World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

[Somebloke]

Here is where he said it.

Cannot wait to lose him...

Not good hearing Mackay say that. Still hoping for the best, but clearly Greece is chasing him.

 

[JS96]

Triantis is on Arnold too with these constant selections of Baccus and Irvine in dead rubbers in the preliminaries. Even just putting the player on for 1min against Palestine away gets the ball rolling. It's been such an idiotic time with our most promising players.

 

[JS96]

Pretty sure Greece have rejuvenated and seem quite young and have good potential for a strong era. I'd imagine they'd like Triantis to be apart of that.

 

[JS96]

The kid is 22 years old and hasnt been capped..... THATS the problem, he left these shores without ANY commitment from the Australian national setup barring a few under ages matches....

I dont know his situation or anyone connected to him but based on the snippets Ive seen from him he wont get a call up to Greek national squad, too old to debut and too much competition in midfield... maybe its his manager trying to raise his value, I mean Sunderland signed him for 4 years, surely the clock is ticking and they want more than the peanuts Hibs would have spent????

He had a leading role at the U20 Asian Cup. 4 Olyroos games. We've just been stupidly slow in getting him on for 3 A matches.

 

[hogie]

Dylan Leonard will be next once he finalises his move to Scotland....

 

[JS96]

Dylan Leonard will be next once he finalises his move to Scotland....

The squad selections bring the whole system into disrepute. The managers are hypocritical in how players should be playing regularly the pick others who don't.

We've now got a culture where it's not based on merit. It's slightly improved in that Popovic has moved on some who were Arnold favourites.

If Triantis and others weren't of the level and went elsewhere that's ok. The issue is their cases have been known for 4 years.

 

[Quicky]

3 Players and counting if triantis switches

That makes 3 out of four young players who i could see making the big 5 ij the next 2-3 years...(maybe irankunda and toure can get there too in that time frame) thats most of the elite end of our talent development

Who are the three? Isn't Pavlesic the only one to switch yet?

The Volpato, Robertson, Triantis and Toure stories still to play out.

Isn't Irankunda tied down? Add Circati.

 

[Cunningstunt]

 

[Quicky]

Do you think we should be more proactive giving youth a go before they are in our best 23?

A year ago he was clearly on a rapid upward trajectory but not in our top 6 mids

We definitely do. The strategy should be to bring them into squads early and to cap them with late subs. Or get the paperwork signed.

 

[grazorblade]

So the nsl era roos managed to nab the majority of dual nations worth chasing, probably only simunic and vieri the fish that got away during the gg era. Maybe seric it you squint

These days we seem to be losing a higher fraction. If im right what do you think is the difference?

 

[JS96]

So the nsl era roos managed to nab the majority of dual nations worth chasing, probably only simunic and vieri the fish that got away during the gg era. Maybe seric it you squint

These days we seem to be losing a higher fraction. If im right what do you think is the difference?

Modern airlines and paid are fairs are too incovneient.

Honestly, I think the match schedule at club level and the very tight-knit UEFA set up is attractive. maybe a drawback of these players having a lot of Asian journey early in their career. Travel is tiring yet they do it much less than tennis players.

 

[grazorblade]

Who are the three? Isn't Pavlesic the only one to switch yet?

The Volpato, Robertson, Triantis and Toure stories still to play out.

Isn't Irankunda tied down? Add Circati.

The 4 i had in mind are circati (locked) robertson (in danger) volpato (in danger) and triantis (too early to tell)

Irankunda im holding my enthusiasm until he has a season where he dominates a second tier league like switzerland for a year or makes it regularly in a big five team. Im optimistic tho. Toure was above average this year in denmark, but not dominant, so getting enthusiastic about him

 

[melbcityguy]

I would think only us invested fans would care. Most fans and other people who attend matches won't even realise.

Given the choice between the Arnold method and the Popa method I would take the latter. The desperate public chasing of Volpato and Robertson was a pretty low point. Popa said he wants people who want to play for us because it is an honour (and a well paid international team if you go to a world cup). As long as there is communication with these guys behind the scenes that should be enough.

If Triantis wants to play for Greece, this is his choice, not Greece getting in first. He has every opportunity to play for us, second squad in a row and with Irvine out there is a place up for grabs.

Having said that, unless he was particularly poor or underdone in the previous window, I would have much preferred he received game time.

Yes but we're allowed to be frustrated

 

[grazorblade]

Modern airlines and paid are fairs are too incovneient.

Honestly, I think the match schedule at club level and the very tight-knit UEFA set up is attractive. maybe a drawback of these players having a lot of Asian journey early in their career. Travel is tiring yet they do it much less than tennis players.

Gg dual nationals were willing to pay their own flights half way across the world

Really willing to do anything for the shirt

I think poppas desire for players who dont need the shirt sold to them is legitimate. Usa have gotten better on paper but worse on the field because their players dont seem to have the same love for the team. So no point us gettinf a better team of players that dont care

Question is, what can we do better to get players to care more about the shirt if they were born here

 

[JS96]

Gg dual nationals were willing to pay their own flights half way across the world

Really willing to do anything for the shirt

I think poppas desire for players who dont need the shirt sold to them is legitimate. Usa have gotten better on paper but worse on the field because their players dont seem to have the same love for the team. So no point us gettinf a better team of players that dont care

Question is, what can we do better to get players to care more about the shirt if they were born here

Bloody typos on my post. Anyway, yes, the GG paid their way and got offside with their clubs.

I like Popovic's stance but it has pissed off some of our best prospects. They lack maturity in their own way too.

AFC preliminary rounds, cap them 3 times at 18 from the bench. Might seem farcical but I'm referring to the biggest potentials like Leonard. Most want to play but don't enjoy the selection games and mixed messaging.

 

[Cunningstunt]

The squad selections bring the whole system into disrepute. The managers are hypocritical in how players should be playing regularly the pick others who don't.

We've now got a culture where it's not based on merit. It's slightly improved in that Popovic has moved on some who were Arnold favourites.

If Triantis and others weren't of the level and went elsewhere that's ok. The issue is their cases have been known for 4 years.

JS 4 years ago Triantis played one substitute appearance for WSW for 5 minutes.

Grazor I disagree with handing out caps to lock guys in unless they are demonstrating they deserve it. I think it is better to make the shirt something to be earned.

Triantis warrants selection now, and was picked, but he didn't last season. Maybe you could argue the central coast season, but I don't remember there being many calling for himto come into a squad at the time.

 

[verrelli]

Should have been capped long ago. Simple as that. Pathetic from Arnie and Popovic not to have secured him by now. He's been in our top 3 players at club level for the last year. Meanwhile, Brattan and Caceres are being gifted call-ups. So naive and complacent. I don't buy into this "they have to want to play for us". We need to be more savvy at securing dual nationality players. We should be treating them differently to non- dual nationals because the hard reality is that we risk losing them if we're not proactive. Why haven't we learnt that yet! They'll want to play for us once they've been secured. Sitting on our hands just allows others to pounce. I don't see Croatia waiting around for Pavlesic to come knocking on their door. Other countries enthusiastically and aggressively court dual national players.

 

[JS96]

JS 4 years ago Triantis played one substitute appearance for WSW for 5 minutes.

Grazor I disagree with handing out caps to lock guys in unless they are demonstrating they deserve it. I think it is better to make the shirt something to be earned.

Triantis warrants selection now, and was picked, but he didn't last season. Maybe you could argue the central coast season, but I don't remember there being many calling for himto come into a squad at the time.

The 4 years refers more to Robertson. Triantis was on the radar 2 years ago for the U20 at the Asian Cup. He certainly wouldn't have been capped but given the weakness of our preliminary round, we needed to sort it then.

We were comfortably complacent while he was at CCM as Greece wasn't a whisper. Now he's really kicked on and we've been caught short.

 

[grazorblade]

JS 4 years ago Triantis played one substitute appearance for WSW for 5 minutes.

Grazor I disagree with handing out caps to lock guys in unless they are demonstrating they deserve it. I think it is better to make the shirt something to be earned.

Triantis warrants selection now, and was picked, but he didn't last season. Maybe you could argue the central coast season, but I don't remember there being many calling for himto come into a squad at the time.

Yeah obviously you want people to do anything for the shirt and when they dont get picked focus on being better and knocking the door down rather than being tempted by another country that courts them when snubbed. How come it seems we are worse at that than before? (Maybe im wrong about that)

Capping in friendlies and having more friendlies (especially with australia a squads) is probably a good idea. But that doesnt explain the change of why we got nearly every dual national to not just play for us but but their own economy plane tickets, often to play crappy oceania nations

were ethnic clubs actually producing aussie patriotism while being suspected of doing the opposite, with the foreign flags and chants and all that. Or was it something else?

 

[Quicky]

The 4 i had in mind are circati (locked) robertson (in danger) volpato (in danger) and triantis (too early to tell)

Irankunda im holding my enthusiasm until he has a season where he dominates a second tier league like switzerland for a year or makes it regularly in a big five team. Im optimistic tho. Toure was above average this year in denmark, but not dominant, so getting enthusiastic about him

I misread you. I thought you'd meant we'd lost 3 already. I think theres a lot to play out.

I still think its likely most of those players play for us and I wouldn't start catastrophising it yet.

I do hope we smarten up and start being a bit more strategic capping these players though, as I mentioned in a post above.

I think Popovic coming in to do or die games every qualification round hasn't helped that. But I still think theres ways to win these games and to tie down our promising dual nationals.