Preparing for their sixth straight appearance at the FIFA World Cup, Australia are becoming something of a mainstay on the global stage
But after the success of 2022, making the Round of 16 for just the second time and pushing Argentina all the way in a thriller in Qatar, what does 2026 offer for Tony Popovic’s side?
Our team offered their views as part of our FIFA World Cup preview series on The Asian Game Podcast.
Excitement from the new generation – Martin Lowe
I think from an Australian perspective it looks a bit more positive from the outside. I think if we take our mind back to 2022, and I was just looking through the team that lost to Argentina in the knockout phases, and compare it to the squad that’s on paper at the moment, I think it’s a lot more exciting nowadays.
I think Graham Arnold got a lot of stick back in 2022, but there probably wasn’t the quality of players there, there were a lot of functional players, and I think they’re probably only losing Aaron Mooy as one of the really key players from that generation. And as much as this group is transitioning into a younger phase, there is a lot of excitement, and I think, as a Norwich fan, Mohammed Toure has been an absolute blast for the last six months, and I think he’s coming into this one that has in really good form, alongside obviously Nestory Irankunda (etc), so you’ve got a lot of excitement going forward there.
I suppose one of the issues of the expanded World Cup from an Asian perspective is that World Cup qualification became more of a non-event, I think, over that respect. So, when you had nations that kind of coasted through and didn’t have any dramas, they’re probably at this stage probably looking at themselves thinking we should have probably done more with that time, because Australia changed coaches and probably had that dip during that time.
I think it was a natural opportunity to actually think about how do we want to approach this in a more tangible place. So, again, all three of these nations (Korea Republic, Qatar and Australia) have got host nations in their group, so in effect, you’ve avoided the big names in terms of the seeded side of things.
Not that USA is going to be an easy game, similar from a Turkey and Paraguay aspect, but I think even from this group, I think none of them are fearful opponents, but all of them will probably underestimate what Australia brings to it, and I think that raises the opportunity for another run, at least outside of the group, for them.
Are the kids up to it? – Michael Church
We certainly saw during qualifying that the team doesn’t really have a great deal of creativity within it. I mean, that might change with some of the selections that Tony Popovic has made and fitness and everything else, but I think, with Nestory Irankunda… look, I think he’s a fantastic player. I think he’s got a huge amount of talent, a huge amount of potential. My only reservation with Irankunda is seeing time and time again, Australian football fans, Australian media jump on to the shoulders of a promising young player, and that young player struggle to handle that expectation, and that expectation push him down.
We saw it with Garang Kuol four years ago. The very fact is not just is he not in the squad, it’s no surprise that he’s not even anywhere near the squad. And so, that for me would be the concern longer term with Irankunda.
Now, I think he’s shown already with what he’s done with Watford this season, and just with his general personality, he’s quite an effervescent kid, that I don’t think that that’s going to be the same problem for him as we’re seeing with Kuol. I think it’s fair to assume that he will be a very important player for the Socceroos; he provides a drive and a directness and a robustness and a physicality and a creativity that is probably largely lacking elsewhere in the squad.
He’s quick, he’s strong, he’s a very talented lad, I suspect Popovic might handle him a little bit with kid gloves, he might try to protect them, might be wary of overexposing him, and for me the question is whether he can handle the exposure as and when he gets it.
But he’s certainly shown so far to this point that he has the talent, he has the ability, and I think he has the mental fortitude to be able to do it, so I think he’s going to be very important for Australia.
The future is now for Australia – Paul Williams
Australia loves a wonder kid, and we’ve had two at the past two World Cups (Nestory) Irankunda is where they are at in their respective careers at this point in time. Arzani and Kuol both came in off the back of a handful of good A-League performances.
Irankunda has had years of good A-League performances, got the move to Watford, and coming in off the back of a promising debut season in the Championship. So, I think he’s already got a little bit more pedigree than those (two) have.
I know (Scott) mentioned before you have a different view of what’s young and what’s not, but in comparison to the rest of the Asian nations, there is a lot of young players, under the age of 23 that is in this squad, which shows that there is not just the potential for this tournament, but you look ahead to Asian Cup in six months time, you look ahead to World Cup in 2030 as well.
I’ll just run through some of them, some may not be in the final squad, but certainly some will be. Jordy Bos is only 23 and had a fantastic season at Feyenoord (and) looks set for a big move somewhere in probably the next six to 12 months.
Alessandro Circati in Serie A with Parma as well, again looks like he’s set for a big move. I’m big on Lucas Herrington. Popa (Popovic) is more risk averse, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Lucas Herrington started at least one of the games at the World Cup. He’s only 18 years of age. Paul Okon-Engstler may start in midfield with the injury concerns that we’ve got, he’s 21.
Irankunda is 20, Mo Toure (is) 22. Another one who probably won’t make this squad, but is one for the future, is in the pre camp at the moment, Dylan Leonard, who’s a central defender on the books of Schalke, made his Bundesliga debut at the end of the season. I don’t think he’ll make this squad, but again, is one for the future (and) you could have Leonard, who’s 18, and Herrington, who’s 18, as future central defensive pairings for the next decade.
So, I’m bullish about this generation of Australian talent coming through as potentially the most exciting that we’ve had since that golden generation 20 years ago.
Excitement at both ends of the pitch – Scott McIntyre
Outside of Irankunda, who I think we all agree could be a real generational talent, the one that really excites me is Lucas Herrington as well.
Coming through at Brisbane, he always had the frame, (and) the size about him, and a comfort on the ball, but he was a little bit uncertain in some of those early appearances, both in terms of imposing himself on the game and using the physicality within the game as well. But we saw maybe a surprise call up to the March friendlies, and he started both of those FIFA Series games, and he started, I believe, every match in the MLS this year at Colorado as well.
And the important thing for those two March matches, he looked at home, he looked comfortable, and he looked like, even within 12 months, his game had really come on so far. It’s worth remembering when he did make that debut, it was Ruben Zadkovich, who was his coach at the time at Brisbane, that said that he’s the best young Australian defender, maybe even said young Australian footballer anywhere, and a lot of people were raising their eyebrows.
That comment was probably proven correct, and just on the basis of how comfortable he looked in those March matches… we know it’s going to be a three anyway, so you think Circati is one of them, probably Cam Burgess is one, and then, why not (Herrington)?
I’m almost as excited about his potential as I am with Irankunda, I think the group is very manageable as well. So, there’s no reason why Australia can’t sneak through into at least one of the third place teams to progress.
But I think a lot of it is going to come down to, at some point, they need to score goals, and obviously Mo Toure has been doing good, but it’s maybe the first time in a long time that we’ve gone into a tournament where we haven’t had a real star No.9, all the early guys from the early part of this century, and even through to someone like a Mitch Duke at the last tournament.
So it’s a bit of an untested option, and the depth outside of that is a little bit terrifying. It’s almost non-existent, so there’s going to be a lot of pressure and expectation on him to lead the line and get those goals, but I think it’s really all going to come down to Irankunda, (as) the one that’s going to need probably not just to create and set up for others, but probably to score himself as well.
We’ve seen he poses a real threat from set piece situations as well, and he’s also got quite a nice celebration that might go down in the Michael Jackson-inspired one in the US. But yeah, I think at both ends of the pitch those younger players could really be important options.
