Seriously the FFA has been completely rubbish at communicating with the fans since the WC. We never know when upcoming matches are on or when the squads will be announced anymore. They have morphed into a full amateur operation.

Doesn't seem like the ffa has any confidence in the Socceroos pulling a crowd these days.

Yes it seems we'll be playing in China and South Korea in June. Nothing completely confirmed but that's what has been mentioned.

Are we going to have any friendlies after the season? Or does GA just want to avoid playing any more matches after how shit we were in the Asian Cup

There have been some injuries and form / fitness issues. I think it'd be a little tough to drop Behich or Sainsbury.

I'd like to see McGree, Atkinson and Deng come in.

Ryan/Vukovic/Langerak
Sainsbury/Deng
Degenek/Chapman
Grant
Behich/Gersbach
Irvine/Luongo
Mooy/Dougall
Rogic/?
Leckie/?
Mabil/Ikonomidis
Taggart/Maclaren/Nabbout

Injured N/A
Arzani/Boyle

Wonder what the latest Mens Australia NT starting XI looks like lately.

Or to be a bit more generous and use the same amount of matchdays as last time, you could also keep the same second stage of 8 groups of 5 but with the top 3 qualifying to the third stage, then you can have four groups of six still with the top two qualifying, but with the third placegetters playing off in stage four's two matchdays for the .5 spot, with just the team with the better record getting a home game. The playoffs would go forever otherwise.

Assuming the second stage is still 40 teams in eight groups of five teams, instead of having the group winner and half of the runners up go through like last time for two groups of six teams in the third round, you could simply have both winners and runners up of the same second round advance to have four groups of four teams, with the top two qualifying, and there'd be enough matchdays left for the third placegetters to play off for the .5 spot.

No info as yet. Firstly these playoffs need to be completed on June 6 and 11. Damn Macau away in Sri Lanka on the 11th when I'm in HK that day. Doubt you'd even catch wind of the match.

I reckon the draw will be in June or July at the latest. There'll be quiet a number of kilometres for us to clock again. Really curious who we'll get and FIFA need to announce their 2022 plan as it'll affect some aspect of qualifying at some point. I really can't see them having 2 large groups and allowing lower placed finishers going to Qatar. I'd actually be pretty uncomfortable with a CAF style qualifying where only the group winner goes through. Nervous stuff that'd be. 

Bhutan will fancy themselves against Guam. I'll say Mongolia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia will go through. 

When is the Socceroos draw revealed for our first stage of WC qualifying?

Yep. Germany, Brazil, Spain etc will be relieved that only one of them can make it to the finals now.

Exactly right. I wonder how the structure would be with more slots? Say 8 qualify teams for AFC as an example. 4 groups of 5 with top 2 through?

It'd actually be really cool to have something like South America. One group of 10 with 18 games. One can fantasise. 

Guam and Bhutan, the two heavy hitters drawn together!

Some or all of those losers may be seeded back in if we end up going to 48 teams for 2022, I guess that's why there's been no information yet about the following rounds, although there never seems to be with the AFC.

Asian Football Confederation Round 1 #WCQ draw:

MONGOLIAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION 🇲🇳 v Brunei-Darussalam 🇧🇳

Macau 🇲🇴 v Football Federation of Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Laos 🇱🇦 v Bangladesh Football Federation 🇧🇩

Football Association of Malaysia (Official) 🇲🇾 v Timor-Leste 🇹🇱

Cambodia 🇰🇭 v Pakistan Football Federation 🇵🇰

Bhutan 🇧🇹 v Guam 🇬🇺

Matches scheduled to be played June 6 and 11

Read more 👇

English: https://fifa.to/e/WJxosBm0WV
Español: https://fifa.to/e/TGTnSME2WV
Deutsch: https://fifa.to/e/aOS3aBreXV
Français : https://fifa.to/e/oSLqBIcgXV
العربية: https://fifa.to/e/66X0mYzTXV

Someone must have asked the players where they felt like going on holiday & someone said Australia.   

Just a bit of fun, well not really as round 2 is daunting enough these days that we might slip. I'd take a group of Australia, Oman, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore. 
I'm sure a lot of Aussie fans would love Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and something like Cambodia or Malaysia. It'd be nice to avoid West Asia for once. 

Rankings might be updated again before the draw. 8 teams per pot. Pot 2 would at least see us get only one Syria, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Iraq or Vietnam. Thailand have slipped to pot 3.

Iran (21)  Japan (26)  South Korea (37)  Australia (41)  Qatar (55)  United Arab Emirates (67)  Saudi Arabia (72)  China PR (74)  Iraq (76)  Syria (83)  Uzbekistan (85)  Lebanon (86)  Oman (86)  Kyrgyzstan (95)  Jordan (97)  Vietnam (98)  Palestine (99)  India (101)  Bahrain (111)  Thailand (114)  Tajikistan (120)  North Korea (121)  Philippines (124)  Chinese Taipei (125)  Turkmenistan (136)  Myanmar (140)  Hong Kong (141)  Yemen (146)  Afghanistan (149)  Maldives (151)  Kuwait (156)  Indonesia (159)  Singapore (160)    Nepal (161)

Malaysia (168)  Cambodia (173)  Macau (183)  Laos (184)  Bhutan (186)  Mongolia (187)  Bangladesh (188)  Guam (193)  Brunei (194)  Timor-Leste (195)  Pakistan (200)

35.  Malaysia (168)
36.  Cambodia (173)
37.  Macau (183)
38.  Laos (184)
39.  Bhutan (186)
40.  Mongolia (187)
41.  Bangladesh (188)
42.  Guam (193)
43.  Brunei (194)
44.  Timor-Leste (195)
45.  Pakistan (200)
46.  Sri Lanka (202)
    
    

El Salvador in Perth has been removed from wiki. It's only wiki anyway. Would have to be one of the most unusual friendly games ever.

Anyway, China and Korea would be great to round up the season.

Tough day for Maty

China and Korea are two good match-ups. Looking forward to them both if true. 

Wikipedia has 3 socceroos games listed in June as the last matches prior to the next World Cup and Asia Cup qualification cycle starting in September.

China in China on 6 June. South Korea in South Korea on 11 June. El Salvador in Perth on 14 June.

Without seeing anything online to confirm I don't think that the last one sounds legit because El Salvador plays in their first Concacaf Gold Cup match on June 17 in Jamaica, and it is a very tight turnaround for us from the 2nd date above. (EDIT - it now looks like it has been deleted)

The South Korea match was talked about following the match here in Brisbane late last year. I can't remember us playing China for a while.

Kind of sucks not to be playing in the international break. Quite a number of players need a rest of have their club commitments in leagues on different calendars. 

It's incredibly frustrating and distracting. Trying to be positive at least there'll be insight into future squad members. One could assume it could fast track the better ones instead of being ignored like the days of Holger and even Pim. 

This is why you don't have the seniors coach the same as the u23s. You can't tell me our national team doesn't need a camp plus match right now. 

How good did the Matilda’s look with the green shorts? Is that a pre-cursor for the men’s team as well? Can only hope. White socks would be too much to hope for I suppose...

If we had friendlies set up this window I'd select

Ryan Vukovic Langerak 

Karacic Williams Sainsbury Degenek Burgess Wright Behich Gersbach

Mooy Luongo Amini Milligan Irvine Hrustic 

Mabil Taggart Giannou Williams Juric Iredale

Quite a number of injuries and the U23 away. I wouldn't bring the A League players across. It'd be an interesting camp to see what everyone on the fringe is thinking and to go over the big campaign ahead. 

The Saudi League appears to be having a break for the international window. J League too. Can any talk of our players getting club minutes then. 

L really can't see the first team getting matches in the window in 3 weeks. Arnold focusing on the U23. Our fit A team members generally need a break anyway.

Sainsbury and Behich can reassess what's going on while A League and Asian Roos will be playing for their club.