How to Watch the Socceroos Play Japan: The Complete Guide

The following match days have been scheduled for the third round of competition: 12 October 2021, 11 November 2021, 16 November 2021, 27 January 2022, 1 February 2022, 24 March 2022, and 29 March 2022.

As a result of the fluid nature of the COVID-19 situation, the venues and times of each match will be finalized in the immediate lead-up to each window.  

Day/Date

Match

The 2nd of September, 2021, on a Thursday

AUSTRALIA 3-0 China PR

The 7th of September, 2021, on a Tuesday

Vietnam 0-1 AUSTRALIA

The seventh of October, 2021, on a Thursday

AUSTRALIA 3-1 Oman

The 12th of October 2021, Tuesday

Japan v AUSTRALIA

The 11th of November, 2021, on a Thursday

AUSTRALIA v Saudi Arabia

The 16th of November, 2021, on a Tuesday

China PR v AUSTRALIA

The 27th of January, 2022, on a Thursday

AUSTRALIA v Vietnam

The first Tuesday in February of 2022

Oman v AUSTRALIA

The 24th of March, 2022, on a Thursday

AUSTRALIA v Japan

The 29th of March, 2022, on a Tuesday

Saudi Arabia v AUSTRALIA

The squad

A total of 23 players based outside of Australia have been called into the Socceroos' squad for the October FIFA window. Chris Ikonomidis of Melbourne Victory and Rhyan Grant of Sydney FC are the two players selected from the A-League Men's competition to represent their respective clubs. The ongoing hotel quarantine requirements in Australia continue to be a challenge for Football Australia and players based in Australia who are hoping to play for the Socceroos.  

However, attacker Ikonomidis has committed to the October window despite the possibility that he will have to undergo two weeks of hotel quarantine upon his return to Australia. Meanwhile, Grant, who scored his first goal for Australia at senior international level last month, has committed to the window after scoring his first goal for Australia. remained overseas and maintained his fitness by training in the high-performance environment of Hibernian FC alongside fellow Socceroo Martin Boyle. This allowed him to be ready for consideration for selection with the Socceroos.

READ MORE: Socceroos select 25 players for qualifying matches in October to be played in Qatar and Japan

Australia's Socceroos 25-Player Squad | FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM – AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar (Final Round) | October 4-12, 2021 | Road to Qatar (Final Round)

Name

Both Club and Country

'A' Caps (Goals)

Junior Association
(Nation That Is Part Of The Federation)

Daniel ARZANI

Lommel SK, Belgium

6 (1)

Mascot Vipers Futsal Club (Football NSW)

Aziz BEHICH

Turkey, Giresunspor (Giresunspor)

43 (2)

Meadow Park Sports Club, also known as Football Victoria

The BOYLE, Martin

Hibernian Football Club, from Scotland

8 (4)

The Lewis United Football Club/Montrose Football Club (Scotland)

Kenneth DOUGALL

Blackpool Football Club of England

3 (0)

The Samford Rangers Football Club represents Football Queensland.

Mitchell DUKE

Fagiano Okayama, Japan

11 (5)

(Football New South Wales) Liverpool Rangers SC

Callum ELDER

Hull City AFC, which represents England

1 (0)

Football New South Wales club Manly United FC

Denis GENREAU

Toulouse FC, France

1 (0)

Football Victoria's Brighton Social Club

Rhyan GRANT

Sydney Football Club, in Australia

16 (1)

Canowindra Juniors defeated Bathurst 75 to take the Football NSW title.

Ajdin HRUSTIC

Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany

9 (1)

The Heatherton United Soccer Club, which competes in Football Victoria.

The IRVINE, Jackson

FC St Pauli, Germany

39 (6)

Ringwood City SC is a team that competes in Football Victoria.

The author, Chris IKONOMIDIS

The Australian team, the Melbourne Victory

14 (2)

Football New South Wales club named Cronulla RSL Stingrays FC.

The JEGGO, James

Thessaloniki, Greece - Aris Thessaloniki

7 (0)

Green Gully Soccer Club, which competes in Football Victoria.

Fran KARACIC

Brescia Calcio, Italy

3 (1)

NK Lokomotiva (Croatia)

Awer MABIL

FC Midtjylland, Denmark

19 (5)

Football in South Australia played by the Saint Augustines SC.

Ryan MCGOWAN

Kuwait SC, Kuwait

21 (0)

Football in South Australia played by the Para Hills Knights SC.

Riley MCGREE

English soccer club Birmingham City FC

5 (0)

The Gawler Eagles Football Club represents South Australian football.

Aaron MOOY

China Public Relations, Shanghai Port FC

45 (6)

Carlingford Redbacks Football Club (New South Wales)

Tom ROGIC

Scotland's Celtic Football Club

49 (9)

The Tuggeranong United Football Club, also known as Capital Football

The Greek Mathew RYAN

Real Sociedad is located in Spain.

63 (0)

Football New South Wales club Blacktown City FC

Trent SAINSBURY

KV Kortrijk, Belgium

52 (3)

Football West's Armadale Soccer Club

The name Harry SOUTTAR

English soccer club Stoke City FC

7 (6)

(Brechin, Scotland) Brechin City Boys Club

Adam TAGGART

Cerezo Osaka, Japan

14 (6)

ECU Joondalup SC is a team that plays in Football West.

The Greek speaker Lawrence THOMAS

SønderjyskE Fodbold, Denmark

1 (0)

(Football New South Wales) Winston Hills Bears FC

Danny VUKOVIC (Gk)

NEC Nijmegen, Netherlands

4 (0)

Football New South Wales club St. Clair United SC

Bailey WRIGHT Sunderland AFC, England 24 (1)  Football Victoria's Langwarrin Sports Club (Langwarrin SC)

The places in question

The match against Japan that will take place away from home on October 12 will be played at Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:14 p.m. local time (which is 9:14 p.m. AEDT), and a crowd of limited capacity is anticipated.  

Moving forward, Football Australia is in advanced discussions with the New South Wales Government regarding the Socceroos hosting a designated home AFC Asian Qualifier – Road to Qatar match against Saudi Arabia on 11 November in Sydney under a Quarantine Management Plan. The match is scheduled to take place under the auspices of a Quarantine Management Plan.  

WATCH: Selected Plays from the Socceroos' Match Against China

This is the equation.

In the Final Round of AFC Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM, the Socceroos will compete against Japan, Saudi Arabia, China PR, Oman, and Vietnam.

As a result of the draw, Australia was assigned to compete in the qualification tournament's Group B, while Group A featured IR Iran, the Korea Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

Australia needs to finish either first or second in Group B, which consists of ten matches to be played between September 2021 and March 2022, in order to qualify directly for a fifth consecutive FIFA World CupTM.

If Australia finished in third place, they would advance to a play-off against the team that finished third in Group A, and then they would compete in an intercontinental play-off.

WATCH: Extended Highlights from Australia's Match Against Oman

The path taken up to this point

The Australian national team got off to a flawless start in the qualifying rounds for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, cruising through their first group without a hitch.  

The Socceroos have won eight consecutive matches, with seven of those victories coming when they were playing away from home. The first four matches of the group were played in late 2019, and the final half of the group will be played out in June 2021.

A remarkable 28 goals were scored by Graham Arnold's team, which was 3 goals per game on average. 5 goals per game, while only allowing 2 goals against.

In the first game of the season, a win in Kuwait by the score of 3-0 was recorded. Mathew Leckie scored a memorable brace, and Aaron Mooy scored a stunning goal to ensure the result.   

One month later, the Australian national soccer team won an easy 5-0 match at their home stadium in Canberra against the Nepal national soccer team. Both Jamie Maclaren and Harry Souttar scored on their debuts for Australia, but it was Maclaren who stole the show with his first international hat trick, and Souttar won over the hearts of Australian fans with his brace.   

The team left for Chinese Taipei five days later, and at the Kaohsiung National Stadium, they recorded their most convincing victory to that point, a 7-1 victory over the host nation. Souttar, Adam Taggart, and Jackson Irvine each scored a hat trick, and Ajdin Hrustic, who came off the bench, contributed three assists in addition to his goal scoring.  

Seven Australian soccer players made their first appearances for their national team when they returned to competition in June 2021.

When Australia traveled to Amman, Jordan, to play Jordan exactly one month later, the game was a lot more competitive there. But Arnold's team was able to pull off the victory despite the challenging conditions, and Adam Taggart's goal ensured that the Socceroos would head back to Australia with all three points, which is obviously very important.  

When the final buzzer sounded on that evening in November 2019, nobody would have guessed that the Socceroos wouldn't play again for another 18 months before returning to competition.  

However, this was in fact the situation when the Asian Qualifiers finally got back underway in a central location based in Kuwait City.  

Despite the lengthy break, Australia was able to secure the top spot in Group B and move closer to clinching a spot in the FIFA World Cup Finals for the fifth consecutive time by winning another four important matches after the break.  

Round 3 got off to a flying start with a 3-0 victory over China in Doha, securing first place in Group B with one round still to go.  

A few days later, history was made as Australia became the first AFC nation to secure 10 victories in a single qualifying campaign following a narrow 1-0 victory away in Vietnam. This victory not only kept Australia's perfect record intact, but it also saw them become the first AFC nation to do so.  

After beating Oman 3-1 in Doha to kick off the month of October's action, the records continued to fall as Australia became the first nation in the history of FIFA World Cup qualifying to win 11 straight games in a single campaign. Goals from Awer Mabil, Martin Boyle, and Mitch Duke helped propel Australia to this milestone.