Graham Arnold laments early concession, largely proud of performance

Graham Arnold insists he is extremely proud of his side despite suffering a 2-0 loss to reigning world champions Argentina in China on Thursday night.

The Subway Socceroos boss admitted apart from the opening 10 minutes where the team appeared somewhat overwhelmed by the Argentine intensity, he was largely satisfied with the performance.

Arnold was left to rue a sluggish start by the Green and Gold where a costly turnover in the centre of the park was ruthlessly punished by none other than Lionel Messi in the second minute.

But following a shaky beginning, Australia settled and began advancing forward and even dominated the South Americans for substantial chunks of the first '45.

Mitch Duke was unfortunate not to have found the equaliser when his volley was instinctively saved.

"Look I was very proud," Arnold told Football Australia Media after the clash at Beijing's Workers' Stadium.

"The purpose of this game and the plan I had before the game was obviously to give youngsters a chance, and it was important to have some experienced players around them.

"When you're playing the world champions like that, it's obviously a good learning curve for a lot of people, and I think that, obviously we started the game poorly.

"We started the game not great and again, it's a learning experience for the young players that they've probably never played in this type of environment before.

"I thought they handled the occasion after the first 10 minutes."

It was a gallant effort against the incumbent FIFA World Cup winners and Arnold said the key messaging throughout the week in the build up was to play without fear.

Arnold tinkered with his formation and tactics, forced to play a more compact system without any out-and-out wingers available due to injury.

A number of promising forays into the box also failed to translate into genuine chances with the final pass and extra bit of composure missing.

"The whole message I've been driving all week is look, the Aussie DNA never changes," he stated.

"You fight until you drop when you lose the ball, but we need to be better with the ball. The whole thing was, was about being brave to play and I thought that we played very well.

"We did some good things, good combinations and things like that. Just the final edge at times (was lacking).

"But you know, I changed the system, obviously, with no wingers available due to injury and that side of things, but I thought the system was very good and I was very pleased with the performance."

However, the most important takeaway from the match according to Arnold is the talent emerging, something that is exciting for the future of Australian football.

"Overall, the most pleasing thing is there's some kids coming, and we've just got to expose them and give them an opportunity to be exposed against this type of opposition," the 59-year-old said.

"I know losing an international fixture is not fantastic. I'm a bad loser. But at the end of the day, I couldn't be prouder of the boys."

One of those auspicious products is 20-year-old Jordan Bos, who looked right at home at left-back on his senior starting debut.

"I've got to play players to their strengths and Jordy's strength is going forward, and making sure that we're protecting him defensively and obviously, and he will improve out of site with that," he continued.

"But this game, the kid will walk away knowing he belongs and he will have that belief that he belongs on the big stage now.

"I just think that he's got such a bright future not just individually but for the Socceroos as well."

Australia's next scheduled match is again against world-class opposition in England at Wembley Stadium in October.

Arnold said the team, and the young players in particular, will only improve and learn as a unit by facing top-quality nations.

"The most important thing is we play our way and we don't sit back, we go forward, we move forward," he stressed.

"Everything we do is about growing as a team. We've got some youngsters coming through and the only way for them to improve is to put them on the big stage.

"If we're just playing against weak opposition, they're not going to learn, and (the game against Argentina) I think, quite a number of them will go home and think, 'wow', we belong.

"And the number of the kids are going overseas now, their careers are only going to go up from now."