More than two months have passed since Australia’s painful penalty shootout defeat against Egypt ended a World Cup adventure that had begun so brightly. Although the Socceroos upset Turkey and progressed to the knockout stage with the youngest team in the tournament, coach Tony Popovic wore criticism for his selections, especially in that shootout in Dallas.
Sitting in front of a bank of microphones in Sydney on Tuesday in his first media appearance since the World Cup, the coach is finally ready to talk. “There’s always been a purpose behind every decision I’ve made. And I’m comfortable with that purpose for all of them.
“On reflection, maybe the only one really…” Popovic pauses, trying to find the right words.
Australia’s victory against Turkey in the first match of the tournament, of course, had sent expectations sky high. The defeat to the USA was a deflation, even if the second half showed the team had more to offer. The Socceroos navigated the Paraguay clash, then came close against Egypt, before the heartbreak of Harry Souttar and Lucas Herrington’s spot kicks.
The Socceroos’ World Cup side had an average age of 25 years and 165 days, the youngest in the tournament, and 155 days younger than second-youngest Côte d’Ivoire. They had shown they could compete on the world stage. Yet there was a nagging feeling the team might have gone further.
Back in Sydney, Popovic stares down the assembled media and continues. He says that he is his own critic. That he always looks back at the calls he makes. That hindsight only comes later.
“The only one was Egypt, really,” he says. “The front third – and for whatever reasons, the opponent also can play a part in how well they’re playing – we didn’t really have an impact in the front third in the last game.”
In a tournament of mostly success, this was Australia’s major stumblling block. Having equalised against Egypt, they could not find a way to finish off their opponents and within an hour they were packing their bags. “Losing Jordy Bos didn’t help, [and the previously injured fullback] Jacob Italiano, who were dynamic,” he says.
“Their left-back [Karim Hafez], it was his first game [start] at the World Cup. In the first half, we gave him a lot of problems with Cristian [Volpato] and Jordy Bos. And unfortunately, when Jordy went off, we lost a little bit of that dynamic, and then Cristian was fatigued.
“But all of our good play and a lot of the chances created came on that side. We just couldn’t punish them, it was a real weak area for them, which we knew, but we just couldn’t… unfortunately, in the game, we didn’t punish them for that on that right side.”
Fans have derided Popovic’s controversial selections for the shootout, including bringing on Maty Ryan for Patrick Beach in goals, and having teenager Herrington take the high-pressure fourth kick. The coach says he would not do anything differently. “You can analyse the takers and what happened, [but] someone has to miss, and someone will go through,” he says. “That will always be the case in a penalty shootout. If we had the penalty shootout again the next day, the same players would have taken it and the same goalkeeper would have been in.”
Popovic says he needed time to “decompress” after the tournament, and process the let down. “Getting through the group was a very significant achievement, and then the disappointment of losing when you’re so close. Obviously, that’s the feeling that you leave with, and that’s the one that hurts for a while and still hurts and will continue to hurt. But also, that’s the one that inspires us.”
Since the tournament, 11 members of the World Cup squad have moved, and two – Herrington and Alessandro Circati – broke the previous record fee paid for an Australian. Mo Touré has already scored four goals for Norwich this season, and Herrington has been playing for Premier League surprise package Hull.
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Popovic is proud about fast tracking this group of young players, also including Nestory Irankunda and Paul Okon-Engstler, into Socceroos, knowing that Australian football is likely to benefit from their experience in 2030 and 2034. But he also added there may have been a sacrifice involved. “I don’t think I’ve ever thought about the immediate future of myself, and if I only thought about myself, then the squad would have been very different at the World Cup,” he said.
He notes that the squad lacked stamina among its attacking players. “If you look at our front nine players, we [had] a total of 25 90-minute games amongst nine of them over six months,” he said. “So when it gets to that 60th or 70th minute mark – [it’s] not about club football, we’re talking about World Cup level – they are fatigued, they are exhausted, they have nothing left,” he says.
“That’s what we had. We knew that before the World Cup. And we knew we’d have to juggle those players through games to try and get the best out of them and to have an impact.”
He is now preparing for a pair of friendlies against Brazil in Queensland later this month, as January’s Asian Cup rapidly approaches. “We should be definitely in the semis fighting for a final spot, and once you’re there, you want to win it,” Popovic says.
There is a very real possibility that could be his final match in charge. Popovic signed a contract extension on the eve of the World Cup that took him to the end of the Asian Cup. Despite the promise of this group of Socceroos, he turned down an offer to go all the way to the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
“That was offered, a four-year deal, I decided to go to the Asian Cup. And that is something that I think is good, and it also gives the FA [Football Australia] an opportunity if they want to go a different direction they can, and I’m very comfortable with the decision that’s been made,” he says.
“I’m very comfortable with how I’ve worked always for the future, and these games against Brazil, it will be an eye on the future. And so will November and so will the Asian Cup. And if I leave the week later, I’ll still be comfortable with that.”