The Suba-roos (Australian Men's Team)

Will be interesting to see how much of a threat Indonesia will pose at a fairly packed SFS.

Indonesia, with the home advantage, did manage to keep the Socceroos to a 0-0 draw last time they met.

Just tuned in. 3-0 at HT.

M. Boyle (PG) 18'
N. Velupillay 20'
J. Irvine 34' 

Apparently Indonesia really dominated the first 10 mins, and blew a chance to take a lead, missing a penalty.

coochiee

Just tuned in. 3-0 just before HT.

M. Boyle (PG) 18'
N. Velupillay 20'
J. Irvine 34' 

And Indonesia had a penalty awarded before Australia's but it hit the post. Also nearly opened the scoring just before that with a header from a free kick, which required a good save from Ryan.

Just saw your edit.

Finished a 5-1  win for Oztraylia. 2nd in the group may come down to GD, so a good night for them. Only them and Japan have a +GD
https://www.socceroos.com.au/video/australia-v-indonesia-highlights-fifa-world-cup-2026-third-round-qualifier

Japan beat Bahrain 2-0 in Saitama.

If Saudi (6 pts) verus China (6 pts) later on is a draw, Socceroos (10 pts, +5 GD) will open a 3 point gap on 3rd, ahead of a winnable game for them in China (-10 GD).

Saudis with a tough game in Japan post hosting China tonight. So starting to look good for Aussie.

Saudi beat China, 1-0. Chinese with a player sent off in the 46th min, and Saudis score a few mins later

Means Socceroos (10 pts, 2nd) keep that 1 pt gap to Saudis (9 pts, 3rd).
Both teams now travel for their Round 8 game, but Australia will have it easier in China, than Saudi in Japan.

Regardless of those results qualification will come down to the last two Rounds (9 & 10) in June.

https://us.soccerway.com/international/asia/wc-qualifying-asia/2026/3rd-round/r70808/

HattyCW

Will be interesting to see how much of a threat Indonesia will pose at a fairly packed SFS.

Indonesia, with the home advantage, did manage to keep the Socceroos to a 0-0 draw last time they met.

Indonesia - sacked their successful South Korean coach Shin (coach of S. Korea in the last World Cup) in January and appointed Patrick Kluivert.
A risky move - Kluivert doesn't have a great coaching record and tends to get jobs more because he's a big name.
 The Indonesian FA calculated that because Indonesia have seven players of Dutch heritage who have come up through Dutch football, that Kluivert might be better able to communicate with them and the other foreign-born players. Five of the squad play in the Eredivisie - Twente, PEC Zwolle etc., three in Belgium's top tier, plus two even in Italy (Serie A, Serie B), one for Wolves in the Premier League, two at Oxford Utd and one at Swansea City in the Championship. Only seven play in Indonesia. A strong squad, with more players playing in strong leagues than the All Whites:

And still the Socceroos beat them 5-1!

Though the final scoreline flattered Australia. Would have been a different game if Indonesia had converted their early penalty chance.

From Tuesday night NZ time. If the Socceroos (2nd, 10 pts) win in China and Saudi Arabia (3rd, 9 pts) lose in Japan - Autralia will be in the box seat to qualify.

Potential spanner in the works. Will already qualified Japan rotate their squad against the Saudis? Though I imagine the Blue Samuari backups are still top players, and likely motivated to push for WC spots.

If Uzbekistan can upset Iran, they would be within touching distance of qualifying for their first WC. They would be at least 6 pts ahead of both QAE & Qatar with just the 2 games to play in June. When admittedly they face those same 2 teams. Fingers crossed for the Uzbeks. Hope Qatar miss out.


Group A
Kyrgyz Republic (3 pts) v Qatar (10)
IR Iran (19) v Uzbekistan (16)
Korea DPR (2) v UAE (10)

Group B
Korea Republic (15 pts) v Jordan (12)
Kuwait (5) v Oman (7)
Palestine (3) v Iraq (12)

Group C
Japan (19 pts) v Saudi Arabia (9)
China PR (6) v Australia (10)
Indonesia (6) v Bahrain (6)

I must be getting soft at my older age.  Now that we've qualified, I'm almost hoping OZ makes it now...

Likely the best chance of the AWs playing a game at home at next year prior the World Cup. Two match H&A series against also qualified Socceroos.

Providing they ain't in our WC pool!

This Australia team is not that impressive, is it a 2nd team? I might be out of the loop.

But seriously, our current team would beat this lot.

Ninja

This Australia team is not that impressive, is it a 2nd team? I might be out of the loop.

But seriously, our current team would beat this lot.

They have alot of injuries. We would need our EPL striker and some luck to be a chance. It's been detailed elsewhere but they are better than us. Far greater depth. The rankings and our/their recent results show it. They draw 2-2 against Mexico stateside, we make the the same trip and lose easily 3-0.

Poppa has them grinding out results. They had a 1-1 draw in Japan. I'd be ecstatic if we got within 1 goal of the Blue Samurai away.

Irvine (in great form) has them up 1-0 up in front of a loud 70,000 crowd in Hangzhou.

Edit - Velupillay makes it 2-0 with a gift from the Chinese keeper.

Edit 2 - Socceroos up 2-0 at HT and cruising. Simon Hill calls China 'awful'.

0-0 at HT between Japan & Saudi. Watched last 20 mins of the half. Japan dominating. It's cliched but they are rapid and their technical skills pretty to watch. Just not the final product to trouble the Saudi keeper yet.

Saudi need to try go for the win in the 2nd half with Australia, 2-0 up in China. A draw no use to Saudi as things stand. Socceroos would go 3 pts ahead, with only the 2 pool games in June to go.

coochiee

Ninja

This Australia team is not that impressive, is it a 2nd team? I might be out of the loop.

But seriously, our current team would beat this lot.

They have alot of injuries. We would need our EPL striker and some luck to be a chance. It's been detailed elsewhere but they are better than us. Far greater depth. The rankings and our/their recent results show it. They draw 2-2 against Mexico stateside, we make the the same trip and lose easily 3-0.

Poppa has them grinding out results. They had a 1-1 draw in Japan. I'd be ecstatic if we got within 1 goal of the Blue Samurai away.

Irvine (in great form) has them up 1-0 up in front of a big loud crowd in Hangzhou.

Edit - Velupillay makes it 2-0 with a gift from the Chinese keeper.

Edit 2 - Socceroos up 2-0 at HT and cruising. Simon Hill calls China 'awful'.

Appreciate the depth, but this current lineup is mostly A-league players. We for sure would beat them with our first 11.

5 of their starting team is A league players… which shows that it not a bad level at all.. Their reserve striker plays in J league meanwhile ours can’t get a game for Mansfield. Their game vs Indonesia the other day had only 2 a league players starting, so popa is rotating

Ninja

coochiee

Ninja

This Australia team is not that impressive, is it a 2nd team? I might be out of the loop.

But seriously, our current team would beat this lot.

They have alot of injuries. We would need our EPL striker and some luck to be a chance. It's been detailed elsewhere but they are better than us. Far greater depth. The rankings and our/their recent results show it. They draw 2-2 against Mexico stateside, we make the the same trip and lose easily 3-0.

Poppa has them grinding out results. They had a 1-1 draw in Japan. I'd be ecstatic if we got within 1 goal of the Blue Samurai away.

Irvine (in great form) has them up 1-0 up in front of a big loud crowd in Hangzhou.

Edit - Velupillay makes it 2-0 with a gift from the Chinese keeper.

Edit 2 - Socceroos up 2-0 at HT and cruising. Simon Hill calls China 'awful'.

Appreciate the depth, but this current lineup is mostly A-league players. We for sure would beat them with our first 11.

Ninja you are smoking crack. Last time we played them they cantered to a 2-0 win in the UK. Did we have a shot on target?

Our last 4 games against bigger teams (US, Mexico, Tunisia & Egypt) have produced 1 goal, that being a fuke one off Ben Waine's face.

The 4 before that (Ireland, Greece, Australia & Congo), two goals with 1 being a Wood pen. So you have solely Garbett's goal of note against Eire in 8 meaningful games!

We have potentially our best ever (certainly prettiest) national team, but to date they have really done very little of note.

Tonight Australia has a bunch of tough, experienced nuts in China. It ain't like you say ALM dominiated. Starting X1 players in 

Ligue One 
Serbian league
J League
EPL
SPL x2
ALM x4
Bundesliga 

No one there in the Austrian or Portuguese 2nd tiers.

Behich & Borrello both now in the ALM are hugely experienced. Plenty of time in Euro leagues.

Ryan Teague & Velupillay both at 23 I think their youngest starters. Most of them late 20s/early 30s

Finishes 0-0 in Japan. So Saudi (3rd) go to 10 pts, same as the Socceroos (2nd) for the moment.

But with 20 mins left, Aus still lead China 2-0. Result stands they would finish the window 3 pts in front, and in the box seat for the 2nd pool qualification spot in this phase.

In June first up the Socceroos play Japan (H), whilst Saudi have Bahrain (A).
Then in the last Round Australia travel to Riyadh in potentially a huge game. It's unlikely they will need to win 5-0 there to to make a WC!


Edit - 34 yr old Mitch Duke & 32 yrs young Cáceres come on.
Edit 2 - finishes 2-0 win for Aus

We would not beat Australia.

Glad to see they have taken a massive step towards qualification with that win in China overnight.

We could beat them. It’s football
But we would be big underdogs. Likely always will be given the population, resourcing and playing number disparities 

Been then we will underdogs against any top 40 team

We have an inferiority complex against Australia in every sport apart from rugby.

We don’t play regularly but the All Whites have two wins against Australia in my lifetime, and they were not full strength Australia teams we were facing.

The Black Caps have two test wins against Australia in my lifetime, and I don’t remember the first because I was 3 years old.

That’s the biggest reason I don’t think we would beat Australia. We don’t know how to, nor do we believe we can do.

Apples & oranges though. Rugby is a niche sport in Aussie played mostly in private schools in NSW & QLD. NZ has I think more rugger players than Oz

Cricket and football (soocer) reach all over Australia. The are the only two big codes on the continent that have a truly national reach. There would be more football players in NSW alone, than NZ. Same cricket. 

Though cricket is such a uniquely mental game, that yeah I do agree the Baggy Greens do have some sort of mental hold over the Black Caps. After all yes they went to India (with all it's resources & huge player base) and amazingly won 3-0. But again cricket is up there with golf as played alot between the ears.

With the Socceroos (FIFA ranking 26th) we beat them no more or less than any other top 30 ranked team.

I don't agree with the whole population argument - lots of smaller nations are better than Aussie - why can't we be.

Also, Football has more competition for young players than we do - AFL is huge as is league which barely pull and players here in NZ.

Get the right systems in place, fund it properly and opportunities will arise.

I'll take the bait. Using the flawed FIFA rankings these nations are all smaller in popn size than Aus but higher ranked than the Socceroos at 26th

Portugal (6th), Netherlands (7th), Belgium (8th), Uruguay  (11th), Croatia (13th), Senegal (17th), Switzerland (20th), Denmark (21st),  Austria (22nd), Ecuador (24th).

So you are either talking -
wealthy European countries where football is the dominant team sport. Long standing professional leagues, lots of opportunities for young players coming through. Open European borders etc. Some like Austria currently with perhaps an almost one off 'golden generation'??

poorer countries like Senegal & Ecuador that are doing well with their talent pathways?? Senegal I imagine tapping into their French based diaspora

really small countries that just have excellent talent ID pathways, coaching systems etc. Uruguay & Croatia. But you still have football as the dominant team sport.

I guess NZ can look to the latter two. But that's a whole other debate.
2 NZ teams in the OFC pro league, hopefully one day a 3rd A League in the Sth Island, and Auckland FC's academy sytem getting up and going will all help.

https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men

Stand by my call that our best 11 would be favourites versus the lineup that Australia put out last night.

Midfield combo of Stamenic, Bell, Garbett (yes I know he had a poor last 2 games, but I believe he has a very high ceiling), Singh is way stronger on aggregate than Teague, Boyle, Irvine (yes Irvine is a step above the others), Vellupilay (in my opinion).

Then Wood up top versus Borrello (again, no comparison - top PL forward versus an A-league player).

At the back, Australia probably slightly edges it (again based on last nights lineup), but we've got Cacace and Bindon.

Again, I am not sure how you consider a team favourite when that same team struggled to create any chances or score a goal for 45 minutes vs. New Caledonia..

Ninja

Stand by my call that our best 11 would be favourites versus the lineup that Australia put out last night.

Midfield combo of Stamenic, Bell, Garbett (yes I know he had a poor last 2 games, but I believe he has a very high ceiling), Singh is way stronger on aggregate than Teague, Boyle, Irvine (yes Irvine is a step above the others), Vellupilay (in my opinion).

Then Wood up top versus Borrello (again, no comparison - top PL forward versus an A-league player).

At the back, Australia probably slightly edges it (again based on last nights lineup), but we've got Cacace and Bindon.

🚨 BREAKING from Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay:

"Nectar Triantis (22) has been called up for two countries now - he's been called up for Greece and Australia." 🇦🇺🇬🇷 pic.twitter.com/1hb7vUL8OL

— AusFootHQ (@ALeagueHQ) May 23, 2025

Would be a big loss for Australia that.

Follows hot on the heels of Anthony Pavlesic (Bayern Munich) acquiring Croatian citizenship and choosing Croatia over Australia too. 😬

Early Socceroos training camp squad named for Socceroos.

Includes guys who's club seasons have already finished. Proper final squad naming sometime next week. They have big games against Japan (H) & Saudi (A) in this June window.

https://www.socceroos.com.au/news/subway-socceroos-training-camp-squad-update

https://www.socceroos.com.au/news/subway-socceroos-training-camp-squad-update-circati

The Subway Socceroos’ official squad for the June FIFA Men’s International Window will be announced on Sunday, 1 June.

Australia is set to face Japan at Perth Stadium, Perth on Thursday, 5 June (kick-off 7.00pm local / 9.00pm AEST) and Saudi Arabia at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Jeddah on Tuesday, 10 June (9.15pm local / 4.15am AEST – Wednesday, 11 June).

9 ALM players named. Jackson Irvine a big out for them for some huge games against Japan & Saudi.

Jack Iredale was in the training campo but didn't make the final cut.

Australia in the UEFA FRIENDSHIP CUP for top u-18 sides.
ALL GAMES IN THIS TOURNAMENT ARE FREE WHERE NO ONE HAS THE BROADCASTING RIGHTS.
I.E. NZ !!!!!!
Australia v Argentina
TONIGHT 8.30 PM NZT
 LIVE FOR FREE ON OFFICIAL UEFA WEBSITE AND APP:
https://uefa.tv/schedule
About the tournament:
https://www.uefa.com/uefafriendshipcup/

UEFA.TV
I have the app on my TV via the Google Play store 
Search for "UEFA.TV"
Lots of free content on the website and app.
Highhlights of all European club football - Champs Lge, Europa etc.
and one full game from each round "Game of the Round" (including semis etc.)
The Champs Lge Final will be up there in full soon.

Socceroos a strong chance to qualify in Perth. Already qualified Japan have turned up with an understrength squad. Though any Blue Samurai team is strong. A Socceroos bogey team, they haven't lost to Oz in 16 years.

But if Aus do beat Japan and Saudi Arabia fail to beat Bahrain, the Socceroos are qualified. A draw Optus would also be enough, should Saudi Arabia fall to Bahrain and Indonesia do not beat China PR in Jakarta.

They ******** jammed it!!!  I’m almost pleased for them.  Don’t know if it’s possible - but I’d love to be drawn in the same group as them next year…it would be huge!

90th min winner to put them on the cusp of qualifying for the World Cup

90TH MINUTE. AZIZ BEHICH 🥶

A goal worth waiting 13 years for 😉

🎥 @10FootballAU #Socceroos #AUSvJPN pic.twitter.com/1lGtevNgoF

— Subway Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 5, 2025

 

Cracking winner from Behich.

Great turnaround from Australia after a poor start to this round of qualifiers.

Saudi (13 pts, 0 GD) won 2-0 in Bahrain, but Australia (16 pts, +8 GD) now basically on the plane to North America next year

They just need to avoid defeat in Saudi in a few days, by 8 goals or more!!
The Saudis should watch Khalil Media's videos of their 5-0 shellacking by the AWs in 1981 to give themselves hope!!

https://www.socceroos.com.au/news/behich-stunner-sees-subway-socceroos-defeat-japan-1-0

The result means that - if Australia avoid defeat by a significant margin against Saudi Arabia next week - they will finish second in Group C, and therefore qualify for their sixth successive World Cup.

5 goals. as any goals work for one team, and against the other team.

Hard to see a Popovic team conceeding more than a couple. 

Ah yes of course.
Wonder what the tie breaker is, if Saudi won 4-0?