Rugby’s Eddie Jones and football’s Tony Popovic sit down for breakfast in Tokyo. No, it’s not the setup for a joke, maybe something involving Akubras. Instead, it’s a real scene from just last week, amid Popovic’s sweeping, cross-code search for knowledge that will prepare him to lead Socceroos into this year’s World Cup.
Because say what you will about Jones – and many have since he quit the Wallabies post in favour of Japan – but he’s quite good at this whole World Cup thing. He’s led two different nations to the final, advised another during its win, and guided Japan to a stunning upset win over the Springboks in 2015. Thus, if you’re someone like Popovic, who possesses a glittering club coaching career but has never coached at a major international tournament before, let alone at a swelled, 48-team global showpiece event stretched across three countries – two of which can’t exactly be described as bastions of stability – every piece of knowledge you can extract from someone like Jones is golden.
“[I’m] trying to get some insight from people who have experienced five or six weeks away with a group, which I haven’t done before in terms of this level,” Popovic says, holding court in one of the semi-regular sitdowns he’s staged with football media since taking over as Socceroos boss.
In recent months, he’s been among the Australian staff jetting across the Pacific, organising everything they feel they’ll need to succeed at the World Cup. After extensive research, the shared training facility of Oakland’s USL and USLW sides has been tapped as their base for the tournament, while a training camp in the Florida city of Sarasota and a warm-up fixture against Mexico in Los Angeles have been secured. Another friendly is in the works, one that Popovic sounds quite enthusiastic for, but which he’s not sharing the details of just yet.
“Ten days, I’ve done [those] camps now,” he says. “And I understand where everyone is at day eight, nine, or 10, where it’s almost so intense, in that period, that you think ‘OK, well, everyone almost just about looks like they need a break from me, maybe, or from the environment.’ But how do you manage five or six weeks?
“[Jones] was very open and showed me a lot of information, and how he learned from things they did wrong. Whether it’s family and friends, or whether it’s not giving enough days off to the staff or the players … Because we want to hit the first game at the highest level and hit the ground running, but we also don’t want to fall off a cliff straight after the first game.”
Also recently visiting the Turin home of Juventus alongside Socceroos assistant coach, Paul Okon, Popovic’s next major assignment will be the friendlies later in March against Cameroon and Curaçao in Sydney and Melbourne, where he’s flagged he will be focusing less on experimentation and the years ahead but, instead, on players that, if selected, “can make an impact at the World Cup”.
Amid a wave of injuries, this will probably involve some experimentation with the striking position, although the coach signalled he’s just as likely to employ existing wide players in a more central role as he is to bring in an untested striker such as Zac Sapsford or Tete Yengi.
He’s sanguine when asked for his thoughts, as a football lover, on new mandatory drinks breaks at every World Cup fixture. “Rules and regulations are constantly changing,” he says. “There are things that we’ll all agree with and things that we will question … Tony Popovic, the football person, would just accept that this is a decision that’s been made, and my mind goes straight away, with the coaches, to how do we best make the most of this, as opposed to dwelling on whether we like it or dislike it.”
Given the drinks breaks divide the game into four quarters, though, and in keeping with his search for new knowledge, Popovic won’t rule out the possibility of consulting AFL coaches – he is a longstanding Sydney Swans fan after all.
But next up are the friendlies, which, combined with the Florida camp and Mexico clash, loom as make-or-break moments for players on the fringes of the Socceroos squad, shaping as one final chance to audition before their lifetime dream of playing at a World Cup is either realised or dashed. The camp in the oppressive humidity of Florida in May may shape as a brutal proving ground, where hopefuls, particularly injured potential difference-makers such as Mat Leckie, Harry Souttar and Craig Goodwin, are pushed to their breaking point to prove their fitness.
“A lot of people here at the FA and the coaching staff have done so much hard work in the background to make sure that our preparation can be the best it can be,” Popovic says. “We want players to thrive in that environment, understand what they’re there for, but also to enjoy every part of it.”
