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Why the Socceroos benefit from group draw despite lack of favouritism
Nicholas Quinlan • December 12th, 2025 11:12 pm
Australian Football commentator Andy Harper believes that Australia will be the underdog for the majority of their 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, which will benefit how Tony Popovic helps motivate his side for the tournament.
The Group Stage Draw for the newly expanded 48-team competition took place last week.
Australia, which was placed into Pot 2, was drawn into Group D against co-host the United States, South American side Paraguay and the winner of UEFA Playoff Group D, which consists of Türkiye, Romania, Kosovo and Slovakia, who play in March to determine who makes it in.
And while the Socceroos have the higher ranking of Paraguay and three of the European nations competing for that play-off spot, he expects that the Aussies will go into each match with their opponents being fancied over them.
“The Socceroos are not going to be favourites for any of their matches,” Harper said on SEN Breakfast.
“Maybe the third one, but that’s to be determined by the last European qualifiers, which aren’t scheduled till March, so there will be a lot of naval gazing till then.
“But in our relevant section of those last European qualifiers loom Turkey, who, if they come out of that group of four (European Playoff Group D) for the World Cup, we wouldn’t be favourites to beat them either.
“So, three very difficult games looming, even if it’s not Turkey, to be honest.
“But if it is one of the others (in) Slovakia and certainly Kosovo, we might have some favouritism against them.”
But as Harper points out, this can play into the benefit of coach Tony Popovic, who has shown that the Socceroos can be a handful despite a recent blip in form, which has seen them lose their last three friendlies.
“I think this plays into the Socceroos and that Tony Popovic’s team hasn’t been that expansive going forward,” he continued.
“But a couple of young guys, particularly Nestory Irankunda, has just shown that it doesn’t really matter who the opposition is, he’ll give them a fright or two.
“The team has basically progressed under Popovic as one that’s very, very difficult to beat.
“And they’ll be able to double down on that mentality in the US.
“It’ll suit them big time, and whether it’s going to be good enough to get them out of the group is, of course, the fascination.
“It’s going to be a very exciting ride.”
Australia’s first game of football’s biggest tournament gets underway on June 13 when the Socceroos play the winner of the European play-off in Vancouver.
SEN will have LIVE coverage of the action throughout its radio network and on the SEN app.
