The FA should set up friendlies against the US, Canada and Mexico in the next year. 

The    FA    setting  up  a  friendly  with   a   country   other   than   NZ   would    be    an  " achievement"   for   them  .. .

Those teams are playing in the CONCACAF nations league in March and may qualify for the national league finals in June.

They may be available in September or October.

I reckon a good result would be to play a couple of decent Asian teams in June and one the North Americans in September then some Europeans (away) in October.

Wow so the world cup placings are starting to come in, Australia has finished in 11th place. It appears this takes into account all games played by teams involved using a table system. 

would have been happy with equal 16th but 11th place even more respectable. Well done Roos 👏

Yeah it's just a normal ladder system, except that you are placed above any team eliminated in a round before you, regardless of points. It doesn't really mean anything, but nice to get our highest ever placing.

Yeah, so it’s 

9. Japan
10. Senegal (due to having scored one more goal than us)
11. Australia 
12. Switzerland 
13. Spain
14. USA
15. Poland
16. South Korea

This may be premature however when is the next Asian Cup and have we qualified? 

End of next year. We're in via WC qualification round 2 group win. 

Nah power ranking is

we should be now ranked #1 in Asia right?

No, still #4.

june 16 and we have qualified as a seeded team

Rogic and arzani might be back in form and volpato could be a shout so some exciting options. Baccus might work his way deeper into the team as well

I'd really like to see a punt on neiwenhoff

I was just thinking of how much depth the roos have at the moment. From Osaussies who are getting regular starts we can make a squad of players playing at a similar level to our first 26. 


GK Langerak
Fullbacks: Elder, Smith, davidson, sainsbury, miller, gersbach, strain, Mcgowan, Circati

Mids: Dougall, Rogic, Holland, Metcalf

Forwards: Taggart any others?

Add to the fact that the alex tobin medalist couldn't make the extended squad along with a bunch of other strong a league players you have to say the talent pool has improved out of sight - even if the top players haven't broken through 

It’s not June 16 anymore. That was the date before it got moved from China to Qatar. It is likely to be held at around this time next year, but is not yet set in stone afaik.

I wasn’t talking about power ranking (whatever that is). Just the raw ranking based on results and points gained at the World Cup. It makes no sense whatsoever that US and Spain finish ahead of us with less wins and less points.

Def: Rich-Baghuelou, Cam Burgess 
Mids: Francois, Peupion, Kalik. 
Fwd: Volpato, Ruka, Alou Kuol, Deni Juric. 

oh yes forgot about them!

This is important to remember when comparing to 2018, 2014 and perhaps even 2010. We had a pool of 60 players to choose from all playing a similar standard so we could select on form and cohesion. So I actually think this was the strongest roos side since 2006 (who also should have gotten 6 points if not for some questionable refereeing against croatia)

Player pool is massive. While a headache, it allows for maximum competition. Main thing is the coach can use it effectively. 

Last piece of the puzzle is a striker banging in goals and getting consistent game time, Cummings is worth a longer run but he's not exactly one for the future 

He's only 27

He is definitely not the answer. It’s not just age, he is simply not good enough. If he were 21, then you’d say there’s something to work with, but at 27, there’s not much hope of improvement. 

Leckie, Duke and Goodwin seemed to have peaked now and scored goals at WCUP at ages 31,31, and 30 so Cummings probably hasn’t peaked yet

https://sport.optus.com.au/articles/os51220/worldcup2022-touchy-subject-that-left-a-socceroo-in-tears-the-athletic

It's about Luongo not playing at the 2018 WC. I think he's right. BVM didn't rotate and we suffered. Luongo played and did well in the pre tournament friendlies.

If it was someone like Jurman or Meredith I'd be a little less understanding. Luongo was top notch still then. Jedinak tired in the Peru game. Could see similar challenges in Qatar and thankfully Baccus was used. I wish Devlin had replaced Irvine earlier vs Argentina.

Rewatching Argies game yesterday I was shocked how many times Irvine turned ball over.. Really bad stuff. Devlin also with a Luongo-type Wcup experience 

Luongo's seniority in the squad is certainly ahead of what Devlin is now yet Devlin received a lot of media coverage and was touted as a starter by many. By no means is he now a bad player but I'm also surprised Arnold didn't try him. Next Asian cup is his breakout tournament. 

A lot of people said Duke was not the answer. The answer is the best player to fit into the team. We are only very occasionally blessed with world class players. That means you pick your best team, that may not mean your best players. It also means age is not a factor. If you are older and performing you deserve to be there over a younger lesser performing player. Equally, if you are good enough as a youngster and are performing better then you should be in the team. The only time age should be a factor is when players looking at the same spot are each adding to the team/squad. Then it comes down to squad balance. If you have a young squad the older guy may well get the nod. If you have an ageing squad then it is time for a refresh.

We will have a lot of players in an around the squad that will not be there in 2026.

Redmayne, Langerak, Vukovic, Behich, Sainsbury, Wright, Dougal, Irvine, Jeggo, Mooy, Rogic, Goodwin, Duke, Taggart, Boyle and Leckie will all be counting themselves lucky if they survive past the Asian Cup let alone get to 2026. Yes there are many young players coming up, some of them very exciting, but there are also many that will fall by the wayside.

Australia simply needs to pick the best squad at the time. There are any number of 'talented'  players that never really got a go because they didn't fit the team or the team ethos.  

Yeah I think Arnold just doesn't rate the ball winner type of defensive midfielder

he started metcalf and genreau at the olympics over ballwinners baccus and devlin - even when parking the bus against spain

in the end he is our most successful roo coach ever so what would I know :D

Bump past the FTBL spam

So the new format of the club world cup could be a very big deal for world football