Popovic: We know there is pressure in qualifying, we embrace it
Subway Socceroos Head Coach Tony Popovic spoke to media during the week to give an update on key parts of the team’s progression.
He spoke about the injury to Jackson Irvine, the success of A-League players in the national team, and the importance of the upcoming fixtures against Japan and Saudi Arabia in the Third Round of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ qualifiers.
Read more about the coach’s update below.
The success of A-League players…
It’s great for our league that there is a lot of talk about our younger players, and players that could be Socceroos. The ones that have had a chance are proving that they can do it, so that's great in terms of our league. But there are also players overseas that maybe aren’t spoken about as much, that are playing regular football and doing a good job as well.
We're glad that we have an A-League to cover where there are possibilities, and players that can come in and do a great job. We want that to continue. We're constantly monitoring all of our players, whether it's here, at home or overseas.
Nishan Velupillay’s performance last window…
That's the first two starts for Nish. He had to back up after four days, which is something he hasn't done before, so it's great that a young player can show that level of performance twice. What's also impressive is that when he went back to his club, he was outstanding. So that's three games in a week where he played very well. Our goal is to give players back to the clubs at a better level than they came to us. Nish doing that is a credit to him, but it just shows that the players are growing.
We as a staff have to be confident and know why we're bringing the player in, and understand the attributes the player has, and how much growth he has. If we do that, then we will always be calm and confident with the decisions we make.
Players knocking on the door…
When I was playing, we had players that all had personality, we all had confidence, we all had a belief, and nothing would waver that. I feel we've probably lost a lot of that [these days].
These boys (Adrian Segecic, Noah Botic, and Nicolas Milanovic) have shown they've got some personality, which is great. You’ve got personality, you’ve got character. You're not afraid to show that. If there’s a message for me, that's fine. You've just got to back it up. You want to be like that, great, fantastic. But then, you've got to be the best player in the park every week. That's the challenge they've got.
Injury to Jackson Irvine…
Yep, it’s certainly a blow. He obviously played very well for us in the last window, [and he’s] doing very well with St Pauli. It looks like they'll stay up, which is great news for him. He had surgery yesterday, so it will be a bit of a process now coming back - but having been in touch with him, he's very positive, the operation went very well, and he'll be back for some part of pre-season next year, hopefully. It's a blow, but you know, we have to find a solution.
Abu Dhabi camp…
The camp will start around the 20th of May, and then we've got some boys that are finishing up on the 25th - the Premier League finishes then. So we'll have some boys for three or four sessions, some boys for several sessions.
It's an opportunity to bring some young boys in that are in Europe. The A-League boys - it's hard to determine, with the finals coming up, who will go to the semi-finals. We won't pick them, because that goes through to the 25th of May, and we're only there till the 30th.
For us, it’s really a chance for us to get the players together - the ones that finish in early May. It's a long time to be off until June 5 [the next Socceroos match]. We will use it as a training camp, to bring some young boys in as well. At the end of the camp, we will decide what the squad is for Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
Crucial World Cup qualifiers…
I think all the games are crucial, and so far I feel that we've handled that expectation and pressure quite well. We've got to do it once more if we want to go through automatically. We know it's a challenge. We have to embrace it. We're excited by it. We know we're in a good position, but we're playing the best team in Asia now. The challenge is: can we put on a better performance that we did than we did in Japan? We had a great result. Can we play better? That's what I'd love to see happen, to show our growth since that match.
On Japan…
I’m sure they'll come with a mindset of winning. They haven't lost a game in the campaign. They’ve been the best team. There's no doubt about that. We played them in Japan. Eleven players, the first team, are all playing in Europe. No J-League player made the start. I'm sure we all agree it's a strong competition, the J-League. So if they do change any players, if some of the J-League players come in, I'm sure they want to prove their worth to the coach, because they also want to go to a World Cup. Whoever plays, I'm sure will be very motivated to do well for the country, which is what we expect.
MATCH DETAILS
Subway Socceroos v Japan
Thursday, 5 June 2025
Perth Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 7.00pm local / 9.00pm AEST
Broadcast: 10, 10 Play and Paramount+
Tickets: Purchase Here