🔗 Share this article

When Tony Popovic eventually assembled his maiden Socceroos squad, the recently appointed coach presented a range of expectations. The majority were clear and concise – perfect considering the upheaval around his abrupt appointment, following Graham Arnold’s exit, and with less than three weeks to make arrangements for crucial 2026 World Cup qualifiers against China and Japan.

Popovic asserted that any player who hoped to pull on a Socceroos shirt would need to take on an “top-tier” mentality to earn, or maintain that privilege. But there was another message. Not so much an order and an invitation to excel – and one that has been brought sharper into focus with each step taken on the road towards the World Cup in North America.

“My expectations were to do something remarkable, in my first talk to the players,” Popovic says. “That hasn’t changed.”

Approximately a year on from that gathering in an Adelaide hotel, many of other things have changed, even if Popovic’s ambitions are the same. The coach, for one, appears really at home as Socceroos head. The 52-year-old’s reputation for strictness differs greatly with the expansive and at times cheerful figure holding court for over an hour in what have become frequent interviews with football media. So too have the results of his team improved, with thoughts of a loss to Bahrain and draw with Indonesia feeling fairly far off after victories over Japan and Saudi Arabia in June guaranteed the Socceroos’ place in next year’s international tournament.

Those wins came as part of an 11-game undefeated streak under Popovic, one that was only broken away by the United States earlier this month. It’s performance that has taken the Socceroos to the unlikely precipice of entering pot two in the World Cup draw. The outcomes of November exhibition games against Venezuela, currently placed 50th in the world, and 13th-ranked Colombia – as well as Ecuador’s games against Canada and New Zealand, and the final games of European qualifying – carry weight in this context.

Although Popovic acknowledges that he began in the job thinking to only be able to depend on a main squad of players, he now believes the pool he can rely on has swelled. This isn’t just through the emergence of young players such as Nestory Irankunda, Max Balard, or Mohamed Touré as real international players. There are also the examples of Miloš Degenek’s reappearance from the wilderness and Paul Izzo’s growth into a genuine Socceroos keeper with the ability to challenge Maty Ryan.

“The squad has completely changed in my mind – of what’s possible with players that have joined,” Popovic says. “I first thought, ‘OK, this is my group; I don’t fully have much apart from this. Just make it work and make them better.’ Now, I feel like there are 15, 20 players that have joined that, and I’m certain there are others to come that I trust can help make us better as a squad at the World Cup.”

This unforeseen appearance of talent, and the change in mindset it has sparked in Popovic, has opened the door for players on the edges of the squad. Even those not yet regarded among those ranks can keep faith that, in June next year, they could be on the roster. A player like Adrian Segečić might be about to be absent for a month of playing due to an ankle injury, but if he – or any other player – continues to play regularly, then the coach is making clear they’re highly likely of being part of his plans.

“I don’t want to put a cap or a end on that – to declare in March that this is our squad, and there may be one or two more inclusions,” Popovic says. “No, I want every player to know that they have an opportunity. Why can’t there be an additional player that comes in in June?”

But this broadening, in a way, brings us back to Popovic’s first speech as Socceroos head coach. For just as much as he wants players to surprise him, to do something remarkable and exceed the predictions others have for them, he wants his team to have the same philosophy.

“Saying I want to do something unique is just ‘we don’t want to have limits’,” Popovic says. “We don’t want to confine ourselves into ‘let’s be competitors at the World Cup, and let’s go home and celebrate for being there’.

“I emphasize it to the group: one day, Australia will go a long way in the World Cup. And why not this group? Why do we have to wait two or three World Cups, when I’m sitting back and applauding something exceptional from the Socceroos? Why should we have restrictions? Why not do it now?”