Socceroos: The Road to 2026 Begins Here
The Socceroos will kick off their long journey to reach a sixth successive World Cup this Thursday night at AAMI Park in Melbourne. They will face off against the 183rd ranked Bangladesh, before heading to neutral territory in Kuwait next Wednesday to face Palestine. Their final first round qualifying game then takes place in early 2024 against Lebanon.
These are the first steps on a gruelling three-year qualifying campaign, and despite the notable gap between the sides FIFA rankings, will provide a stern first test for the Socceroos. Although we have been simply spoiled by the exports of both the Socceroos and Matildas in the past 24 months, we know all too well in this country just how hard it is to qualify for a World Cup and the twists and turns which will inevitably face us along the way.
Graham Arnold has been able to select from a strong pool of players for the games, with only Riley Mcgree of Middlesbrough, Matthew Leckie of Melbourne City and hearts full back Nathaniel Atkinson missing out through injury.
Kusini Yengi has been called up for his first cap on the back of some fantastic scoring form for League 1 English side Portsmouth, managing five goals in all competitions so far, featuring predominantly off the bench. While the A-Leagues own Jamie Maclaren and Joe Gauci have both been recalled to the squad.
There is no doubt the Socceroos squad is full of confidence following their win against our Trans-Tasman neighbours New Zealand, as well as positive performances against some of the world’s best teams including a draw against Mexico and near misses at the hands of England and Argentina, and this has been reflective in the individual form of a number of players.
Craig Goodwin has showed no sign of slowing down on the back of his incredible World Cup, bagging five times in just eight games for Saudi Arabian side Al-Wehda. This puts him in sixth position for goals per 90 minutes behind only the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Karim Benzema, Moussa Dembele and Talisca in the Saudi Pro League.
Mitchell Duke has just seen his club side FC Machida Zelvia promoted to the J.League 1 on the back of ten goals and six assists for the season. Mass Luongo and Cam Burgess both sit in the automatic playoff promotion spots of the English Championship with Ipswich Town, while Sam Silvera and Martin Boyle have both been amongst the goals in recent weeks for their respective sides Middlesbrough in the Championship and Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership.
Our opponents Bangladesh come in to this one on the back of only one defeat in their last five games and while there are no household names in the squad, the bulk of the team largely play in the same league, the ‘Bangladesh Premier League’ which is often the recipe for a strong national outfit.
This won’t be the first time the Socceroos have faced off against Bangladesh in a World Cup qualifier, with the sides meeting twice in 2015. The Socceroos came out on top in both of those encounters, a comfortable 5-0 home win and a 4-0 return leg, with the only player who still remains in the squad from those games, being the recently recalled Massimo Luongo. We will be looking for more of the same come Thursday night, in front of what hopes to be a packed AAMI Park.
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