Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

WC 2026 Seedings

Victory in Socceroos' friendly against United States could ease World Cup draw

The Socceroos will be lucky to get a result against the USA and most likely will either get a draw or even lose, bearing in mind that the United States men's national team are unbeaten with three wins from three games played at DSG Park.
 
The Socceroos will be lucky to get a result against the USA and most likely will either get a draw or even lose, bearing in mind that the United States men's national team are unbeaten with three wins from three games played at DSG Park.

A draw is ok-ish for us - given that it will still net us a couple points

Am working on updating the projections. I basically have everything set except for updating the CONCACAF qualifiers later today, and updating the rankings
 
Last edited:
How much will this result hurt us?
If everything else in qualifying stays the way it does, it will put us into Pot 3

As things stand:
1760496837008.png

A draw would see us back ahead of both Austria AND Ecuador. Win would have put us ahead of Korea as well.
 
I really hope we get NZ in the World Cup. Would just be a feelgood moment of Australia playing NZ at a FIFA World Cup finals
 
Key matches November window for FIFA World Cup qualifiers,

November 13th:
France v Ukraine
Armenia v Hungary
Ireland v Portugal
England v Serbia
Suriname v El Salvador
Guatemala v Panama
Trinidad and Tobago v Jamaica
Haiti v Costa Rica
Nigeria v Gabon
Cameroon v DR Congo
United Arab Emirates v Iraq

November 14th:
Slovakia v Northern Ireland
Poland v Netherlands

November 15th:
Slovenia v Kosovo
Switzerland v Sweden
Greece v Scotland
Cyprus v Austria
Bosnia Herzegovina v Romania

November 16th:
Ukraine v Iceland
Hungary v Ireland
Portugal v Armenia
Italy v Norway
Nigeria/Gabon v Cameroon/DR Congo

November 17th:
Germany v Slovakia

November 18th:
Kosovo v Switzerland
Sweden v Slovenia
Scotland v Denmark
Spain v Turkey
Austria v Bosnia Herzegovina
Wales v North Macedonia
Guatemala v Suriname
Panama v El Salvador
Jamaica v Curaçao
Costa Rica v Honduras
Iraq v United Arab Emirates
 
What we could hope for is for Scotland to top their group, getting rid of Denmark out of pot 2 above us. Currently Denmark and Scotland are equal on points, but Denmark has +6 better goal difference. Denmark play Belarus at home, Scotland play Greece away in matchday one next month, then Scotland play Denmark at home on the second matchday.
 
What we could hope for is for Scotland to top their group, getting rid of Denmark out of pot 2 above us. Currently Denmark and Scotland are equal on points, but Denmark has +6 better goal difference. Denmark play Belarus at home, Scotland play Greece away in matchday one next month, then Scotland play Denmark at home on the second matchday.
Yeah there's a few different ways. Essentially, assuming we don't rise in the rankings, we need two of Germany, Belgium, Italy and Denmark to not qualify directly - they seem to be the most at risk of not going through in first place.
 
A Mexico win will see Ecuador still be 0.70 rankings points ahead - which would make the next two international friendlies even more important.
I know we always play Asian teams - but what would be the effect if we play and beat China on 15/11, South Korea will probably beat Bolivia on the same day. Then follow up on 18/11 against South Korea. All would be friendlies - but a showdown on the last day against South Korea might be fun would be fun. Or would we too far behind.
 
I know we always play Asian teams - but what would be the effect if we play and beat China on 15/11, South Korea will probably beat Bolivia on the same day. Then follow up on 18/11 against South Korea. All would be friendlies - but a showdown on the last day against South Korea might be fun would be fun. Or would we too far behind.
Once the official rankings (And points) are out, I'm going to look into things like that - but also the effect of wins/losses for matches that are booked already, like Ecuador v NZ, etc
 
Using a mixture of Goal.com and ESPN, I'm trying to work out what nations are available for Friendlies.

Goal.com has us down as against Argentina on 17 Nov as official.

It is worth noting that Nigeria had friendlies booked (apparently) against Venezuela (first match - 14 Nov) and Colombia (second match - 19 Nov) but will now obviously have the African playoffs, so that would be good to have one of them come along I suppose. Also, all the Asian Cup Third Round matches will be held on 18-19 Nov, so 'strong' countries (such as Thailand, and perhaps even India - considering the Argentina match is to be in India if it does go ahead) could be sensible options early in the international window.
 
Ok, so - I'm going to make the assumption that Austria beats Cyprus on matchday one - this will move their rankings points to 1590.76

This table then shows the possibilities for Austria (and Bosnia's) ranking points in the event of win/draw/loss for each team (and variations based off Bosnia v Romania's result on matchday one - because this will affect the points change for Austria)

Starting points column displays either Austria's starting points, or Bosnia's starting points, but the other 3 columns will show only Austria's points)


Starting PointsAustria WinDrawBosnia Win
Austria1590.76
Bosnia (defeated Romania)1357.111598.001585.51573.00
Bosnia (draw with Romania)1344.611597.761585.261572.76
Bosnia (loss to Romania)1332.111597.521585.021572.52

Bear in mind that, in the event Bosnia wins their first match, and then also defeats Austria (the top row) this likely means Austria fails to qualify, so we'd jump them in the Seedings regardless.

Next, to Ecuador - they have two matches - first against Canada, and then secondly against NZ (who plays Colombia in the first matchday). For hypotheticals sake, I'm going to make the prediction that Colombia beats NZ, so will have NZ starting off on that note.
First row is purely for Ecuador v Canada. Second row and below spells out the different points for results against NZ, taking into account different results v Canada (based off NZ losing to Colombia first)


Starting PointsEcuador winDrawCanada Win
Ecuador1589.271593.931588.931583.93
Ecuador (defeated Canada)1593.931596.241591.241586.24
Ecuador (draw with Canada)1588.931591.271586.271581.27
Ecuador (loss to Canada)1583.931586.311581.311576.31

Now, here's where I'll have to do half guesses of things. At the moment, from what I can see, South Korea only has a friendly against Bolivia booked for Nov 14. And then Australia has Argentina on Nov 17 (if we take Goal.com's word for it). So, Korea will have a match AFTER the table below for their results matrix, and Australia AND Argentina will have one before (meaning their initial inputs will differ slightly) - nonetheless I will do anyways, just so we have a reference point



Starting pointsKOR winDrawBOL win
Korea1591.841594.571589.571584.57
Bolivia1336.18Who caresWho caresWho cares




Starting PointsARG winDrawAUS win
Argentina1872.25Who caresWho caresWho cares
Australia1586.131583.631588.631593.63

So bottom line is, let's assume we lose to Argentina - what we want is basically either of the following scenarios happening to snek into Pot 2:
  • Ecuador loses to Canada AND fails to defeat New Zealand
  • Ecuador draws with Canada AND loses to New Zealand
  • Korea to lose AND play an additional friendly AND
    • draw - if it's a lower ranked nation than them OR
    • lose - it it's a higher ranked nation than them
  • Austria to lose to Bosnia and Herzegovina - this will either see them lose enough ranking points OR fail to qualify directly (depending on the result of Bosnia & Herzegovina v Romania on Matchday 1)
  • Belgium fail to qualify directly somehow
  • Germany fail to qualify directly somehow
  • Denmark fail to qualify directly somehow
Note that I'm assuming Italy will fail to qualify directly, as to do so, they need to have all the following happen:
  • Norway NOT WIN against Estonia
  • Better whatever result Norway gets against Estonia (in the event that Norway doesn't win)
  • Defeat Norway
    • If Norway defeats Estonia, and Italy defeats Moldova, Italy then needs to beat Norway AND overturn a 16 goal difference to jump Norway at the top
 
Last edited:
Turkey and Ukraine could also cause us problems
Turkey maybe. Ukraine I don't think so, points wise they're a bit too far back. For either of them to jump ahead in the rankings AND qualify directly, they'd need to win both matches, which would give ranking points totals of:

Turkey - 1595.20
Ukraine - 1581.96
 
Turkey maybe. Ukraine I don't think so, points wise they're a bit too far back. For either of them to jump ahead in the rankings AND qualify directly, they'd need to win both matches, which would give ranking points totals of:

Turkey - 1595.20
Ukraine - 1581.96
If Turkey and/or Ukraine win their group, it would kick out France and Spain. So Australia’s relative position would not change if Turkey and Ukraine move ahead. It would make pot 4 potentially much stronger though.
 
Back
Top