Popovic: There are no limits on what this squad can achieve
CommBank Socceroos Head Coach Tony Popovic said that he will not be putting any limits on what his side can achieve at the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026™.
The national team boss was speaking in Sydney at the final media opportunity before the team arrives in the United States ahead of the tournament.
Eight players - Harry Souttar, Hayden Matthews, Anthony Caceres, Mitchell Duke, Brandon Borrello, Nick D’Agostino, Nishan Velupillay and Mathew Leckie - are set to arrive at pre-camp this week in Sarasota, Florida, as Popovic continues the process of evaluating options before he announces his final 26-player squad in just under a month's time.
Here’s what he had to say today when he faced the media today.
Preparation ahead of the tournament
Wednesday is a big day. I go over there [to the USA] then, so it all becomes very real in terms of the preparation. We will start a training camp, and we've got some staff over there now, and some players ready to start their pre-training. We’ll get ready and work hard until June 1, when we have to announce the final squad - which is obviously the most important date for us - and key for us to have that squad ready to pick the 26 players that will go on and represent Australia at the World Cup.
The pre-camp train-on squad
There are six local players and two overseas [in the initial eight]. Harry Souttar is one of them, which is nice to bring back into the fold, and it's been great to see him play a couple of games. We haven't seen him since November 2024, so it's been a very long time. He’s a fantastic player, and it's been great to see him play with a smile on his face.
We're starting a training camp with eight players, so Harry will be one who needs some work. It’s really just to give them a chance of making the squad. If we give them a week or two off, we feel that they will fall behind with the limited time that they've had. Hayden Matthews, the same - he's played the last couple of games, had a lot of injuries this year, so we again want to give the boy an opportunity to make himself available, and we are sure that this camp can help these players.
We’ve also brought in some A-League boys who have finished early, Anthony Caceres and Mitchell Duke from Macarthur, Brandon Borrello, who finished early with the [Western Sydney] Wanderers, Nick D'Agostino, we've got in there as well. Matthew Leckie too, to give him a chance of being in the squad.
Honing in on the final 26
We're not sure where some players are at physically, and how they will be by the end of May, so there is room for some players. There’ll be some boys that are coming in next week as well, that we're still waiting to finalise. Through different periods each week, we'll bring in some more players as they finish their seasons as well. We don’t want to have a squad of 40 or 50 in camp - that's way too many. But we want to keep it at that mark, 26 to 30 players. If we need to carry a few players when we name the squad, which we can do until the first match, we will. And then there’s a lot of things we have to consider - is it due to injury, or do they need some more minutes to see how they go in the friendly games? Harry [Souttar] falls into that category, Mathew Leckie falls in there. There are a few other boys who may fall into that category of not having played enough minutes, where we need to see whether they can be ready for this game.
The goal for the team at the World Cup
To show that we are very competitive in every game. I don't want to put a pass mark or something that we aspire to. I said from day one, why can’t this group do something special? We'll go into the tournament with that mindset. Can it be us that does something special and goes further than Australia ever has before? Because I'm sure that it will happen, if not now, it will in the future. So let's challenge ourselves and not put any limits on what we can achieve. With that mindset, if we all buy into that, we'll go into the games being very competitive, and that immediately gives you a chance. And so I'm looking forward to working with the players, and they should all be very excited about the chance of playing at the World Cup.
Mentality within the tournament
When you come in at the start, everyone's excited, the energy is high, and what we don't want is that after the first game, we're on a slope that's going down because we're just exhausted, or we've hit the peak. That’s up to me and the leaders within the group to find that balance between being able to stay awake, physically and mentally, and have a break, and to always understand that we're there for the greatest tournament in the world. We want to make sure that we can be at our very best for each game and part of that process is getting the balance right between work and rest for the players and staff. I know they're all excited and the skill set is fantastic, so I feel very blessed to have the staff that I have under me and I know that they'll support me in making sure that we get that balance right. So with a great staff - and I'm sure we'll have a fantastic playing group - we're really excited and looking forward to what's coming.
The group stage opposition
They're all a little different. The Europeans, you have so many individual talents there at Turkey - Real Madrid players, Juventus, there are so many more that are playing at the very highest level. The game smarts, the intelligence that any one of those individuals can just turn a game in an instant. That’s something that we have to be aware of with Turkey. The US, that'll be a unique game, because you're playing the host nation. So that's a completely different type of match altogether. Paraguay, they were one point off finishing second in their group, which is probably arguably one of the toughest qualification routes that you can have. They’re very disciplined, very organised, very fit - a tough opponent. So, everything I've said about each opponent, I want everyone to feel the same about us. We are tough and they will not get anything given to them by us.
The toughest part of the job
We took the difficult route when we qualified in June to try and expand the group as big as we could. That was a conscious decision we made with every friendly game to expose players, to test players, not wait until after the World Cup. That's made the group larger, which is a great headache for us to have. It won't be pleasant when you've got to tell players that they haven't made the squad, but it's a wonderful headache, because we see that the pool is getting bigger. When you look at these young boys like Lucas Herrington coming through, whether it's now or in the future, that should be exciting.
Then you have wonderful stories. I don't want to jinx it. Hopefully they're fit and available, like a Leckie and a Harry Souttar. I hope Mitchell Duke does that at training as well, and gives me a headache… It's always difficult for a coach, but we've done this and hoped that we would have this headache, and we will have this headache, and I think that's great for Australian football, as unpleasant as it is for me when I have to do that, because they're all great young men that I'm getting to know as people. That will be obviously a tough conversation when that happens, but also an exciting one, because I know that the pool of players - whoever we select for this tournament - will be ready to perform in this tournament.
So we're very happy with where we sit right now, and God willing, we have all players available and injury-free before we have that difficult chat.