Australia hosts China in Adelaide on Thursday as both sides seek their first wins in the third round of Asian qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
The Socceroos are in fifth place in Group C, with one point in two games, with China in sixth and last after losing both matches.
After a shock 1-0 home loss to Bahrain and a surprise 0-0 draw with Indonesia in September, Graham Arnold stepped down as Australia coach after six years in the job. Tony Popovic was swiftly appointed.
“This campaign hasn’t started the best, but I know there’s enough time and enough games to really be aiming for that top spot to go through automatically,” Popovic, who led Western Sydney Wanderers to the 2014 Asian Champions League title, said.
Popovic has promised improvements as Australia chase a sixth successive World Cup appearance.
“The team maybe looked a little bit flat,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll take too much to change the way we play … we do it with the energy, we do it with the desire, and we do it with a speed and dynamic type of play that I think the players will enjoy.”
China, seeking a return to the World Cup since its first and only appearance in 2002, is in a worse position. A 7-0 thrashing in Japan was followed by a home defeat to Saudi Arabia, despite the visitors playing with 10 men for most of the game. China has dropped to 91st in the world rankings, its lowest in eight years, and will be without injured star forward Wu Lei in Australia.
The top two teams in the group meet when Saudi Arabia hosts Japan in Jeddah. Japan then returns home to take on Australia five days later.
“We have games against two of the strongest teams in Asia awaiting,” Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said. “As we’ve always done, we’ll prepare the best we can to win each match.”
Despite winning both games so far, 7-0 against China and 5-0 against Bahrain, Japan has lost all previous three games in Saudi Arabia.
“The hardest thing is the battle against the heat. Whether we can perform to our level will be key,” Moriyasu said.
The top two from each of the three six-team groups qualify automatically for the 2026 tournament while the third- and fourth-place finishers progress to a fourth round to compete for two more places.
In Group B, South Korea travels to Amman to take on Jordan for the third time in 2024. The first was a 2-2 draw in the group stage of the Asian Cup and then Jordan won 2-0 in the semifinal. Jurgen Klinsmann was then fired as South Korea coach and succeeded by Hong Myung-bo.
South Korea will be without captain Son Heung-min. The Tottenham Hotspur star has a hamstring injury which means the goal-scoring burden is likely to fall on Hwang Hee-chan, another English Premier League attacker who plays for Wolverhampton.
Elsewhere in Group B, Iraq hosts the Palestinian team in Basra while Oman and Kuwait meet.
In Group A, Uzbekistan and Iran have won both games so far and meet in Tashkent. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, is seeking a first win in the third round and hosts Kyrgyzstan while North Korea travels to the United Arab Emirates.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
