Fringe players set to be given chance by Socceroos coach Tony Popovic ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup
Early qualification for next year’s FIFA World Cup will give the Socceroos plenty of time to get “much better” than they are now.
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With the Socceroos having sealed FIFA World Cup qualification, national team coach Tony Popovic is likely to give an opportunity to a host of fringe players in friendly games between now and the start of the tournament in June next year.
Australia’s 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Wednesday morning (AEST) secured the Socceroos’ World Cup qualification for a sixth successive time.
And in better news for the Socceroos, it will be the first time since reaching the 2014 World Cup that they don’t have to win sudden-death playoffs to qualify.
It means that Popovic will have more time to properly prepare his squad and give him the chance to perhaps increase the depth of his talent pool.
The likes of attackers Nestory Irankunda, Nicolas Milanovic, Noah Botic and Adrian Segecic, midfielder Max Balard, centre-back Kai Trewin and left-back Kasey Bos all might be given chances to push for World Cup selection in the four international windows before the tournament.
“We have some plans for September with some (friendly) games,” Popovic said in looking ahead to the next window.
“There’s a plan moving forward now that we definitely know that we’ve gone through and we’re not in the playoffs.
“We’ve got some different plans in October that we’ve been working on – it’s exciting.
“We need to play games to keep improving, getting better, (and be) giving other players an opportunity as well that deserve it.
“We want to be a squad that’s much better than what we are now, and that’s the expectation we should have.”
Next year’s World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, will expand to 48 teams, with Australia one of six Asian Football Confederation nations – the others being Japan, South Korea, Iran, Uzbekistan and Jordan – that have already qualified for finishing in the top two of the three AFC third-round qualifying groups.
Joint hosts USA, Mexico and Canada are guaranteed spots, while New Zealand and Argentina have already also qualified.
Qualifying matches across the world will continue until March next year when all 48 nations participating in the June 11-July 19 tournament will be confirmed.
Each nation will play three matches in the opening stage of the tournament in the which the 48 qualifiers will be divided into 12 groups of four.
The top two teams from each group, plus the eight-best third-placed sides, will advance to the round of 32, which is the start of the knockout phase of the tournament.
The 16 host cities are Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Miami (USA), Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City (Mexico), and Vancouver and Toronto (Canada).
Originally published as Fringe players set to be given chance by Socceroos coach Tony Popovic ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup
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