An Indonesia tie has now taken on greater significance for Socceroos after suffering a stunning defeat at home to Indonesia on Tuesday night.

Ryan acknowledged their performance was far from sufficient and felt they played too naively during this matchup. Instead, more effort should have been expended into asking relevant questions in specific areas instead of working harder in general. “Our performance last night was far too subdued for comfort; their goalkeeper largely went untested while neither they nor we put enough pressure on their defensive set-up in the final third to push through any real chances for them to score – indeed the goal conceded after red card wasn’t acceptable on either account.” “Such situations arise if your actions fall below expectations, placing yourself into that particular scenario.” With fixtures against Japan and Saudi Arabia looming ahead, Australia viewed this month’s games against Bahrain and Indonesia as key in their bid to directly qualify for the 2026 World Cup without needing a fourth phase qualification process. Now however, anything less than victory on Tuesday evening in Jakarta could make their goal of finishing top two become all but impossible after just two out of ten fixtures have taken place.” Irvine described that contest as being huge. He encouraged his boys to recognize its magnitude: it could impact all ten games over this season alone. Irvine shared that there had been some harsh words spoken post-defeat. “We must learn our lessons quickly from this game and move onto Tuesday because this result in performance was absolutely shocking and far better must be expected from us. “Naivety in understanding Asian football… how games should be managed. “We try to prepare younger guys who have never participated before for how gamesmanship and timewasting may occur; several boys have learned quickly tonight about that aspect as well.” “Unfortunately, bad luck played its part as well; even after throwing some great passes into good areas and placing some decent shots therein, nothing seemed to drop for us. On another night if one of them goes in early that forces them open up more – we see these games take very different courses than anticipated.” “We must find ways to constantly question defences because that’s the key to creating your own luck in boxing: as long as we keep asking questions of defences, something will eventually fall through for us. After being issued a straight red card for his high boot on Sayed Baqer, Yengi will miss Tuesday’s match against Indonesia due to suspension – leaving Mitch Duke and Adam Taggart Arnold’s only options when it comes to striking positions. Following missing Wednesday’s game due to injury, midfielder Keanu Baccus and defender Lewis Miller may both return – with Baccus considered likely. “You need to take both positive and negatives,” Souttar lamented following their defeat. “There’s no escaping it; this performance was less-than-satisfactory… no one played 100% tonight… however we must look ahead and focus on Tuesday because that game’s outcome will have such an enormous bearing on how far our season progresses.”