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2026 World Cup Squad

My thoughts:


Borello was the most obvious cut in the squad, good by Popovic to confirm that lmao
I do prefer Geria over Rowles just for some added versatility and speed so I'm happy with that.
Gauci or Beach as the third keeper is splitting hairs, Beach is younger so I'm taking him.
I'm a firm believer that Metcalfe's and Leckie's performances yesterday is the reason Yengi is in the squad. It's a realisation that Irankunda cannot be pinned as the backup striker only getting 20 minutes a game. He needs to start in the AM position after seeing how poor Leckie and Metcalfe were in the first-half which allowed for Yengi or Borello to get the backup ST position in the final hours. Thankfully, Popa chose Yengi over Borello sensibly. I'm more happy that it confirms Irankunda as an AM and more than likely to start.


Boyle's omission is what it is. Selfishly, I'm happy he's not there so there isn't a risk of him playing or starting even though he is probably better than Leckie or Mabil. Regardless, Metcalfe, Velupillay and Hrustic are the backup AM's, there isn't much need for Boyle.

Overall, I'm really happy with this 26. Last year after the Saudi Arabia game, nobody thought we would hit the WC26 with a squad half as good as this. Just compare it to 2022, it's vastly superior in every position and the depth off the bench.
 
Everyone on reddit is arguing over the players on the fringes of this squad like Boyle, Leckie, Velupillay, Beach, Gauci etc etc.

None of that matters. All that matters is the starters are all very good and are all obvious to start and that their backups are just as obvious as well. The final 4-6 players really don't matter.
 
Ange's high line said:
Players that missed out are Borello, Boyle, Gauci & Rowles...I feel for Boyle.
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I feel sorry for him too, especially after missing out in 2022.

But if you think about it pragmatically, Boyle is more of a touchline winger and Popa clearly prefers inverted wingers in his system.

Some will argue that we need something different just in case we needed to change it up, but I just don’t think Popa would have played him.
 
FeedTheBrox said:
I feel sorry for him too, especially after missing out in 2022.

But if you think about it pragmatically, Boyle is more of a touchline winger and Popa clearly prefers inverted wingers in his system.

Some will argue that we need something different just in case we needed to change it up, but I just don’t think Popa would have played him.
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Martin Boyle would have been good as a differential winger option though and it's a shame that he's missing yet another World Cup cycle for the Socceroos.
 
For me, no real surprises in the omissions. I do feel for Boyle after missing the last Cup too. He must be shattered. He has been such a loyal servant and whilst I am really happy that we have Volpato in, I do wonder about the impact of the culture of the team. Boyle is clearly super well-liked and a real character, as evidenced by him sticking around as chief vibes officer last time around. After him giving his all to this qualifying campaign and the last one and then being jettisoned at the 11th hour for a guy that has just decided to declare for us and be parachuted in. I definitely feel for him. I wonder what old heads with Scottish background like Souttar and Burgess are thinking. That said, I think he was the obvious one to make way as a right sided winger. Rowles missing out as a LCB makes sense as we already have Herrington and Burgess. And Borrello shouldn't have been there in the first place. I wonder if maybe Mabil would have made way if McGree was available.

The squad does have good balance and I like that Yengi is there given his unique physique and profile. We need to have that option available.

This is how I think Popovic must see it as his first and second choice (and third for GK) for each position:

GK: Ryan / Izzo / Beach
RCB: Circati / Geria
CB: Souttar / Degenek
LCB: Herrington = Burgess
RWB: Italiano / Trewin
LWB: Bos / Behich
Mid: Irvine / Okon-Engstler
Mid: O'Neill / Devlin
RW: Volpato / Leckie
LW: Metcalfe / Hrustic
FWD: Toure / Irankunda
X Factors: Yengi / Velupillay / Mabil

I am generally pretty happy with how the squad ended up, though must say that I really wish we'd use Irankunda as a winger instead of a striker.
 
FeedTheBrox said:
I feel sorry for him too, especially after missing out in 2022.

But if you think about it pragmatically, Boyle is more of a touchline winger and Popa clearly prefers inverted wingers in his system.

Some will argue that we need something different just in case we needed to change it up, but I just don’t think Popa would have played him.
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I reckon Popa saw Marty as a striker in his system so instead he went for Toure (lucky for mine) & Yengi.
Also, Beach was lucky ahead of Gauci. Devenish-Mears was better than Beach this season.
 
verrelli said:
For me, no real surprises in the omissions. I do feel for Boyle after missing the last Cup too. He must be shattered. He has been such a loyal servant and whilst I am really happy that we have Volpato in, I do wonder about the impact of the culture of the team. Boyle is clearly super well-liked and a real character, as evidenced by him sticking around as chief vibes officer last time around. After him giving his all to this qualifying campaign and the last one and then being jettisoned at the 11th hour for a guy that has just decided to declare for us and be parachuted in. I definitely feel for him. I wonder what old heads with Scottish background like Souttar and Burgess are thinking. That said, I think he was the obvious one to make way as a right sided winger. Rowles missing out as a LCB makes sense as we already have Herrington and Burgess. And Borrello shouldn't have been there in the first place. I wonder if maybe Mabil would have made way if McGree was available.

The squad does have good balance and I like that Yengi is there given his unique physique and profile. We need to have that option available.

This is how I think Popovic must see it as his first and second choice (and third for GK) for each position:

GK: Ryan / Izzo / Beach
RCB: Circati / Geria
CB: Souttar / Degenek
LCB: Herrington = Burgess
RWB: Italiano / Trewin
LWB: Bos / Behich
Mid: Irvine / Okon-Engstler
Mid: O'Neill / Devlin
RW: Volpato / Leckie
LW: Metcalfe / Hrustic
FWD: Toure / Irankunda
X Factors: Yengi / Velupillay / Mabil

I am generally pretty happy with how the squad ended up, though must say that I really wish we'd use Irankunda as a winger instead of a striker.
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Irankunda should be playing 90 minutes each game. It's like 6-7 days between each game so he has enough time to recover. In terms of fitness he has played more minutes than 90% of the squad this past season.

Irankunda and Toure should both start and if you really need to once Toure goes off, than Irankunda can move centrally. I've watch A LOT of Irankunda at Watford and he is still the most exciting and dangerous playing in 85th minute as he is in the 15th minute. He'll play 90 minutes, be quiet for a bit and then after having 80 minutes into the legs, he has 5 explosive shots, dribbles and moments in a 10 minute span late in the game. Yesterday, I think was just an experiment to see if it makes sense for Irankunda to backup Mo but after Metcalfe's and Leckie's lack of output, Irankunda will certainly be a winger first and it's why Yengi's sudden inclusion as a backup 9 makes more sense. Again, doesn't mean Yengi will see minutes but Nestor can always move centrally after Toure comes off, but their biggest asset is playing with each other not replacing each other. Also, you can't be taking much away from yesterday's game in-terms of offensive rotations because there is no way in a World Cup match that Irankunda would only see 10 minutes at the end of the game.
 
Bbouy said:
Irankunda should be playing 90 minutes each game. It's like 6-7 days between each game so he has enough time to recover. In terms of fitness he has played more minutes than 90% of the squad this past season.

Irankunda and Toure should both start and if you really need to once Toure goes off, than Irankunda can move centrally. I've watch A LOT of Irankunda at Watford and he is still the most exciting and dangerous playing in 85th minute as he is in the 15th minute. He'll play 90 minutes, be quiet for a bit and then after having 80 minutes into the legs, he has 5 explosive shots, dribbles and moments in a 10 minute span late in the game. Yesterday, I think was just an experiment to see if it makes sense for Irankunda to backup Mo but after Metcalfe's and Leckie's lack of output, Irankunda will certainly be a winger first and it's why Yengi's sudden inclusion as a backup 9 makes more sense. Again, doesn't mean Yengi will see minutes but Nestor can always move centrally after Toure comes off, but their biggest asset is playing with each other not replacing each other. Also, you can't be taking much away from yesterday's game in-terms of offensive rotations because there is no way in a World Cup match that Irankunda would only see 10 minutes at the end of the game.
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I hope you're right but I am close to certain that Popovic won't start Volpato, Irankunda and Toure as our front three, as much as all the fans would like that. Metcalfe will almost certainly fill a winger role because Popa clearly values him, and if he doesn't, then I reckon Hrustic or even Leckie would. I'm not saying that I agree with it, coz I don't. That's just how I think he operates. If we want Irankunda to start, then that would mean that Volpato won't start. That's what I expect from him anyway.
 
verrelli said:
I hope you're right but I am close to certain that Popovic won't start Volpato, Irankunda and Toure as our front three, as much as all the fans would like that. Metcalfe will almost certainly fill a winger role because Popa clearly values him, and if he doesn't, then I reckon Hrustic or even Leckie would. I'm not saying that I agree with it, coz I don't. That's just how I think he operates. If we want Irankunda to start, then that would mean that Volpato won't start. That's what I expect from him anyway.
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I don't think that means that. Popa yesterday even agreed that Leckie looked physically not up to it in the first-half and complained that in the final-third we kept giving the ball away in the half-spaces i.e Metcalfe and Leckie. I think Volpato will definitely start at some point whether it's against Switzerland and/or during one of the WC matches. It's pretty renowned that he is exactly what we need and judging by Popa's comments, he shares that sentiment. I hope I'm right and that Popa can see what's needed but you may be right that it would put him out of his comfort zone for sure. I'm sure we will get a better understand today after his press conference on what to expect.

Metcalfe has a chance to start, but I doubt we will ever see both Leckie and Metcalfe start together nor Leckie start for the Socceroos again. Yesterday, felt like an experiment and to put some minutes into his legs.
 
Bbouy said:
I don't think that means that. Popa yesterday even agreed that Leckie looked physically not up to it in the first-half and complained that in the final-third we kept giving the ball away in the half-spaces i.e Metcalfe and Leckie. I think Volpato will definitely start at some point whether it's against Switzerland and/or during one of the WC matches. It's pretty renowned that he is exactly what we need and judging by Popa's comments, he shares that sentiment. I hope I'm right and that Popa can see what's needed but you may be right that it would put him out of his comfort zone for sure. I'm sure we will get a better understand today after his press conference on what to expect.

Metcalfe has a chance to start, but I doubt we will ever see both Leckie and Metcalfe start together nor Leckie start for the Socceroos again. Yesterday, felt like an experiment and to put some minutes into his legs.
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I didn't view yesterday as an experiment. I don't think he's still experimenting at this point. I think yesterday was a dress rehearsal for the opening game against Turkiye with his perceived strongest team. He may now reconsider Leckie after seeing what he dished up, but I think in his mind, this was a potential first 11 for the big dance. Obviously he didn't have Volpato available, so maybe it is a straight swap between the two. I still feel like Metcalfe is a more likely starter than Irankunda, as much as that makes he feel slightly ill!
 
verrelli said:
I didn't view yesterday as an experiment. I don't think he's still experimenting at this point. I think yesterday was a dress rehearsal for the opening game against Turkiye with his perceived strongest team. He may now reconsider Leckie after seeing what he dished up, but I think in his mind, this was a potential first 11 for the big dance. Obviously he didn't have Volpato available, so maybe it is a straight swap between the two. I still feel like Metcalfe is a more likely starter than Irankunda, as much as that makes he feel slightly ill!
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Well, he said in the press-conference he used yesterday to get minutes into a player like Leckie's legs and clearly he wasn't good enough. I don't think Popa is that bad of a coach to not straight swap Volpato/Irankunda for Leckie. I think that's a guarantee.

Metcalfe is definitely arguable, maybe against Turkey he is worth having in the lineup for his defensive output, against Paraguay or the USA, Irankunda is much more valuable.

It definitely is still an on-going experiment until the first game and that's evident by the fact that Yengi who wasn't on the bench sporadically made the final 26. It's the first-time a lot of these players had even played together yesterday, of course it's still in the experimental phase because we don't know how it's going to look and clearly they learnt a lot from that game. The present weaknesses and strengths and hopefully how to adapt in future games.
 
Keeper66 said:
What's a differential winger? Is that a winger where his outside leg runs faster than his inside leg when he is making curved runs?
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Martin Boyle would be good as a differential option to fill the winger position for the Socceroos during our World Cup campaign when we need his skillset for certain types of opposition.
 
verrelli said:
I didn't view yesterday as an experiment. I don't think he's still experimenting at this point. I think yesterday was a dress rehearsal for the opening game against Turkiye with his perceived strongest team. He may now reconsider Leckie after seeing what he dished up, but I think in his mind, this was a potential first 11 for the big dance. Obviously he didn't have Volpato available, so maybe it is a straight swap between the two. I still feel like Metcalfe is a more likely starter than Irankunda, as much as that makes he feel slightly ill!
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Whilst I think around 8 of yesterdays starting 11 will start at some point in the 3 games I think he was deliberately putting match minutes into the legs of those who had injury interrupted seasons. Popovic seems to like rotating players. Has he ever had less than 4/5 changes between matches since he started coaching the national team?
 
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