Speaking after the final draw for the Asian Cup 2007 in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, where his team was placed in Group A with Oman, Iraq and co-host Thailand, Arnold expressed great enthusiasm for the quadrennial event.

“This is an important competition. It's held once every four years and in terms of the numbers of people who watch it, it's probably the second or third most popular football event in the world,” the Australia coach said.

“The winners can go to the Confederations Cup and there's a lot of prestige involved so it's important we perform well.”

Arnold is especially pleased that Australia will get the opportunity to face higher calibre opposition than they were used to playing in the past at the Oceania Football Confederation Championship.

“It's going to be different to what we're used to, but what we're used to is winning 15 or 20-0!

“The level is much better in the Asian Cup and even in qualifying, when we lost to Kuwait, we still got more out of it than we would have gained from just winning because we went somewhere where we had never experienced that type of heat or those type of conditions before and with minimal preparation.”

With that experience in mind, Arnold is particularly concerned about preparing his side well for the sweltering conditions that they can expect in South East Asia in the middle of the year.

“We have to prepare well for this tournament so we'll do 10 days to two weeks of preparation in the humidity because if you're not ready then you can come unstuck early,” he concluded.

Australia will open their Asian Cup campaign against Oman in Bangkok on July 8.

They face Iraq on July 13 before concluding their Group A programme against the Thais on July 16.