is possible in football and has likened the team to a Cup final side, after their magnificent effort in coming from a goal down, to win 3-1 over Japan, with only six minutes of normal time remaining.

Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold believes anything is possible in football and has likened the team to a Cup final side, after their magnificent effort in coming from a goal down, to win 3-1 over Japan, with only six minutes of normal time remaining.

"I don-t think many people give our boys credit," said Arnold, in response to whether it was possible to repeat the performance against Brazil. "I think we have a Cup final football side, who fight for 90 minutes and leave nothing in the tank and we have got athletes in the side."

"Anything is possible, anything is possible."

"We pretty much shocked the world yesterday with that win, especially in the way we finished the game, so Brazil will be looking over its shoulder at us."

Arnold also reiterated that yesterday-s performance was by no means a fluke and that all scenario-s that they might faced were pre-planned and that the players executed them perfectly, albeit a little later than anticipated.

"It was definitely no fluke the way we finished the game," he said. "We looked at all the what if-s, if we were in that scenario 1-0 down with 15 minutes to go."

"We had four of five scenario-s, if were 1-0 up, if we were level, if we had injuries, so we definitely had everything pre-planned. The plan obviously surprised a few people by putting (Brett) Emerton back to stopper."

"When we started the aerial assault, we knew we needed some quick guys at the back to counteract their counterattacks, so if was all pre-planned with what we did and thankfully it all came off."

Asked about the impact of match winner Tim Cahill and whether he was disappointed not to start against would get a start against Brazil.

"He was disappointed, very disappointed like any of them were that didn-t start. But as we have said to them from day one its not about the individual, its about the 23 players being here at the World Cup and its about the team and the country and everyone has to accept those type of decisions and move on."

"Obviously his disappointment of not starting was massive and obviously he came on and he had a bit of a smile on his face, so that-s good."

Asked if he said anything as he came off, Arnold said with a small laugh, "Don-t leave me out next time."

"But that was the benefit of resting Timmy or starting him on the bench, because he has come from a long way back. He didn-t play the last four or five games at Everton and lacked a little bit of match fitness."

"We knew we needed a trump up our sleeves just in case and Timmy is that type of person, especially with his aerial power and whenever the ball falls in the box he is always there."

Everyone trained today, with the those players that played the majority of the game only going through a relatively light session, while the subs kept the small crowd of school children entertained with a seven-a-side game.

"Everyone is fine. You (the media) all saw they pulled up really well today at training," he said with some relief.

"Harry-s pulled up exceptionally well, which was a little bit of a concern and I think he deserves massive credit for the way he fought through that 90 minutes yesterday, considering he probably wasn-t match fit and it was fantastic he got through okay."

"I have to say we have the best (medical staff)," he added, when asked about overcoming the dehydration from yesterday-s game and how important the role of the medical staff is.

"We-ve done a lot of research and a lot of work on recovery and our boys have recovered fantastic, with ice baths and wearing tights to get rid of lactic acid. They are as good as gold."

The searing weather conditions seemed to have a more serious effect on the Japanese players towards the end and was duly noted at half time when the players came off.

"At half time we said to them (the players) we would win 3-1," Arnold said with a wry smile. "When you see a guy like Tsuboi, who I know from my days in Japan, go down with cramps, you know that they are struggling. They looked physically knackered when they came off at half time."

"When it went to 1-1 we could have easily put Aloisi back into the midfield, but I think you guys all agree when we said we had to win yesterday, it was a must win game."

"When we scored one, the second came quickly, they then had to open up a little bit and we got the third. Aloisi-s goal in the last minute could be very important."

Finally, Arnold played a special tribute to three players who hardly get mentioned in many match reports but put in a terrific effort.

"(Brett) Emerton is fantastic, he-s a guy that yesterday played in three positions," he added. "He-s your modern day footballer, he can play anywhere. It-s the same with (Scott) Chipperfield, they are two guys that don-t get much of a mention, but they give you the same thing every game."

"When everyone was tired yesterday, there was three guys in (Jason) Culina, Emerton and Chipperfield that kept getting around the field and giving us that possibility to do what we did with having the four strikers at the end."

"You are in a tournament situation where you might as well lose by two or three than lose by one. You have got to go all-out, it-s a gamble but as I said everything was pre-planned and it came off."