Full banana v USA

Home kit for all 3 games otherwise

Am doing a play through of Socceroos matches (where I actually play) for the lulz before I do my sim

Australia 1-2 Turkey
USA 0-1 Paraguay
USA 0-0 Australia
Turkey 0-0 Paraguay
Turkey 1-1 USA
Paraguay 0-2 Australia

We go through as runners up on head to head over Paraguay,

However I need to aim the groups I didn’t fit in the first set of 8 to determine the knockout bracket

A Breakdown of World Cup Squads
Before diving into the statistics, it is worth outlining the methodology used for this analysis.

Each player has been assigned to the club they most recently represented prior to the conclusion of the 2025–26 season, as well as the league in which that club competed during the 2025–26 campaign. This means that players contracted to clubs such as Burnley, Mallorca or Pari Nizhny Novgorod have been classified as playing in the top division of their respective league systems, regardless of any promotion or relegation that may have occurred after the season ended. The same approach has been applied to clubs that earned promotion.

For clubs that compete in a different country from where they are geographically located, such as Wrexham and Wellington Phoenix, players have been assigned according to the football association with which the club is registered rather than the club's physical location.

Given that 455 different clubs are represented across the World Cup squads, determining the geographic location of every club would have been a substantial undertaking. To ensure consistency and practicality, all clubs have instead been allocated to the country in which their league is officially registered.
I have not used AI except for tidying up my terrible grammar and writing skills, so if there is an error, let me know.

2026 World Cup Squads: The Numbers Behind the Tournament
The squads for the 2026 World Cup have been finalised (barring a single Canadian injury replacement) and features 48 nations with 1,248 players from 455 clubs. I like spreadsheets and stats, so I decided to create one to find out where all these footballers play and how Australia and the A-League compare.

A Look at the Confederations
As expected, UEFA-based clubs dominate this year’s World Cup squads, providing 857 players, which accounts for 69% of all participants. More surprising, however, is the AFC’s contribution of 194 players (16%), making it the second-largest supplier of talent. In fact, the AFC’s total is almost equal to the combined player representation from CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF and OFC.

Country Stats
Among the participating nations, England is supplying the largest number of World Cup players, with 205 players drawn from the top five tiers of its league system. This represents 16.5% of all players selected for the tournament and 43 of the 48 countries that qualified. The vast majority come from the English Premier League, with every club contributing at least four players to World Cup squads.

Germany ranks second with 109 players, followed by France and Spain with 86 players each. Saudi Arabia rounds out the top five, contributing 49 players. Australia sits in 21st place, with 15 players selected from the A-League.

At the other end of the scale, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cabo Verde, Canada, Curaçao, DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, New Zealand and Senegal are not supplying any players from their domestic leagues despite having qualified for the tournament.

Among nations that did not qualify for the World Cup, Italy is the largest contributor, supplying 71 players to participating countries. The United Arab Emirates follows with 15 players, ahead of Denmark (14), Greece (13) and Russia (12).

Several other nations also have a notable presence at the tournament. The United States is supplying 48 players, while Brazil and Egypt are contributing 32 and 20 players respectively.

Home-Grown Talent
The balance between domestically based and overseas-based players varies significantly across this year’s World Cup squads. While some nations draw heavily from their domestic competitions, others rely almost entirely on players competing abroad.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the most domestically focused nations, with more than 96% of their players representing clubs within their own league systems. England also maintains a strong domestic core, sourcing 81% of its squad from English clubs. However, this marks a shift from previous tournaments, with five members of the Three Lions squad now playing overseas.

Australia, meanwhile, has selected five A-League-based players, accounting for almost one-fifth of the Socceroos squad.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, football powerhouses such as Argentina and Croatia, along with Switzerland, source virtually all of their players from foreign leagues, reflecting the global nature of the modern game.

Nine nations have selected squads comprised entirely of players based outside their own football federations. Among them are Uruguay, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, illustrating the extent to which talent from many countries is now developed and showcased abroad.

League Stats
The English Premier League is comfortably the largest contributor to this year’s World Cup, supplying 163 players. It is also the only league in the world in which every club has at least one player participating in the tournament. Germany’s Bundesliga follows with 101 players, ahead of Spain’s La Liga (80), France’s Ligue 1 (79), and Italy’s Serie A (66). Remarkably, these five leagues have provided players to all but five qualified nation (Curaçao, Iran, Iraq Panama and Qatar).

Australia’s A-League ranks 25th globally with 15 World Cup participants. While this makes it the highest-ranked league in East Asia, it is only the equal fifth-largest contributor within the AFC, trailing the Saudi Pro League (48), Qatar Stars League (29), Persian Gulf Pro League (18), and Uzbekistan Super League (16).

One of the more notable outliers is England’s Championship. Despite being a second-tier competition, it has supplied 36 World Cup players, the highest total of any second division league and the ninth highest of any league worldwide. Its contribution exceeds several prominent top-flight competitions, including the Eredivisie (33), Brazil’s Série A (32), and Portugal’s Primeira Liga (27).

The World Cup’s reach extends well beyond the elite professional leagues. Haiti goalkeeper Josué Duverger plays for Cosmos Koblenz in Germany’s Rheinlandliga, the sixth tier of German football. New Zealand defender Tommy Smith represents Braintree Town, which recently competed in England’s National League, while Egypt’s 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim plays for Barcelona B in Spain’s Segunda Federación, the country’s fourth tier.



Club Numbers
Several clubs will see significant portions of their squads depart for international duty. Manchester City leads the way, contributing almost an entire matchday squad to the tournament with 19 players. Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal tops the non-UEFA clubs with 12 players participating at the World Cup, equal to Manchester United and two more than Real Madrid (10).

Flamengo from Brazil is the highest contributor from CONMEBOL with 9 players, as did Al Ahly from Egypt who was CAF’s top club. Mexico’s Guadalajara top CONCACAF’s rankings with 5 players.

Although the OFC have not sent any participants to the World Cup, the top contributor from the A-league are from New Zealand clubs Auckland FC with 5 players, cracking the top 10 AFC clubs by World Cup participation, and also Wellington Phoenix with 3 players. Melbourne City is the top contributor from an Australian based club with 3 players participating.

Nation Team Experience
No squad arrives with more international experience than Panama, whose players have accumulated 1,486 international caps between them. The most experienced squads are:

1. Panama – 1,486 caps
2. Qatar – 1,397 caps
3. Argentina – 1,224 caps
4. Mexico – 1,195 caps
5. Iran – 1,149 caps

European heavyweights also feature prominently, with Croatia (1,121), Portugal (1,119), Switzerland (1,089) and Belgium (1,047) all surpassing the 1,000-cap mark. Bosnia and Herzegovina have included the most number of potential debutants with 3 players yet to play for their national team.

At the individual level, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo remains the tournament's most experienced player with 226 international appearances.

Youth vs Experience
The average player at the tournament is 27.5 years old. The Socceroos will field a comparatively young squad with an average age of 26.9 years (16th youngest squad), the oldest player being Aziz Behich at 35 years old (our only player born in 1990) and youngest player being Lucas Herrington at 18 years old (born yesterday).

The Socceroos will also be fielding the second most players 23 years old or under with 8 squad members. Compare this with the Uruguay’s squad where every player bar one is over the age of 24.

Iran have selected the most number of players aged over 30 with 16 members of their squad potentially looking to retire of knee soreness after the tournament. The USA and Ecuador have the fewest number over players over the age of 30 with just 3 players. The youngest squads are:

• Ivory Coast – 25.4 years average age
• Ecuador – 25.6
• Morocco – 25.9
• Tunisia – 26.2
• Spain – 26.2

Meanwhile, the oldest squads are:

• Panama – 30.0 years average age
• Iran – 29.8
• Colombia – 29.6
• Cape Verde – 29.2
• Qatar – 28.8

The oldest player in the tournament is Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon at 43 years of age, while Mexico's Gilberto Mora is the youngest at just 17.

Oh....

Next friendly game
England - New Zealand
They could get murdered there

mkxx said:

Oh....

Next friendly game
England - New Zealand
They could get murdered there
View attachment 7353

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wow - and from those stats, everything looks relatively even except goals/shots on target. Wood started, but I'm not sure how "first team" the rest of the team was

Mr Cleansheets said:

Did anyone think this remotely amusing?

I expect better from Betoota. It's like a couple of AFL-obsessed 12 year olds hacked their account and wrote it for them.

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It's like a kids book with some safe-edgy language thrown in to appeal to a certain type of person...

vanlassen said:

Rank	League	Participants
1	English Premier League	163
2	German Bundesliga	101
3	Spanish La Liga	80
4	French Ligue 1	79
5	Italian Serie A	66
6	Saudi Pro League	48
7	USA MLS	46
8	Turkish Süper Lig	43
9	English Championship	36
10	Dutch Eredivisie	33

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Other than six, seven and eight that’s pretty much the order of the seven best leagues in the world. The SPL is boosted by Saudi’s qualification. The MLS is good but I think leagues like the Eredivisie and 2. Bundesliga are better.

vanlassen said:

Australia’s A-League ranks 25th globally with 15 World Cup participants. While this makes it the highest-ranked league in East Asia, it is only the equal fifth-largest contributor within the AFC, trailing the Saudi Pro League (48), Qatar Stars League (29), Persian Gulf Pro League (18), and Uzbekistan Super League (16).

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On paper it sounds odd but when you think about it the A-League is ahead of the J1 League and K-League because of the All Whites qualifying and Tony Popović’s tendency to select A-League players. All 15 of those A-League players play for the All Whites or Socceroos. On the other hand, the vast majority of Japan and South Korea’s squads play overseas. Of the ones that rank above us almost all of them are for their home countries where almost all of them play domestically.

JS96 said:

Kudos to the ESPN crew and the Round Ball podcast for the fantastic content so far. Last few tournament have been painstaking scraping through twitter for some stuff due to the slowness and laziness of official channels.

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They're quality

HonestSpursFan said:

On paper it sounds odd but when you think about it the A-League is ahead of the J1 League and K-League because of the All Whites qualifying and Tony Popović’s tendency to select A-League players. All 15 of those A-League players play for the All Whites or Socceroos. On the other hand, the vast majority of Japan and South Korea’s squads play overseas. Of the ones that rank above us almost all of them are for their home countries where almost all of them play domestically.

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Very true. I wouldn't be so harsh on Popovic's though. The A-League is represented only in the Socceroos and All Whites, with the 5 players for the Aussies and 10 for the Kiwis. Leckie and Behich are the two oldest players in the Socceroos team and it makes sense for them to look for a league to finish their careers in whilst also being able to be competitive for the national team, and Okon and Beach are still pretty young and you would expect to see them overseas this year or next. Velupillay is a mystery to me. In any case, the players selected had genuine competition for their positions.

Whereas the New Zealand A-League players did not have such competition and the A-League players were really the best on offer.

The K-League will have 7 players featuring in their national team and the J1-League will have 5 which is on the same level as the A-League's representation in the Socceroos. It is also interesting that each league will only feature in in two nations at the World Cup; the J1League (Japan & Australia), K-League (Korea Rep. & Jordan ) and A-League (Australia & and New Zealand.

socceroosmad said:

They're quality

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Far out that Hatzi bloke needs to try a little less though true...