Socceroos World Cup Qualifiers Socceroos V Bangladesh/Palestine

[giggler99]

Kicking off our 2026 World Cup campaign its a long road ahead but hopefully a smooth campaign to qualify for our sixth straight Worlds Cup finals. first up a home much against Bangladesh which shouldn't hold us any worries than an away trip to Kuwait to take on Palestine.

World Cup Qualifier Match 1

Australia V Bangladesh

When:
Thursday 16th November 2023

Time:
8:00pm ESDT, 7:00pm EST, 7:30pm CSDT, 5:00pm WST

Where:
Melbourne rectangular Stadium (AAMI Park)

TV Broadcast: Network 10, 10 HD Streaming: Paramount Plus


World Cup Qualifier Match 2

Palestine V Australia

When:
Wednesday 22 November 2023

Time:
1:00am ESDT 12:00am EST, 12:30am CSDT, 10:00pm WST

Where:
Jaber Al-Ahmed International Stadium, Kuwait

TV Broadcast: Network 10, 10 HD Streaming: Paramount Plus


Socceroos Squad:
​

Name	Current Club, Country	‘A’ Caps (Goals)	Junior Club (Member Federation/Country)
Keanu BACCUS	St Mirren FC, Scotland	10 (0)	Parklea FC / Football New South Wales
Aziz BEHICH	Melbourne City FC, Australia	61 (2)	Meadow Park SC / Football Victoria
Brandon BORRELLO	Western Sydney Wanderers FC, Australia	9 (1)	Modbury Jets SC / Football South Australia
Jordy BOS	K.V.C Westerlo, Belgium	4 (0)	Hoppers Crossing SC / Football Victoria
Martin BOYLE	Hibernian FC, Scotland	22 (6)	Lewis United FC / Montrose FC (Scotland)
Cameron BURGESS	Ipswich Town FC, England	2 (0)	ECU Joondalup / Football West
Alessandro CIRCATI	Parma Calcio 1913, Italy	1 (0)	Perth Soccer Club / Football West
Mitchell DUKE	FC Machida Zelvia, Japan	30 (10)	Liverpool Rangers SC / Football New South Wales
Joe GAUCI (Gk)	Adelaide United FC, Australia	1 (0)	Cumberland United FC / Football South Australia
Craig GOODWIN	Al Wehda FC, Saudi Arabia	18 (2)	Munno Para City FC / Football South Australia
Jackson IRVINE	FC St Pauli, Germany	58 (9)	Ringwood City SC / Football Victoria
Massimo LUONGO	Ipswich Town FC, England	44 (6)	APIA Leichhardt FC / Football New South Wales
Jamie MACLAREN	Melbourne City FC, Australia	30 (8)	Green Gully SC / Football Victoria
Ashley MAYNARD-BREWER (Gk)	Charlton Athletic FC, England	0	ECU Joondalup / Football West
Connor METCALFE	FC St. Pauli, Germany	11 (0)	South Cardiff FC / Northern NSW Football
Lewis MILLER	Hibernian FC, Scotland	2 (0)	Pittwater RSL FC / Football New South Wales
Aiden O’NEILL	Standard de Liège, Belgium	5 (0)	University of Queensland Football Club (Formerly Kenmore FC) / Football Queensland
Kye ROWLES	Heart of Midlothian FC, Scotland	12 (0)	Palm Beach SC / Football Queensland
Mathew RYAN (Gk) (Cpt)	AZ Alkmaar, Netherland	84 (0)	Blacktown City FC / Football New South Wales
Sam SILVERA	Middlesbrough FC, England	2 (0)	Blacktown City FC / Football New South Wales
Harry SOUTTAR	Leicester City FC, England	19 (8)	Brechin City Boys Club (Scotland)
Ryan STRAIN	St Mirren FC, Scotland	4 (0)	Aston Villa FC (UK)
Kusini YENGI	Portsmouth FC, England	0	Fulham United FC / Football South Australia

​

 

[Punchy Bassett]

My eldest lad and I are flying in tomorrow to spend a few days in Melbourne and go to the game, can't wait! His first ever in person Socceroos game.

 

[NYRB]

Serious question, will the Socceroos v Palestine game in Kuwait be expected to see much protests in relation to the conflict in Israel/Palestine?

 

[Smoooothy]

My eldest lad and I are flying in tomorrow to spend a few days in Melbourne and go to the game, can't wait! His first ever in person Socceroos game.

he's not the only one!

 

[Punchy Bassett]

he's not the only one!

Yeah but you're not flying in

 

[brucetiki]

Serious question, will the Socceroos v Palestine game in Kuwait be expected to see much protests in relation to the conflict in Israel/Palestine?

I would expect the game to be played behind close doors at a minimum.

 

[Zidane98]

Serious question, will the Socceroos v Palestine game in Kuwait be expected to see much protests in relation to the conflict in Israel/Palestine?

It's in Kuwait so likely only expat Aussies attending. Doubt there will be much of anything. FIFA / AFC will be working to prevent the fixture turning into a political event.

 

[NYRB]

I would expect the game to be played behind close doors at a minimum.

Interesting you say closed door. Could understand if it was one of the Arab based nations eg Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran but dont really understand why Australia?

I guess players potentially could be making a political statement?

 

[NYRB]

I also notice that Israel have a Euro Qualifier (Thursday morning Australian time) against Switzerland on neutral territory in Hungary.

 

[Zidane98]

Interesting you say closed door. Could understand if it was one of the Arab based nations eg Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran but dont really understand why Australia?

I guess players potentially could be making a political statement?

It's a Palestine home game. I don't see anywhere saying it's behind closed doors. Having said that being in Kuwait the only likely attendees would be a handful of expat Aussies. Don't see too many locals being interested in the game and doubt there would be a significant local Palestinian expat community in Kuwait.


Players won't be making any political statements at the game.

 

[ioppolo]

We had a good run with them last qualifying campaign but trips to the middle east can lend themselves to be quite slippery.

 

[NYRB]

We had a good run with them last qualifying campaign but trips to the middle east can lend themselves to be quite slippery.

Up to a maximum of 9 AFC (Asia) teams can qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The pecking order in Asia probably is

Japan
South Korea
Australia
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Qatar


Then then next best 5 id imagine would be: UAE, Oman, Iraq, China and Vietnam


FIFA Would love China to qualify somehow. (and India in a perfect world)

Australia really should qualify with ease. If it does get desperate, Aussies would have to have played really bad in qualifying to be the 7th or 8th or 9th qualified team from Asia - which involves more qualification games. Sort of considered to be back door route.

 

[Zidane98]

Up to a maximum of 9 AFC (Asia) teams can qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The pecking order in Asia probably is

Japan
South Korea
Australia
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Qatar


Then then next best 5 id imagine would be: UAE, Oman, Iraq, China and Vietnam


FIFA Would love China to qualify somehow. (and India in a perfect world)

Australia really should qualify with ease. If it does get desperate, Aussies would have to have played really bad in qualifying to be the 7th or 8th or 9th qualified team from Asia - which involves more qualification games. Sort of considered to be back door route.

China is a lost cause. Xi isn't interested in football anymore. The NT is going backwards and despite an almost unlimited amount of money plundered into the CSL it's now on its knees.

Also Iran is better than Saudi.

 

[NYRB]

China is a lost cause. Xi isn't interested in football anymore. The NT is going backwards and despite an almost unlimited amount of money plundered into the CSL it's now on its knees.

Also Iran is better than Saudi.

5th and 6th are kind of close- point im trying to state is , Australia has to be pretty bad side, to not qualify.

 

[ioppolo]

Is Qatar really ahead of UAE, Oman & Iraq?

 

[NYRB]

Is Qatar really ahead of UAE, Oman & Iraq?

Yes

According to FIFA:

 

[NYRB]

You would be a brave man to suggest any of those top 6 teams , wont qualify from the Asian Confederation.

 

[gaskin]

FIFA rankings are bullshit.

 

[Zidane98]

You would be a brave man to suggest any of those top 6 teams , wont qualify from the Asian Confederation.

Qatar are no certainties. They rely on importing talented footballers from Africa in exchange for citizenship (ironic as it is pretty much impossible for anyone else to become a Qatari citizen) and either have to wait 5 years from when they move to Qatar or in some cases they simply made up a birth certificate that had their mother "born" in Qatar so they become immediately eligible. They do this because there's little to no sporting culture and a small population to draw players from.

 

[NYRB]

Qatar are no certainties. They rely on importing talented footballers from Africa in exchange for citizenship (ironic as it is pretty much impossible for anyone else to become a Qatari citizen) and either have to wait 5 years from when they move to Qatar or in some cases they simply made up a birth certificate that had their mother "born" in Qatar so they become immediately eligible. They do this because there's little to no sporting culture and a small population to draw players from.

I know they had a home World Cup last year but I thought they performed quite well. But i dont know enough about Qatari football- we will see .

 

[Zidane98]

I know they had a home World Cup last year but I thought they performed quite well. But i dont know enough about Qatari football- we will see .

Qatar were terrible at WC2022




This despite playing at home and literally being given unlimited resources by the Qatari royal family to build the strongest side possible. They don't have a steady stream of players to play in the NT.


They won Asian Cup 2019 but that's a scandal in itself as they had multiple players play who conveniently had mothers "born" in Qatar to make them eligible. There was a protest to have them dismissed which failed. The rule for naturalised players is they have to wait 5 years from when they move to a country before they are eligible (to stop national teams providing financial incentives for players to be naturalised and represent their "new" country)

If one of your parents is "born" in Qatar they are automatically eligible to play for the NT thus avoiding the 5 year wait.

 

[GOALden Hawk]

So what are we expecting tonight? I suspect Arnie still rolls out close to best XI given you don’t want to slip up in opening qualifier.

Hopefully we put it to bed early so he can give some of the youngsters a run late on.

Looking forward to it, always great to watch international football at AAMI

 

[Zidane98]

So what are we expecting tonight? I suspect Arnie still rolls out close to best XI given you don’t want to slip up in opening qualifier.

Hopefully we put it to bed early so he can give some of the youngsters a run late on.

Looking forward to it, always great to watch international football at AAMI

Tonight I'd expect:


------------------------------Ryan----------------------

--Miller---------Rowes-------Souttar------------Bos

----Irvine------------Metcalfe-----------O'Neill

----Silvera---------Boyle---------Goodwin


Maynard-Brewer
Behich
Strain
Burgess
Circati
Luongo
Bacchus
Borello
Maclaren
Duke



Silvera's been in good form for Boro so I expect him to get a run. Goodwin, likewise has been tearing it up in Saudi.


The 3rd midfield place could go either way between O'Neill, Luongo & Bacchus. I feel Irvine & Metcalfe are locked in. It's a shame McGree misses with injury.


I would like to see Circati start at CB but feel Arnie will stick with his tried and tested Rowes/Souttar combo. Obviously would be Rowes dropping out if Circati was to start.


Out of that lineup I don't see Ryan, Goodwin & Boyle being around for WC 2026.

 

[AJ_2000]

Yes

According to FIFA:

View attachment 1852723

Probably based on Qatar playing WC games have them a boost?

 

[AJ_2000]

Good news everyone, the Men Matilda's are in town