Current Socceroos surpass Golden Generation: Paul Wade

Socceroos great and former captain Paul Wade felt they should go down in history as our best national team so far.

Despite being knocked out by Argentina with a 2-1 loss in the round of 16 on Sunday, it was still Australia's equal best Men's World Cup campaign.

The 2006 edition of the Socceroos also made it to the same stage before being knocked out by Italy 1-0.

But that team had stars like Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell as part of the squad.

The current crop were largely unheralded, with Aaron Mooy arguably the most high-profile player.

It's because of that lack of star power that Wade felt the achievement of the current squad outweighed that of their predecessors.

Wade was full of praise for the job Arnold's done in moulding a team that not only pushed Argentina - containing one of the game's greatest ever players in Lionel Messi - but could've won it as well.

Goalkeeper Mathew Ryan's howler led to the winning goal, while Aziz Behich and Garang Kuol both had clear-cut chances in the final minutes.

Arnold was close to being sacked earlier this year as the Socceroos looked set to miss qualification for the World Cup.

Not only did he manage to get them to Qatar, but he's led them to a stunning campaign that's captured the hearts of Australia.

Wade called for the Socceroos to be formerly recognised in some way upon their return to Australia.

"I think they should get more of a profile than the Golden Generation," he said.

"Somebody said to me, 'The best coach we've ever had, Guus Hiddink'. No - Graham Arnold. Let's not be afraid to go home grown here.

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"He hasn't got the profile Guus had, but Guus had a lot of help with a lot of very, very good players at the highest level.

"Graham Arnold has been ground floor and made a lot of second-tier footballers first-tier. And that's because he's so personable.

"He's formed relationships and got loyalty out of 26 people and he's got the just reward."

Wade was gutted for Ryan, whose howler gifted Argentina their second goal - which proved to be the difference between the teams.

The former Australia captain felt the blame didn't solely lie with the stopper - stating there were two or three mistakes before he lost possession and Julian Alvarez pounced for the winner.

"I feel gutted for Mat Ryan because he's done it 1000 times to great effect," Wade said.

"We can go way back and say who gave the ball away? And why did [Harry] Souttar pass the ball back to him when he had very little pressure on him?

"It's just we're all going to focus on Mat. Not in my eyes - there were two or three mistakes before that - he just got caught in the end."

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