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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

Cunningstunt said:
There are some selections where the hype plays a part. Tommy Oar when fans were desperate for any young player. Fornaroli at the Asian cup after he went on that run of goals.
Some players seem to get hyped up while others don't. Everyone wanted Nisbet picked by Arnold, but very little noise about Ballard, who has now progressed further. Botic but not Goodwin who also scored the same number of goals.
James Holland played for years at Austria Wien, won a title, barely anyone cares. Botic will go there, if he plays regularly, will be a must pick.
Kuol and Irankunda are just the most recent over hyped kids with talent. I get the excitement as well. But football is brutal, and eventually you are sorted into your level. Fans only remember when they were right about the hype.
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Ballard and Nisbet are the perfect foils for each other. As for James Holland he was picked as a DM, ignored the role over a few games as he wanted to be the AM and we struggled to win this games as others had to scramble to cover him. He could do either role - nut he wouldn't listen to the manager and was eased out.
 
James Holland was a horrible footballer for Australia. Massive error prone rogue.
 
Funnily enough he always had decent attributes on Football Manager but played terribly and got atrocious ratings....jeez I miss that game
 
Cunningstunt said:
There are some selections where the hype plays a part. Tommy Oar when fans were desperate for any young player. Fornaroli at the Asian cup after he went on that run of goals.
Some players seem to get hyped up while others don't. Everyone wanted Nisbet picked by Arnold, but very little noise about Ballard, who has now progressed further. Botic but not Goodwin who also scored the same number of goals.
James Holland played for years at Austria Wien, won a title, barely anyone cares. Botic will go there, if he plays regularly, will be a must pick.
Kuol and Irankunda are just the most recent over hyped kids with talent. I get the excitement as well. But football is brutal, and eventually you are sorted into your level. Fans only remember when they were right about the hype.
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Most Mariners fans knew Maxi was going to go far, too smart not to. Just saw a lot more versatility from Nizzy.
 
JS96 said:
James Holland was a horrible footballer for Australia. Massive error prone rogue.
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He was a decent player, just in a position where we have even better players

We have never been in a position where fans will clamour for a midfielder getting game time in the austrian bundesliga

Any other position and its another matter, particularly striker

These days even if oli jones carves up the danish league as a youngish player it will barely register unless their is an injury crisis
 
grazorblade said:
He was a decent player, just in a position where we have even better players

We have never been in a position where fans will clamour for a midfielder getting game time in the austrian bundesliga

Any other position and its another matter, particularly striker

These days even if oli jones carves up the danish league as a youngish player it will barely register unless their is an injury crisis
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He carved out a decent club career. Thankfully we did have better players. That first half against Oman was atrocious but Holger was part of the issue too.

We've had a long list of brief call ins and they've gotten a lot of press but wouldn't play. If they did they generally looked good. Jones is not even short listed but he'd probably come in and do a professional job like Rowles, Thwaite and others did on debut.
 
Just watched the Saudi game again. Didn't realise how hyped the team embraced after the penalty save. How can you not love Degenek clapping and laughing.

78min saw nice quick play with a good McGree long ball and that Toure heel to Tilio was something else.
 
verrelli said:
Draw for next round of World Cup qualifying has been announced. Arnie's Iraq up against Saudi and Indonesia:

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/20...p-qatar-saudi-arabia-afc-qualifiers- revealed
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verrelli said:
Draw for next round of World Cup qualifying has been announced. Arnie's Iraq up against Saudi and Indonesia:

www.aljazeera.com

Qatar and Saudi Arabia find out AFC qualifying fate for 2026 FIFA World Cup

The draw for the fourth round of AFC qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been made in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
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Iraq could make it through.
 
South Korea 2 - 0 up after 45 against USA. So they will move ahead of us further in the rankings if that stays the same.
 
NicCarBel said:
I might do a version of this on Wednesday - generally I have a little difference between this version and my own
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Would be interested to know if any euro nations ranked above us are in trouble in qualifying and might be a chamce to be automatically pot 4
 
grazorblade said:
Would be interested to know if any euro nations ranked above us are in trouble in qualifying and might be a chamce to be automatically pot 4
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Yeah this is primarily the reason why I'd want to do this. At the moment - based off current standings - Germany and Italy potentially in this boat

I mean.. if I was to do this with projections right now:

Disclaimer* - bold nations are already qualified. These are SOLELY using the current standings of WCQ groups - the only exception will be the rest of AFC as this has not started (using seeds as the basis)

EDIT: Have updated as of 9 Sep 2025 AM AEST

Intercontinental Playoffs
  • Iraq (58)
  • Venezuela (48)
  • New Caledonia (151)
  • Senegal (19)
  • Panama (30)
  • Curacao (86)

AFC
  • Japan (17)
  • Iran (20)
  • Uzbekistan (55)
  • South Korea (23)
  • Jordan (62)
  • Australia (24)
  • Qatar (54)
  • Saudi Arabia (59)
CONMEBOL
  • Argentina (1)
  • Brazil (5)
  • Ecuador (25)
  • Uruguay (15)
  • Colombia (14)
  • Paraguay (42)
OFC
  • New Zealand (82)
CAF
  • Morocco (12)
  • Egypt (33)
  • DR Congo (60)
  • South Africa (56)
  • Cape Verde (73)
  • Ivory Coast (43)
  • Algeria (38)
  • Tunisia (50)
  • Ghana (76)
UEFA
  • Slovakia (41)
  • Switzerland (18)
  • Denmark (20)
  • Iceland (74)
  • Spain (2)
  • Portugal (6)
  • Netherlands (7)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina (72)
  • Norway (34)
  • North Macedonia (63)
  • England (4)
  • Czech Republic (39)
UEFA Playoffs (will be unseeded in Pots)
  • France (3)
  • Italy (10)
  • Belgium (8)
  • Croatia (9)
CONCACAF
  • USA (host) (16)
  • Mexico (host) (13)
  • Canada (host) (27)
  • El Salvador (84)
  • Jamaica (69)
  • Costa Rica (44)

Pot 1
  • USA
  • Mexico
  • Canada
  • Argentina
  • Spain
  • England
  • Brazil
  • Portugal
  • Netherlands
  • Morocco
  • Columbia
  • Uruguay
Pot 2
  • Japan
  • Switzerland
  • Denmark
  • Iran
  • South Korea
  • Australia
  • Ecuador
  • Egypt
  • Norway
  • Algeria
  • Czech Republic
  • Slovakia
Pot 3
  • Paraguay
  • Ivory Coast
  • Costa Rica
  • Tunisia
  • Qatar
  • Uzbekistan
  • South Africa
  • Saudi Arabia
  • DR Congo
  • Jordan
  • North Macedonia
  • Jamaica
Pot 4
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Cape Verde
  • Iceland
  • Ghana
  • New Zealand
  • El Salvador
  • UEFA 1 - France
  • UEFA 2 - Italy
  • UEFA 3 - Belgium
  • UEFA 4 - Croatia
  • Intercontinental 1 - Senegal
  • Intercontinental 2 - Panama
 
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NicCarBel said:
Yeah this is primarily the reason why I'd want to do this. At the moment - based off current standings - Germany and Italy potentially in this boat
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I suppose its a two edged sword

having monsters in pot 4 means more groups of death but also more chance we could have an easy group
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
Anyone else received the Football Australia email offering a new paid membership to bid for WC tickets?

Any last inclination I might have to go has just vanished.
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In case the President turns up to your match and you need to wait outside?

On a another note that tennis attendance was announced two days before and I believe final goers were told to arrive earlier.

I saw something about dynamic pricing for WC games. I just still can't see football at some of these stadiums. The camera angles are that bit more odd and MetLife is truly a horrible overrated place.
 
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