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2026 World Cup Squad

patjennings said:
The other side is that many of the players haven't played for a while for various reasons. Get them fit then taper down for the tournament.
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Yeah for sure, many players didn't have long seasons like Cam Burgess and many missed game time due to injury and other reasons. To Popa's credit it was a fantastic idea to run the training camp before, it also gave a taste to up and coming players like Bennie and Raphael Borges Rodrigues. I feel like it's the extra 1% advantage that may get it over the line for us.

Always been a big fan of Socceroos putting in the extra effort like this. Some euro teams rock up a few days before.
 
scout_aussie said:
An analysis of the Switzerland game looking ahead to Turkey:
open.substack.com

Five takeaways from Australia vs. Switzerland

After the Socceroos drew 1-1 with Switzerland in their final warm-up game before the World Cup, I analyse their performance and what we learned from it.
open.substack.com open.substack.com
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Enjoyed the analysis, AS.

However, differ with a few points.

1. Compared to his highlights reel, Ithought Volpato was ineffectual. Popa claims his fitness is low. He chased a lot of ball, and appeared too lethargic to support the Roo ball carrier by ‘checking’ and opening viable passing lanes.

As for Aus’s best, technically, what I saw from Volpato, was not as good as Alex Robertson in terms of handling speed, and effective body position through quick footwork, when receiving and passing the ball on to a teammate in tight spaces. There are even players outside the senior Roo set up with a high level of technique. For the record I don’t think Robertson has enough experience to displace the current DMs in the Popa squad.

From what I’ve read Volpato is a bit awestruck with the professionalism in the Roo camp. The Swiss are pretty close to being a world powerhouse ATM. It would have been a step up from most Serie A teams.

It might be different when I look at a replay. Have only seen the second half replay ATM. I thought Metcalfe was far more effective than Volpato.

2. Agree with Souttar being a big presence. We are very lucky to have him back. Would I be correct in suggesting he may be having more success in international football than club football?

3. Good analysis of the Swiss goal. Impressive detail!

4. No differential in your analysis of the differing levels of Squeezing and Pressing by the Swiss in the two halves - and - how it affected how the Socceroos could play.

Notwithstanding, love reading analyses like yours, AS. Thanks for posting it here.

Keep posting them!
 
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prime said:
Yeah for sure, many players didn't have long seasons like Cam Burgess and many missed game time due to injury and other reasons. To Popa's credit it was a fantastic idea to run the training camp before, it also gave a taste to up and coming players like Bennie and Raphael Borges Rodrigues. I feel like it's the extra 1% advantage that may get it over the line for us.

Always been a big fan of Socceroos putting in the extra effort like this. Some euro teams rock up a few days before.
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Good post!

Haven’t seen you post before. Welcome to the forum, Prime.
 
Watching the game again, I'm more impressed with our performance than I was the first time around. We really controlled the middle half of the game between the two drinks breaks and Switzerland were restricted to balls into the channel which didn't really work and were well cut out by our defence.

As people have remarked, that's an excellent Swiss team on paper (the kind of level that Australia should aspire to) and our performance has made me feel a little more confident about what we might achieve in the group stages.
 
Toebash said:
Watching the game again, I'm more impressed with our performance than I was the first time around. We really controlled the middle half of the game between the two drinks breaks and Switzerland were restricted to balls into the channel which didn't really work and were well cut out by our defence.

As people have remarked, that's an excellent Swiss team on paper (the kind of level that Australia should aspire to) and our performance has made me feel a little more confident about what we might achieve in the group stages.
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Good post!

Haven’t looked at the first half replay, but second was good.

In Aussie Scout’s match analysis he claimed we had no more shots after Yengi’s goal at the 56 min mark. Is this true?

When one watches replays, they often look better than live. Trewin is more comfortable at DM than RWB. However, the Swiss backed off their Squeezing intensity and gave Aus more time on the ball in the second half.
 
prime said:
Yeah for sure, many players didn't have long seasons like Cam Burgess and many missed game time due to injury and other reasons. To Popa's credit it was a fantastic idea to run the training camp before, it also gave a taste to up and coming players like Bennie and Raphael Borges Rodrigues. I feel like it's the extra 1% advantage that may get it over the line for us.

Always been a big fan of Socceroos putting in the extra effort like this. Some euro teams rock up a few days before.
Click to expand...

Agree with this also.

A lot has been written about how young much of our starting lineup is. The reason why it's so young is because those u-23 players are, pure and simple, better than the players they replaced. However, that transition has been fairly recent (it's quite striking when you look at the squads from the earlier qualifying rounds), which means that the team hasn't had the same chance to gel over the course of a whole qualification campaign that previous squads might have.

With that in mind, I really applaud Popovic and Football Australia's decision to go into camp early, because it should help to alleviate the lack of familiarity that we're inevitably going to face.
 
Toebash said:
Agree with this also.

A lot has been written about how young much of our starting lineup is. The reason why it's so young is because those u-23 players are, pure and simple, better than the players they replaced. However, that transition has been fairly recent (it's quite striking when you look at the squads from the earlier qualifying rounds), which means that the team hasn't had the same chance to gel over the course of a whole qualification campaign that previous squads might have.

With that in mind, I really applaud Popovic and Football Australia's decision to go into camp early, because it should help to alleviate the lack of familiarity that we're inevitably going to face.
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Another good post, TB!

The big issue is the lack of experience of most of the young guns under the age of 25, compared to the current big game experience of the few Aussie players good enough for WCs over the age of 26.

In a very short time hardly any of the current Roos over the age of 26 will be good enough to keep the high quantity of quality Aus players coming through under the age of 25.
 
Decentric said:
Another good post, TB!

The big issue is the lack of experience of most of the young guns under the age of 25, compared to the current big game experience of the few Aussie players good enough for WCs over the age of 26.

In a very short time hardly any of the current Roos over the age of 26 will be good enough to keep the high quantity of quality Aus players coming through under the age of 25.
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Haha thanks mate.

While it will certainly be an issue for this World Cup, the flipside is that by 2030 we should have a squad aged in their prime who have played a lot of games with each other. Imagine what Bos, Circati, Irankunda, Volpato, Toure and Herrington could be after another four years of playing together!
 
Toebash said:
Agree with this also.

A lot has been written about how young much of our starting lineup is. The reason why it's so young is because those u-23 players are, pure and simple, better than the players they replaced. However, that transition has been fairly recent (it's quite striking when you look at the squads from the earlier qualifying rounds), which means that the team hasn't had the same chance to gel over the course of a whole qualification campaign that previous squads might have.

With that in mind, I really applaud Popovic and Football Australia's decision to go into camp early, because it should help to alleviate the lack of familiarity that we're inevitably going to face.
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But is that true. We haven't seen the starting XI.

Volpato and Yengi have just been added and aren't guaranteed starters. They have a total of 2 caps between them.

I can't see Okon, Beach or Velupillay starting and I wouldn't have any in the squad. That is no way means that I think that some of the dead wood shouldn't have been chopped just that they shouldn't have been chopped to make the squad weaker. We had better options especially for squad players to make a difference. i.e. We have no plan B let alone C, D or E

Trewin and Herrington good young players but definitely not guaranteed starters.

These are the only Popovic additions the rest were there before Popovic.
 
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patjennings said:
But is that true. We haven't seen the starting XI.

Volpato and Yengi have just been added and aren't guaranteed starters. They have a total of 2 caps between them.

I can't see Okon, Beach or Velupillay starting and I wouldn't have any in the squad. That is no way means that I think that some of the dead wood shouldn't have been chopped just that they shouldn't have been chopped to make the squad weaker. We had better options especially for squad players to make a difference. i.e. We have no plan B let alone C, D or E

Trewin and Herrington good young players but definitely not guaranteed starters.

These are the only Popovic additions the rest were there before Popovic.
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I'm anticipating the starting XI against Turkey will be:

Ryan
Italiano
Circati
Souttar
Herrington/Burgess
Bos
Irvine
O'Neill
Volpato/Metcalfe
Irankunda
Toure

That frontline in particular looks extremely different to the one that started against Bangladesh in the second round less than three years ago, and also the one that started against Bahrain in the third round less than two years ago (Irankunda came off the bench that game, Toure was still nowhere to be seen and Kusini Yengi of all people was starting!)

The defence has been a bit more haphazard given Souttar's long term injuries and Miller being replaced by Italiano.

You're right about the midfield though, which has been pretty consistent over the qualification campaign if (as we expect) Irvine, Metcalfe and O'Neill start, though Trewin, Okon-Engstler and Devlin's involvement in qualification was extremely limited.
 
Toebash said:
I'm anticipating the starting XI against Turkey will be:

Ryan
Italiano
Circati
Souttar
Herrington/Burgess
Bos
Irvine
O'Neill
Volpato/Metcalfe
Irankunda
Toure

That frontline in particular looks extremely different to the one that started against Bangladesh in the second round less than three years ago, and also the one that started against Bahrain in the third round less than two years ago (Irankunda came off the bench that game, Toure was still nowhere to be seen and Kusini Yengi of all people was starting!)

The defence has been a bit more haphazard given Souttar's long term injuries and Miller being replaced by Italiano.

You're right about the midfield though, which has been pretty consistent over the qualification campaign if (as we expect) Irvine, Metcalfe and O'Neill start, though Trewin, Okon-Engstler and Devlin's involvement in qualification was extremely limited.
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I'm more concerned that we have churned though so many players to add five players that we have tried in addition to already capped players plus two that weren't tried.

Specifically to that Bahrain game Metcalfe started, Irankunda came on and Toure was injured.
 
patjennings said:
I'm more concerned that we have churned though so many players to add five players that we have tried in addition to already capped players plus two that weren't tried.

Specifically to that Bahrain game Metcalfe started, Irankunda came on and Toure was injured.
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But when Toure, Irankunda, Metcalfe, Souttar, Circati, Bos, Ryan and Irvine are clearly in your best XI, what do you expect Popa to do? Just change it for changes sake?

I think only O'Neill is the one who could and should be moved on from the previous regime and then the choice between Burgess/Herrington is line ball really and you cannot bemoan the decision made there regardless.

We have moved on from previous staples like Duke, Taggart and Goodwin and over reliance on players such as Hrustic, Behich, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil to a new batch of players where Bos, Circati, Toure, Irankunda are now our most vital players.

I think there are quite a few things we can question Popa over, but just in my opinion, he has done quite a good job in player turnover and ushering a new batch of players who are now are most important. Especially in less than 2 years and in the midst of inheriting and navigating quite a tricky qualification period. Whilst the likes of Hrustic, Behich, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil are still there, they are either there as they are the best choice as back-ups or there for their WC experience. Whilst I, too, would prefer Robertson, Bennie etc. chosen, I can see why Popa has opted for WC experience. It's something that is very important which could really be a diffentiator against group opponents who have less WC experience and especially when we only have 9 players in the squad with previous WC experience.
 
JM47 said:
But when Toure, Irankunda, Metcalfe, Souttar, Circati, Bos, Ryan and Irvine are clearly in your best XI, what do you expect Popa to do? Just change it for changes sake?

I think only O'Neill is the one who could and should be moved on from the previous regime and then the choice between Burgess/Herrington is line ball really and you cannot bemoan the decision made there regardless.

We have moved on from previous staples like Duke, Taggart and Goodwin and over reliance on players such as Hrustic, Behich, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil to a new batch of players where Bos, Circati, Toure, Irankunda are now our most vital players.

I think there are quite a few things we can question Popa over, but just in my opinion, he has done quite a good job in player turnover and ushering a new batch of players who are now are most important. Especially in less than 2 years and in the midst of inheriting and navigating quite a tricky qualification period. Whilst the likes of Hrustic, Behich, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil are still there, they are either there as they are the best choice as back-ups or there for their WC experience. Whilst I, too, would prefer Robertson, Bennie etc. chosen, I can see why Popa has opted for WC experience. It's something that is very important which could really be a diffentiator against group opponents who have less WC experience and especially when we only have 9 players in the squad with previous WC experience.
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You're actually agreeing with me. You said 'Over reliance on players such as Hrustic, Behich, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil.'

I get that Leckie can play can a holding role up front if we are leading but do not see him as a viable CM with his lack of game time. Would Duke have fulfilled that role better in closing out a game - probably - so my angst isn't against age - it is about who is best to do the job.

Behich over Elder is okay. I understand Degenek as a can fit anywhere in the backline but I would have taken Rowles as back up CB/LWB/LB. I would at at times use Bos as a LAM and so would need cover there. You would lose nothing dropping Hrustic the temu luxury player and bringing in Robertson. We have Volpato now as the luxury player.

Okon-Englster should be nowhere near a Socceroos tournament squad yet. Velupillay was a lazy pick as was Mabil. Clayton Taylor and/or Eli Adams would add different attributes or even a direct dribbler like Silvera to take on defenders on yellows or a poacher like Archie Goodwin.

Gauci has a higher ceiling than Beach so he becomes the third keeper.

So after that I would have dropped the WC experience of Hrustic, Leckie, Degenek and Mabil, kept Behich retained Rowles and Duke. In the meantime given us a better option to defend from the front if we are leading, allowing Bos to bomb forward without too much defensive role, added players with different profiles for different scenarios.

We would go from a squad that can continue a game in the Popa tradition to one that can adapt to different scenarios.
 
Toebash said:
Haha thanks mate.

While it will certainly be an issue for this World Cup, the flipside is that by 2030 we should have a squad aged in their prime who have played a lot of games with each other. Imagine what Bos, Circati, Irankunda, Volpato, Toure and Herrington could be after another four years of playing together!
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There will be a lot more young players to join these guys too.
 
I have no issue with Popa trialling so many players, it's not like we have many a class above who pick themselves....

There did seem to be no method to the madness though, players by far the wrong side of 30, players selected off one good game, players not in consistent form for their clubs, not targeting or experimenting in obviously weak positions in Popas formation, we should not have been in this position at right wing back for instance.
 
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