Key events
30 mins: Australia have a free kick and play it back to Degenek who miss-kicks and sends the ball trickling back to Ryan on the touchline. He manages to hastily clear it. A nerve-racking moment.
28 mins: Australia do seem to be standing around a bit stunned while Japan leisurely pass it around the back four. Kosei Tani has his first touch.
Suzuku runs the through the midfield unchallenged and shoots just wide of the far post, a bit of a wasted opportunity he had time and support there.
26 mins: Japan have had 76% of the ball so far. Without the pressure of qualifying on them they appear to be happy to take their time, work it around, probe when they can but no biggie if it doesn’t pay off.
24 mins: Two Japan corners in two minutes. The second is taken by Suzuki which hits the penalty spot but comes back out of the area. The Socceroos defence appears a bit wobbly.
22 mins: Japan may be in control but so far their passes have been too heavy in the final third, crosses not connecting. That could be Australia’s opportunity if they can get on the scoresheet.
20 mins: Boyle has a bit of space upfront but he pauses to look for support and the momentum is lost. Everything Australia does is rushed and heavy, while Japan is the opposite.
18 mins: Japan attacked up the right via Hirakawa whose cross is cleared. Japan use the throw-in to reset from the back.
16 mins: Machida launches the ball over the Australian defence to Yuki, the resulting cross is deflected for a goal kick. Boyle is fouled at the halfway line.
14 mins: Kamada sends the ball into the referee’s back and play is stopped as per RULES. Circati gets the drop and Australia keep possession in defence.
12 mins: Australia make their furthest ground yet in the attacking half on the edge of the penalty box. It’s scrappy and they can’t keep it under control.
10 mins: Kamada and Tawaratsumida are connecting well on the left, although a heavy through pass from Kamada rolls over the touchline and very briefly returns possession to Australia before it’s back to Japan resetting from the back again. It’s only been 10 minutes but you wouldn’t necessarily think this was a second-string Japan side. The Socceroos have no answers yet.
8 mins: A dubious Australian clearance results in a shot from Kamada which takes a slight deflection but is cleaned up easily by Ryan.
6 mins: Australia have everyone back for now. Tawaratsumida makes another run down the left ending in a weak kick to nowhere in the area. Ryan’s probably had the most touches of the Socceroos so far.
4 mins: Samurai Blue totally in control so far, working it around the back four, darting forward on the right and then calmly bringing it back when they can’t get through. One foray into the box is kicked away by Ryan relatively easily.
2 mins: Japan look cool and calm. A long ball from their backline is met by Mat Ryan just outside the area. It’s the Socceroos captain’s 99th cap tonight.
Kick-off
Peeeeeeeeeep! Here we go.
I said it for the Matildas and I’ll say it again for the Socceroos. The new black/fluoro pink/fluoro green jackets are superb.
From now on every Socceroos home game must start with Darude’s Sandstorm on electric guitar.
Unless they lose in which case we know who to blame.
Perth Stadium is filling up with a light show under way. Who is staying up to watch Saudi Arabia’s match? (KO 2am AEST)
In case you missed it, which I’m sure you didn’t, it’s a double-national-team-matches-week for Australia and the Matildas have already dispatched Argentina 4-0 in a friendly on Monday. Striker Amy Sayer scored two goals on her return from an ACL injury, with one more each for Michelle Heyman and Emily van Egmond.
The other news from the Matildas camp was that Joe Montemurro was finally confirmed as the new coach, taking over from interim coach Tom Sermanni.
Behich is speaking pre-game. How has he recovered from the ALM grand final?
A good five days but look, the mentality had to switch straight away. For us boys and the ones coming straight from the grand final. It’s a big game. These ones you want to be a part of with the national team and obviously with the sellout as well. It’s been an exciting few days of training and the boys are raring to go.
On what style we can expect from the Socceroos:
Nothing is going to change. When you look at our past games under the boss, obviously we’ve got better every single game and we don’t have much time when we come into games but the steps we have taken is unreal by the group. Look, we’re going to take the game to them. We’re on home soil and something we’re always excited about. It will be a cracking game.
Warm-ups
Official word is that it’s a sellout in Perth. That should be about 60,000.
Football Australia is pleased to confirm that tickets for tonight’s FIFA World Cup 2026™ Asian Qualifier between the Subway Socceroos and Japan at Perth Stadium have officially sold out.#Socceroos #AUSvJPNhttps://t.co/46nNSpoOdq
— Football Australia (@FootballAUS) June 5, 2025
The Socceroos did arrive on time to the stadium this time around … unlike last time they faced Japan.
Popovic is speaking to the broadcaster. Asked whether it’s a good time to play Japan:
I think it’s a good time for us to play anyone at the moment. We feel we’ve evolved. We’re improving. Tonight, regardless of the opponent, it’s the big stage. We need a big performance against Japan and let’s see if we can pull it off.
Japan XI
Ten changes to the Japanese side that drew 0-0 with Saudi Arabia in March. #AUSvJPN
— Joey Lynch (@joeylynchy) June 5, 2025
Aziz Behich joins the squad – and in the starting lineup – fresh(ish) from his A-League Men championship win with Melbourne City. I can’t say it was a pretty demonstration of football, that is for sure.
Australia XI
Something to give sustenance while we’re missing Jackson Irvine, thanks to Dave Squires.
Another player not featuring for the Socceroos is Nectarios Triantis. The Sunderland midfielder withdrew from the squad at the last minute as he weighs up whether to change his allegiance and turn out for Greece.
The midfielder impressed out on loan at Hibernian last season and is attracting attention from across Europe and the MLS, German side Fortuna Düsseldorf are very keen on the 22-year-old.
Tony Popovic said he’s “not too sure where it exactly sits”.
We had him in the squad for the camp, and on the day that he was supposed to travel he informed us that he’s not coming in.
He just said he’s got a lot of things on at the moment, a lot on his mind in terms of what he wants to do. We have to respect that, and we’ll see what happens.
Craig Goodwin, Nishan Velupillay, Mathew Leckie, Jackson Irvine and Kusini Yengi were all left out of the squad due to injury and fitness concerns. In their place are some long-awaited returning players and a couple of fresh faces.
As John Duerden writes, Samurai Blue have earned the right to bring a squad containing just seven players with more than 10 caps to Australia for this match. They have dominated the group, booked their World Cup tickets and now have some freedom to experiment. It certainly seems to work in the Socceroos’ favour that many of Japan’s stars have been given the OK to head off on holiday.
The Socceroos have not beaten Japan for 16 years. Coach Tony Popovic insists that can change tonight.
Every game is significant for the Socceroos. But, obviously, these last two games, for automatic qualification, we know what we need to do; we need to put that into action, and we’re confident we can do that.
My colleague Joey Lynch is on the ground at Optus Stadium to bring you the match report later.
On to those pesky permutations. Here is where things stand:
The general gist is the Socceroos can all but secure their place with a win tonight; a draw or loss make things a bit more complicated. Jack Snape has broken everything down in more detail here:
Even if they win tonight, we won’t know whether Australia have qualified automatically for absolute 100% fully certain sureness until after the Saudi Arabia v Bahrain match kicking off at Friday 2am AEST.
Preamble
Jo Khan
G’day and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the World Cup 2026 qualifier between Australia and Japan in Perth. My name is Jo Khan and I’m here to take you through the pre-game news, live football and some post-match analysis.
At the moment my brain hurts from thinking about the Group C permutations and what it means for Australia but one thing is locked in – the Samurai Blue have already booked their spot at the North America tournament. However, it is most definitely a crunch match for Australia, can they lock in an automatic qualification?
Looking back to the Socceroos most recent outing in this Asian qualifying campaign, it was goals from Jackson Irvine and Nishan Velupillay that gave Australia a crucial 2-0 win in China in late March. This solidified their spot just below Japan in the Group C table – I’ll get to those details shortly.
To the task at hand now, if you have any comments or questions feel free to send me an email.
Kick-off is in just over an hour: 7.10pm local / 9.10pm AEST / 8.10pm JST
Let’s get into it!
