{"id":756512,"date":"2026-06-24T04:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756512\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T04:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:50:18","slug":"world-cup-2026-socceroos-team-news-vs-paraguay-australia-manager-tony-popovic-selection-analysis-and-predicted-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756512\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Socceroos team news vs Paraguay; Australia manager Tony Popovic; Selection analysis and predicted lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos<\/a> fans pleading for a sexy new attacking quartet are likely to be disappointed on Friday (AEST).<\/p>\n

A draw or win against Paraguay in San Francisco<\/a> will guarantee progression to the World Cup round-of-32 and even a loss could see Australia sneak through as a third-placed team thanks to their three banked points against T\u00fcrkiye.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cristian Volpato of Australia controls the ball against Alex Freeman.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Suddenly, everyone is a football expert.<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic<\/a> was a genius for benching Mat Ryan<\/a> and Jackson Irvine against T\u00fcrkiye and a lemon for then demoting Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe against the United States.<\/p>\n

England great Wayne Rooney was perhaps the most famous person to give \u2018Popa\u2019 a whack after the humbling 2-0 loss<\/a> and punishing Mike Grella crotch grab.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re not one of the big nations, you have to play your best team in all the group games to try and get out of the group,\u201d Rooney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s messed up tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Socceroos trailed 2-0 at halftime in Seattle but looked the more likely side to score in the second half as Irankunda, Metcalfe and debutant Cristian Volpato<\/a> entered the fray and caused plenty of problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see Volpato, Irankunda, Metcalfe and (Mohamed) Toure on the field at the same time,\u201d ex-Socceroos star Tommy Oar said on SBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a misconception that you lose defensive stability by having these offensive players on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more time spent in the front third dictating the game, the less defending you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we are learning, anything is possible when Popovic finally shows his hand at the selection table around 11am on Friday (AEST).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic. \u00a0AP<\/p>\n

Oar\u2019s proposed attacking quartet is a mouthwatering prospect.<\/p>\n

But it is unlikely to happen for multiple reasons.<\/p>\n

Popovic views Volpato and Irankunda as strike players with doubts over their readiness to log big minutes game in and game out.<\/p>\n

The former Socceroos centre back is also a defence-first pragmatist and will likely look to follow the T\u00fcrkiye template of soaking up pressure and hitting Paraguay on the break.<\/p>\n

Especially given a draw is enough to go through.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopa sees (Irankunda) day in, day out. There must be something there that is stopping him from starting,\u201d Australia legend Harry Kewell<\/a> said on SBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day and age you need to be able to work off the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Harry Kewell chats to nine.com.au and Stan Sport.\u00a0Sam Worthington<\/p>\n

Stan Sport expert Mark Bosnich<\/a> said Irankunda and Metcalfe \u201cdefinitely have to start\u201d while ideally he would squeeze Volpato into the XI as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that will be difficult with the balance,\u201d Bosnich said on SEN\u2019s Gloves Off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re coming up against a team who don\u2019t play too dissimilar to the way we play. <\/p>\n

\u201cA team that will be looking a little bit more to win than we, because we know a draw will guarantee us second place. If Irankunda gasses out, like people have said, then take him off. Quite simple. But you start with your best players and he\u2019s arguably our best player…<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the future is Volpato, Irankunda and Mo Toure. Those three up front would be absolutely outstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this game it might be a game too soon to perhaps do that with Volpato but you might have to bring him on anyway because if we\u2019re losing we don\u2019t want to finish on three points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Socceroos assistant coach Paul Okon has heard the noise and responded to it during his press conference on Wednesday (AEST).<\/p>\n

Okon said there would likely be changes from the 2-0 loss but don\u2019t hold your breath for Irankunda, Volpato and Metcalfe to start together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand people want to see all of those types of players play the maximum minutes, certainly from the start of the game,\u201d Okon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I guess every player is evaluated on how they are physically, mentally and tactically.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the decisions will fall on one of those three or all of those three. And I know that for the person sitting at home in front of the TV, sometimes or maybe often, certainly when the score\u2019s not in our favour or not what that person likes, they don\u2019t understand that. I also can understand that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An emotional Paul Okon.\u00a0SBS<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, as a head coach, you need to make a decision based on those three things and also the opposition. So all three of those players that you mentioned, did fantastically well coming on and I\u2019ve no doubt that we\u2019ll see all of them feature in the next match at some stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drums are also beating for veteran Irvine to get his first start of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Irvine, who has captained the Socceroos 18 times, has been usurped in the starting lineup by young hotshot Paul Okon-Engstler – Okon\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

But the chatter is that workhorse Aiden O\u2019Neill – who has played every minute of the two games – is the more likely man to make way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can reveal this: that Aiden O\u2019Neill is basically waiting to have an ankle operation,\u201d World Cup Daily host James Dodd said on Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had injections in his ankle, he\u2019s in absolute bits, but he\u2019s still running himself into the ground for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socceroos fans pleading for a sexy new attacking quartet are likely to be disappointed on Friday (AEST). A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-756512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}