Huge hurdles ahead as Socceroos meet World Cup fate
The Socceroos' path to the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been set following the tournament's draw ceremony on Thursday with two familiar foes cropping up for the third cycle in a row.
Drawn from pot two alongside Qatar and Iraq in the seeded draw format, Australia landed in Group C alongside Japan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China PR and Indonesia.
While the Socceroos avoided the scheduling challenges associated with a potential trip to North Korea, they will instead meet Asian powerhouses Japan and Saudi Arabia — and for the third straight time in the same round of qualifying.
The Socceroos enter into the next round of qualifying undefeated — their six straight victories lifting them to the top of Group I in the second round.
But with history front of mind, the fourth-ranked Asian Football Confederation (AFC) team will be hoping for a different outcome from previous campaigns.
During qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Socceroos finished third in their group behind both Japan and Saudi Arabia. This forced them into the intercontinental play-offs to secure their place.
The Socceroos succumbed to Japan or Saudi Arabia in all of their past four meetings during the previous cycle.
Australia fell 2-1 to Japan in Saitama, played out a 0-0 draw in Sydney against Saudi Arabia and was then defeated 2-0 by Japan in Sydney.
Speaking from the event in Kuala Lumpur, Socceroos' head coach Graham Arnold said his side would embrace the challenges ahead of them.
Socceroos head coach Graham Arnold speaks to media after Australia's win over Palestine earlier this month.
"It's nice to have a clear understanding of what's ahead of us over the next 12 months. We've spent the last few months looking at various scenarios on what our path might look like, which will now help accelerate our planning," he said.
"With that detail now in front of us to prepare, our sole focus is to qualify directly by this time next year.
"We knew this round of qualifying would present challenges however the draw panned out, particularly given the way the game is growing across the confederation. I feel it's important we embrace those challenges; with our mindset, belief and camaraderie integral to achieve our goal of qualification."
While the tournament's expansion looked to potentially soften Australia's draw, Saudi Arabia's recent poor run of form saw it tumble down the FIFA rankings to be drawn from pot three. This made the side a dangerous drawcard.
The third round of qualifying will be played between September 2024 and June 2025 with three groups of six teams playing in a home-and-away, round-robin format.
Only the top two teams from each group will qualify directly for the 2026 tournament, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, but with the World Cup's expansion to 48 teams, two more AFC places will be on offer for the winners of two play-off matches (fourth round).
Andrew Redmayne saves the match-winning penalty shot to qualify Australia for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
An additional opportunity will also be an offer through an intercontinental play-off (fifth round).
Therefore, if the Socceroos were to finish third in their group once more, they would still have two more chances to qualify with the possibility of nine AFC teams able to participate.
The Socceroos will begin their campaign on Australian soil on September 5 against Bahrain before travelling to face Indonesia, most likely in Jakarta, five days later.
Australia will then travel to Japan for their all-important clash on October 15 before returning home to take on the Saudis on November 14.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026.