{"id":193430,"date":"2025-10-06T14:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T14:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193430\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T14:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T14:05:09","slug":"nepals-australian-football-coach-isnt-looking-to-scale-the-heights-of-asian-cup-glory-just-one-point-would-do-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193430\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal\u2019s Australian football coach isn\u2019t looking to scale the heights of Asian Cup glory. Just one point would do | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Matt Ross took the Nepal<\/a> national football team job earlier this year, he knew there would be tough times ahead. Nepal\u2019s mountainous terrain draws millions of tourists each year, but it has also made sporting progress difficult.<\/p>\n

Hamstrung by its terrain, football pitches are so scarce that the main national competition \u2013 the Nepal Super League \u2013 must be played over one month at a single venue: the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu.<\/p>\n

But over the last month, the Australian coach has had to deal with far more serious concerns than fragile football infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In early September, anger over a sweeping government ban on 26 social media platforms \u2013 and deeper frustrations over corruption and poor job prospects \u2013 brought thousands of young Nepalis on to the streets. The \u201cGen Z protests<\/a>\u201d began as a challenge to state censorship but quickly broadened into a wider anti-corruption movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on the bus to training ahead of a friendly against Bangladesh when police told us not to go to the stadium,\u201d Ross says. \u201cThen we saw the reports of protests, burned buildings, politicians dragged from houses. The hotel told us to close our curtains but I looked out and saw the building next door on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unrest escalated quickly and the Nepal health ministry later confirmed that 72 people were killed and more than 2,100 injured after security forces opened fire on protesters. The Bangladesh game \u2013 the second of a double-header after a 0-0 draw on 6 September \u2013 was unsurprisingly called off.<\/p>\n

\"Nepal'sNepal’s prime minister quits after deaths at protests sparked by social media ban \u2013 video <\/p>\n

Ross was left to manage a delicate situation. While many of the Nepal squad sympathise with the protesters, several players have strong associations with the police and military, whose response drew sharp criticism from the United Nations and Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kit man\u2019s nephew went to the protests; he was wearing his school uniform and he was shot dead,\u201d Ross says. \u201cEven if the game had gone ahead we were in no mental position to play. It is complex. We had been surrounded by smoke and sirens and chanting. It was confronting because it\u2019s the kind of thing you see on TV in other places \u2013 and then you realise you\u2019re in the middle of it and quite helpless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross congratulates the Nepali players after their Bangladesh game. Photograph: Sadman Sakib\/ Bangladesh Football Federation<\/p>\n

Ross had previously planned to meet his wife and family in Europe after the game and made the difficult decision to go ahead with the trip \u2013 though he was in constant contact with his players and backroom staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a lot like a worried parent in those days \u2013 asking them to call when they reached their families around the country,\u201d he says. \u201cAsking how their mums and dads were, how their home village was. A lot of the boys are understandably still affected by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross returned to Nepal 10 days later with a renewed sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

Since being appointed, the Australian has been working tirelessly to build foundations for the long-term growth of football in the country. His own coaching career has been firmly grounded in development; beginning with women\u2019s and youth football in Germany, before spells in China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not about tactics or even fitness; it\u2019s about the emotions and what we\u2019re playing forMatt Ross<\/p>\n

Nepal represents Ross\u2019 first foray into senior men\u2019s football and while progress has been gradual, rather than explosive, Nepal\u2019s trajectory is undoubtedly upward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not ranked 175 in the world for nothing,\u201d Ross says. \u201cI\u2019m here to win games and change that mindset. There\u2019s talent \u2013 with the ball at their feet they\u2019re as good as the players I\u2019ve worked with before. What they lack is the tactical building blocks you get from a proper academy system and the mindset that comes with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers bounce around the country playing week-long cash-in-hand tournaments, signing two-week contracts. It\u2019s not ideal to build a football culture or a national team. I\u2019m actively trying to get players to India, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore \u2013 anywhere they can play professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross exudes a quiet authority that owes much to his earliest days in football as a referee. As a teenager, he had designs on officiating at a World Cup, but after suffering a serious knee injury, he switched to coaching.<\/p>\n

His steady demeanour has proved especially valuable amid the off-pitch chaos of recent weeks. Now, his focus is on using football as a unifying presence ahead of back-to-back Asian Cup qualifiers against Vietnam this week. In the wake of September\u2019s protests in Nepal, both matches will now be played in Ho Chi Minh City.<\/p>\n

It is a daunting assignment. Nepal sit bottom of a qualifying group that also features Malaysia and Laos. Although, the All Nepal Football Association has filed a complaint against Malaysia, after La\u2019Vere Corbin-Ong, one of the goal-scorers in Malaysia\u2019s 2-0 win over Nepal in March, was ruled ineligible by Fifa \u2013 meaning the result could be overturned.<\/p>\n

Still, with only the group winner guaranteed a place at the 2027 Asian Cup and Vietnam boasting greater continental pedigree, even a single point from October\u2019s games would be a significant achievement for Nepal and their coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big sense of duty now,\u201d Ross says. \u201cIt\u2019s not about asking the country to support us \u2013 we need to give something to them. No one is expecting us to do anything over the two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about tactics or even fitness; it\u2019s about the emotions and what we\u2019re playing for. I need to drive that home so we can do something magical in one or both matches. We need to come home with something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Matt Ross took the Nepal national football team job earlier this year, he knew there would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-193430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}