Surely there's no need to play Mat Ryan against Bangladesh. Give Gauci some international experience.
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Socceroos (Graham Arnold and) The Socceroos Thread
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Mat Ryan time for Socceroos should of finished at the end of world cup. Great servant but it is time for new generation. Gauci looks oustanding as a prospect.
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Ridiculous. Statistically, Ryan is one of the best keepers in Europe this season.
You don't drop your captain, and one of your few world class players, to start handing out caps to guys that you don't even know are next in line.
When is Gauci going to test himself in Europe? Needs to go and take the next step for his career..
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Can't be far off a championship deal. Would want him to join a team in Championship / PL / Ligue 1 / Eredivisie / Belgium / Serie A/B / La Liga / Celtic or Rangers otherwise it's not worth it.
You would hope it's this January transfer window
- Dec 22, 2009
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Nah. Best to play out the A League season then move on. Probably will be Ryan understudy at Asian Cup in Jan.
I actually wouldn't mind him playing against Bangladesh, but I very doubt that will happen
How Socceroos’ rocky road to ’26 WC was smoothed as fresh faces to spark charge: State of Play
Australia’s big ‘26 World Cup boost explained as new Socceroos era dawns: State of Play
www.foxsports.com.au
Big read about the road to wherever the next world cup is, qualifying and what's happened since our heroics in Qatar.
So any chance we can directly qualify and avoid the playoffs???????
(Probably no)
- Dec 22, 2009
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How Socceroos’ rocky road to ’26 WC was smoothed as fresh faces to spark charge: State of Play
Australia’s big ‘26 World Cup boost explained as new Socceroos era dawns: State of Play
Big read about the road to wherever the next world cup is, qualifying and what's happened since our heroics in Qatar.
So any chance we can directly qualify and avoid the playoffs???????
(Probably no)
It's a cakewalk. We can finish 3rd in the 6 game group stages and still make it. The inter confederation playoffs also rotate so I believe even in the absolute worst case scenario we don't make it out of that 3 team group we'd play off against the other team and likely be playing 2nd place in OFC (a gimme pretty much).
Qualification will be a doddle perpetually from now on. The die is cast in terms of footballing power in OFC. Australia, South Korea, Iran & Japan will mostly be the strongest teams. Closely followed by the Saudis and ME nations as long as oil is still the world's main fossil fuel. China has the numbers but even Xi has given up on making them a powerful footballing nation. The culture just isn't there, China is all about individual sports and/or academic excellence.
So you have Australia, South Korea, Iran & Japan that are almost certainties to qualify closely followed by Saudis then Qatar & UAE. Then China. That's your 8 nations that are likely to qualify. Outside of those 8 nations there is little threat.
The best of the rest would be Uzbekistan, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and perhaps Thailand. These teams on their day at home could possibly cause an upset but won't be a threat to the establishment in AFC.
What's more ridiculous for me is the 24 team Asian Cup. We've got groups at Asian Cup 2024 with Hong Kong & Palestine both in them, I mean how ridiculous. We could almost send U23s and/or A League players only for qualification (if we somehow fail to qualify from world cup qualification).
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That's not how the inter-confederation playoffs will work anymore. There'll be 6 teams (2 CONCACAF, 1 CONEMBOL, 1 OFC, 1 AFC, 1 CAF). The 2 highest ranked teams will be seeded and the other 4 will play off for the right to play 1 of those 2 teams for a spot in the World Cup. So it's unlikely to be the OFC team that is in the final play off.
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Didn't realise that.
In that case there's almost no chance 2nd placed OFC gets through to the final playoff. With no other fully professional NTs in OFC other than NZ there's almost no point giving them a playoff place.
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So basically New Zealand now have the easiest run to the World Cup - bar the occasional boilover (2006, for example)
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Who's the next best in OFC? Fiji? They're a NPL standard side.
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Fiji didn't even make the semis during the last OFC qualifying. Tahiti nearly beat NZ in the Semis before they pumped Solomon Islands in the final.
Tahiti seem to have the running as the best of the rest in Oceania. They did make the Confeds cup in 2013.
For those on Volpato watch
www.espn.com.au
Arnold: Volpato opting for club over Socceroos
Graham Arnold has told ESPN that dual-national Cristian Volpato "wants to just focus on his club career" ahead of the Socceroos' first match of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.
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Except the claim that he just wanted to concentrate on his club career was shown to be a lie within hours as he's taken a call up for Italy's u20s.For those on Volpato watch
Arnold: Volpato opting for club over Socceroos
Graham Arnold has told ESPN that dual-national Cristian Volpato "wants to just focus on his club career" ahead of the Socceroos' first match of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.
Anyone still left on the volpato bandwagon?
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That's hilarious. Seriously, * this guy, if he's going to make us look like chumps at every opportunity let him be a dime-a-dozen "former youth star" who is a million miles away from being picked by a country that doesn't make the World Cup.
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It's being reported that Sassuolo pressured him to ask that he not take part in the squad for these games.
It's actually against FIFA regulations to pressure players to not play for their NT. Playing for Italy U20 does not affect his eligibility for Socceroos at all.
If Australia calls him up he has to play unless there is a medical reason not to do so. We'll play the long game with his club but eventually we'll have to go down the path of capping him to force Sassuolo's hand. Any club that prevents a player from joining up with his NT after being selected cops a severe penalty from FIFA.
The only way Sassuolo can prevent this is if Volpato gets capped playing for the senior NT. And the likelihood of that seems very low.
The criteria locking in a player is far greater than it used to be (a few mins off the bench in a friendly was enough). Now it's playing at a WC or various other combinations.
Did they call him back up for the u20s cause we were making progress? Did the club nudge him to decline to progress his prospects? Probably a bit of both
- Dec 22, 2009
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Any participation in a full international ties you to that country.
Obviously he would prefer to play full internationals over U21 but they don't want him travelling for international fixtures.
We can force the issue by selecting him for a full cap which cannot be refused.
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I will never forget that day in November 1997 sitting in silence in shock at full-time at the MCG with 80k plus people. It was a pity he couldn’t take us to France 98 who knows what could have happened and in which direction Football in this country would have taken, anyway vale Terry Venables.
