🔗 Share this article

When Tony Popovic eventually brought together his maiden Socceroos squad, the recently appointed coach detailed a set of standards. The majority were straightforward and concise – suitable given the turmoil following his unexpected arrival, after Graham Arnold’s resignation, and with fewer than three weeks to get ready for vital 2026 World Cup qualifiers against China and Japan.

Popovic insisted that any player who aspired to represent in a Socceroos shirt would need to adopt an “premier” attitude to secure, or maintain that honour. But there was an additional message. Not so much an order and an invitation to excel – and one that has been thrown sharper into focus with every step taken on the road towards the World Cup in North America.

“My expectations were to do something extraordinary, in my first talk to the players,” Popovic says. “That stays constant.”

A little more than a year on from that team talk in an Adelaide hotel, plenty of other things have changed, even if Popovic’s expectations remain the same. The coach, for one, seems truly settled as Socceroos manager. The 52-year-old’s image for discipline differs greatly with the approachable and at times cheerful figure holding court for over an hour in what have become periodic interviews with football media. So too have the fortunes of his team changed, with recollections of a defeat to Bahrain and stalemate with Indonesia seeming fairly far off after successes over Japan and Saudi Arabia in June booked the Socceroos’ berth in next year’s worldwide tournament.

Those victories came as part of an 11-game unbeaten run under Popovic, one that was only broken away by the United States earlier this month. It’s momentum that has taken the Socceroos to the unexpected edge of entering pot two in the World Cup draw. The outcomes of November exhibition games against Venezuela, at the moment placed 50th in the world, and 13th-ranked Colombia – as well as Ecuador’s games against Canada and New Zealand, and the last games of European qualifying – loom large in this regard.

While Popovic concedes that he started in the job assuming to only be able to count on a main squad of players, he now thinks the group he can trust has expanded. This isn’t just through the breakthrough of talented youth 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 obscurity and Paul Izzo’s blossoming into a bona fide Socceroos keeper with the ability to challenge Maty Ryan.

“The squad has totally changed in my mind – of what’s attainable with players that have joined,” Popovic says. “I first thought, ‘OK, this is my group; I don’t fully have much beyond this. Just manage and make them better.’ Now, I think like there are 15, 20 players that have joined that, and I’m convinced there are more to come that I believe can help make us better as a squad at the World Cup.”

This surprising appearance of talent, and the shift in thinking it has inspired in Popovic, has created opportunities for players on the edges of the squad. Even those not yet considered amongst those group can keep faith that, by June next year, they could be on the plane. A player like Adrian Segečić might be about to sit out a month of playing due to an ankle injury, but if he – or any other player – persists to perform steadily, then the coach is emphasizing they’re every chance of being part of his plans.

“I don’t want to put a limit or a end on that – to announce in March that this is our squad, and there may be one or two more new faces,” 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 expansion, in a way, brings us back to Popovic’s initial talk 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 attitude.

“Saying I want to do something unique is just ‘we don’t want to have limits’,” Popovic says. “We don’t want to box ourselves into ‘let’s be participants at the World Cup, and let’s go home and pat each other on the back for being there’.

“I repeat it to the group: one day, Australia will go deep in the World Cup. And why not this group? Why do we have to wait two or three World Cups, when I’m observing and praising something special from the Socceroos? Why should we have restrictions? Why not do it now?”