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Popovic lays out Socceroos' path to the World Cup
Ethan Clark • March 31st, 2026 2:51 pm
With just 75 days until we kick off our FIFA World Cup campaign, Socceroos head coach Tony Popovic has laid out the next couple of months for his squad.
A challenging group awaits the Aussies including the host nation USA, as well as Paraguay and either Turkey or Kosovo; all of which will believe they can make it to the knockout stages.
Popovic is adamant he can lead this squad to those stages, however, and has a clear aim for what he wants to see in the group stage.
“The focus for me is that we do our country proud, that we compete in every match of the first three (group games), and that we show how good Australian football is and how good our footballers are,” he told Gerard Whateley on SEN.
“With wonderful support, we can do something special and get to those knockout rounds where we know in a one-off game anything's possible and we want to be part of that conversation.”
Australia hosts Curaçao in Melbourne on Tuesday night before setting sights on North America.
So, what does the next few months look like in the build up to our first World Cup clash against Turkey or Kosovo on June 14?
“Obviously the focus is on this match (against Curaçao), and then it's a little bit of time to celebrate Easter with the families and then before you know it in May we're going over to the states and we start a training camp there with the players that finish their seasons quite early,” Popovic explained.
“We have a range of finishing dates from early May to the end of May so at various points we'll be able to bring players in from mid-May and start training them and preparing them and so it'll all happen quite quickly.”
“I'm very fortunate that we have a great training base organised, great pre-camp organised in terms of the facilities as well, so the FA's been very supportive in that, and we're really looking forward to the next phase before it starts.”
Turkey and Kosovo play off at 5:45am AEDT Wednesday morning to decide the rival for the Socceroos’ first group stage match in the World Cup.
Watch Whateley's full chat with Popovic below:
