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2026 World Cup Squad

grazorblade said:
Let's see if I can make a 26 man squad. I'll highlight my choices in bold. I'll go one extra CM, one extra inside forward and 1 extra striker. I'll also put a player in brackets in the (unforuntely) highly likely event Volpato doesn't play

GKs

Locks: Ryan, Izzo
Not locked: Gauci vs Beach

Cbs

Locks: Souttar, Degenek, Circati, Burgess
Not Locked: Matthews, Geria, Herrington, Rowles

Rwbs:

Locks: None
Not Locked: Miller, Italiano, Overy, Silvera, Strain

Lwbs:

Locks: Jordy Bos
Not Locked: Behich, Elder, Silvera, Italiano

CMs:

Locked: Irvine, O'Niell
Not locked: Yazbek, Teague, Robbo, Balard

Inside forwards

Locks: Metcalf, Irankunda, Volpato, Mcgree
Not locked: (Segecic), Vellupilay, Goodwin, Chipperfield, Leckie, Arzani

Strikers
Locks: Mo Toure
Not Locked: Sapsford, Duke, Musa Toure, A Toure, Borello, K Yengi, T Yengi, Caputo, Jovanovic
Not Locked: Yengi, Duke,
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I would include both Adrian Segečić and Cristian Volpato tbh.
 
patjennings said:
I meant i expect them all to go by February 2027. The only real concern I have is I'm not sold on the keepers yet for 2030.

But this could be the basis of the team for 2030 (average age by then a touch under 28)

Dylan Periac-Cullen, Joe Gauci, Steven Hall, Lewis Miller, James Overy, Samuel Silvera, Jacob Farrell, Jordan Bos, Harry Souttar, Alessandro Circati, Kye Rowles, Hayden Matthews, Max Balard, Paul Okon-Engstler, Joshua Nisbet, Aiden O'Neill, Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Alex Robertson, Nestory Irankunda, Garang Kuol, Mohamed Toure, Nishan Velupillay, Zac Sapsford, Adrian Segecic, Christian Volpato

Forget all the names - most have been talked about already - plus others such as Stam, Archie Goodwin, Arena, Eames, others we know about (Junior NTs) and others we haven't heard of yet. But these guys have to have the chance to qualify together and build a real team, not gradually come in, potentially as late as 2030 as the older guys retire. We need to be ruthless and we will be saying goodbye and thanks for some long time Socceroos hopefully no later than early 2027.
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We better not get Tony Vidmar then. He literally selected his son Kane who plays in the NPL SA.
 
patjennings said:
I meant i expect them all to go by February 2027. The only real concern I have is I'm not sold on the keepers yet for 2030.

But this could be the basis of the team for 2030 (average age by then a touch under 28)

Dylan Periac-Cullen, Joe Gauci, Steven Hall, Lewis Miller, James Overy, Samuel Silvera, Jacob Farrell, Jordan Bos, Harry Souttar, Alessandro Circati, Kye Rowles, Hayden Matthews, Max Balard, Paul Okon-Engstler, Joshua Nisbet, Aiden O'Neill, Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Alex Robertson, Nestory Irankunda, Garang Kuol, Mohamed Toure, Nishan Velupillay, Zac Sapsford, Adrian Segecic, Christian Volpato

Forget all the names - most have been talked about already - plus others such as Stam, Archie Goodwin, Arena, Eames, others we know about (Junior NTs) and others we haven't heard of yet. But these guys have to have the chance to qualify together and build a real team, not gradually come in, potentially as late as 2030 as the older guys retire. We need to be ruthless and we will be saying goodbye and thanks for some long time Socceroos hopefully no later than early 2027.
Click to expand...
I'll toss in a few more names-Dylan Leonard,Max Caputo,Alex Badolato,Eli Adams,Lucas Herrington,Ethan Alagich,Bernardo Oliveira,Will Dobson,Jordi Valadon,Pana Kikianis and Jed Drew who will in the mix for 2030.
 
booney52 said:
I'll toss in a few more names-Dylan Leonard,Max Caputo,Alex Badolato,Eli Adams,Lucas Herrington,Ethan Alagich,Bernardo Oliveira,Will Dobson,Jordi Valadon,Pana Kikianis and Jed Drew who will in the mix for 2030.
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Yes - 4 years time with development I think the NT will be looking good. Just need some of them to get to the top level and play consistently there.
 
booney52 said:
I'll toss in a few more names-Dylan Leonard,Max Caputo,Alex Badolato,Eli Adams,Lucas Herrington,Ethan Alagich,Bernardo Oliveira,Will Dobson,Jordi Valadon,Pana Kikianis and Jed Drew who will in the mix for 2030.
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Luka Jovanovic and here's a left-field one, Ryan White. He's been really good over the last few weeks and Ernest Faber is a big fan of his.
 


Joey Lynch sharing his depth charts based on fact rather than his personal opinion. He's right Popovic wants players who can fit the system rather than the most skilled player.

It's got to be the way that two specialists for the fullback positions are selected but those with versatility add more variation. If we could just pick Miller, Italiano, Bos and Elder then two of those guys have also played a lot of football in a back 3. We could then omit one or even two other centre backs out of Rowles, Degenek and Geria.

Someone like Hrustic or Segegic can play numerous roles so we can discard Boyle. I don't really rate Stensness but I sucks we don't have anyone who can play defensive midfield and centre back. Okon should be nowhere near the national team yet.
 
Not going to write the names but I went to the Roos wiki recent call up list to add those who I think should be at the WC and my heart started sinking when it totally 9. Crazily when looking at the most recent squad, I easily counted 9 to then omit. It was called the trial squad for a reason.
 
JS96 said:


Joey Lynch sharing his depth charts based on fact rather than his personal opinion. He's right Popovic wants players who can fit the system rather than the most skilled player.

It's got to be the way that two specialists for the fullback positions are selected but those with versatility add more variation. If we could just pick Miller, Italiano, Bos and Elder then two of those guys have also played a lot of football in a back 3. We could then omit one or even two other centre backs out of Rowles, Degenek and Geria.

Someone like Hrustic or Segegic can play numerous roles so we can discard Boyle. I don't really rate Stensness but I sucks we don't have anyone who can play defensive midfield and centre back. Okon should be nowhere near the national team yet.
Click to expand...


Having listened to that I now realise why I never take much notice of Joey Lynch. He is too Melbourne-centric. One of the few football journos in Australia and he is quoting Ray Gatt's knee-jerk reaction about the Mariners Academy even though the issue had already been resolved. If I believe any hourno in Australia football it is Vince Rugari, and if you want to hear any 'in the know' stuff that hasn't been released by anyone Daniel McBreen is your man. A lot of the Sydney based journos (do we have any left) had the same problem thinking football only exists in their city.
 
patjennings said:
Having listened to that I now realise why I never take much notice of Joey Lynch. He is too Melbourne-centric. One of the few football journos in Australia and he is quoting Ray Gatt's knee-jerk reaction about the Mariners Academy even though the issue had already been resolved. If I believe any hourno in Australia football it is Vince Rugari, and if you want to hear any 'in the know' stuff that hasn't been released by anyone Daniel McBreen is your man. A lot of the Sydney based journos (do we have any left) had the same problem thinking football only exists in their city.
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I see what you mean. There was a part where he said it can be a challenge getting information outside of where he's based. That may not stop others from having a reliable network though.
 
patjennings said:
Having listened to that I now realise why I never take much notice of Joey Lynch. He is too Melbourne-centric. One of the few football journos in Australia and he is quoting Ray Gatt's knee-jerk reaction about the Mariners Academy even though the issue had already been resolved. If I believe any hourno in Australia football it is Vince Rugari, and if you want to hear any 'in the know' stuff that hasn't been released by anyone Daniel McBreen is your man. A lot of the Sydney based journos (do we have any left) had the same problem thinking football only exists in their city.
Click to expand...
I enjoy the weekly show (I forget the name of it) featuring Rugari, McBreen and Tommy Oar.
 
Ok - I know I've been spruiking how much I've been enjoying this PES 21 / Football Life 2026 mod recently - but I've decided to go through all the countries that have qualified directly, or have qualified for the final playoffs that are in game (which is all of them, except New Caledonia and Suriname), and put together (what I thought at least) the best squad possible based off:
  • Their most recent squads
  • Players called up within the last 12 months
  • Injured players that would probably walk straight back into the squad - such as Harry Souttar in Australia's case.
  • Only using players that were on the game
Tonight I'm running sims of all the playoffs, and I just feel like doing a simulation of the World Cup.
In this simulation, playoffs will be viewed sims (I may record them on YouTube and put on here for the lulz - will just be set to "5 minutes" like when I simulated the playoffs for the 32 Nation 2026 World Cup. However, for the actual World Cup, I will only be doing 'viewed sims' for Australia's matches.

---

Now after that preamble, here's the Socceroos squad I've put together:
  1. Mat Ryan
  2. Milos Degenek
  3. Lewis Miller
  4. Kye Rowles
  5. Jordan Bos
  6. Martin Boyle
  7. Nestory Irankunda
  8. Connor Metcalfe
  9. Mo Toure
  10. Ajdin Hrustic
  11. Craig Goodwin
  12. Paul Izzo
  13. Aiden O'Neill
  14. Riley McGree
  15. Mitch Duke
  16. Aziz Behich
  17. Cameron Devlin
  18. Joe Gauci
  19. Harry Souttar
  20. Max Balard
  21. Cameron Burgess
  22. Jackson Irvine
  23. Alessandro Circati
  24. Brandon Borrello
  25. Jason Geria
  26. Patrick Yazbek
 
NicCarBel said:
Ok - I know I've been spruiking how much I've been enjoying this PES 21 / Football Life 2026 mod recently - but I've decided to go through all the countries that have qualified directly, or have qualified for the final playoffs that are in game (which is all of them, except New Caledonia and Suriname), and put together (what I thought at least) the best squad possible based off:
  • Their most recent squads
  • Players called up within the last 12 months
  • Injured players that would probably walk straight back into the squad - such as Harry Souttar in Australia's case.
  • Only using players that were on the game
Tonight I'm running sims of all the playoffs, and I just feel like doing a simulation of the World Cup.
In this simulation, playoffs will be viewed sims (I may record them on YouTube and put on here for the lulz - will just be set to "5 minutes" like when I simulated the playoffs for the 32 Nation 2026 World Cup. However, for the actual World Cup, I will only be doing 'viewed sims' for Australia's matches.

---

Now after that preamble, here's the Socceroos squad I've put together:
  1. Mat Ryan
  2. Milos Degenek
  3. Lewis Miller
  4. Kye Rowles
  5. Jordan Bos
  6. Martin Boyle
  7. Nestory Irankunda
  8. Connor Metcalfe
  9. Mo Toure
  10. Ajdin Hrustic
  11. Craig Goodwin
  12. Paul Izzo
  13. Aiden O'Neill
  14. Riley McGree
  15. Mitch Duke
  16. Aziz Behich
  17. Cameron Devlin
  18. Joe Gauci
  19. Harry Souttar
  20. Max Balard
  21. Cameron Burgess
  22. Jackson Irvine
  23. Alessandro Circati
  24. Brandon Borrello
  25. Jason Geria
  26. Patrick Yazbek
Click to expand...
You forgot at least two people… (hint: a Croat and a Jew, both from Sydney)
 
HonestSpursFan said:
He is not Jewish. I was referring to Adrian Segečić (who is of Croatian descent) and Zac Sapsford (who is of Jewish descent).
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Was just pulling the old Popovic leg haha

Sapsford was close to picking, when I was just doing it solely on my own vibes (instead of Borrello) - but the key part of my widespread squad selections across all countries was that they had to have had caps and played in the last 12 months for the country - which neither have. As much as I’d like to include them, it goes against the spirit of the full sim I’m doing.

Although, once final squads are eventually announced, I will probably do the sim again haha
 
NicCarBel said:
Was just pulling the old Popovic leg haha

Sapsford was close to picking, when I was just doing it solely on my own vibes (instead of Borrello) - but the key part of my widespread squad selections across all countries was that they had to have had caps and played in the last 12 months for the country - which neither have. As much as I’d like to include them, it goes against the spirit of the full sim I’m doing.

Although, once final squads are eventually announced, I will probably do the sim again haha
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So then it's not our strongest squad, rather just a squad Popa would pick?
 
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